BlackBerry's iconic keyboard patent has expired
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I had two BlackBerry devices for work, right about the time they were going away. I'd heard the keyboard was good on earlier models but it seemed like the quality had gotten pretty cheap on the later phones. The BlackBerry 10 OS on my last phone was actually pretty good, and probably would've kept them in the market if they'd launched it 5 years earlier.
I hope we see more keyboard phones. I'd buy an iPhone with a keyboard.
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I have a Unihertz Titan and love it. I guess they skirted around the keyboard patent. https://www.unihertz.com/products/titan
Very nice, I didn't know this existed. Looks very blackberry-esque.
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I was pretty good with T9 back in the day, then the keyboard on the BB Pearl changed everything. I loved the keyboard on the BB Curve the best, banged out tons of messages with friends with BB messenger.
I was a palm treo man myself. I was way faster after a year or two on those than I am after a decade of iPhone.
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I had the Motorola droid, it was pretty sweet
Forgot about this one. I loved this phone back in the day. Remember when it would say
DROIDwhen you booted it up? -
I hope we see more keyboard phones. I'd buy an iPhone with a keyboard.
Look up clicks keyboard. Might be the closest you'll get
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Look up clicks keyboard. Might be the closest you'll get
Yeah I've considered it. But it's just so loong.
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It still blows my mind how fast my friends and I were able to text on feature phones with T9.
I wonder if the suggestions ended up shaping our language patterns.
I never used T9 because of that. It never knew what I want to say.
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I had two BlackBerry devices for work, right about the time they were going away. I'd heard the keyboard was good on earlier models but it seemed like the quality had gotten pretty cheap on the later phones. The BlackBerry 10 OS on my last phone was actually pretty good, and probably would've kept them in the market if they'd launched it 5 years earlier.
I miss phone keyboards so much. I wish I still had a slide out keyboard
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I miss phone keyboards so much. I wish I still had a slide out keyboard
They were so fantastic for gaming. I could actually see what was happening on the screen.
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LG had the best phones out of the box, hands down. But as soon as they're updated, they turn to shit. Excellent hardware, shitty after-sale support. I think that's what killed their phones.
Just last week I upgraded from an LG V30. It was still running Android 8 and the battery would only last half of a day but I loved that phone.
RIP LG phones, I will miss you.
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I had two BlackBerry devices for work, right about the time they were going away. I'd heard the keyboard was good on earlier models but it seemed like the quality had gotten pretty cheap on the later phones. The BlackBerry 10 OS on my last phone was actually pretty good, and probably would've kept them in the market if they'd launched it 5 years earlier.
I loved my BB Bold 9000, but the physical keyboard did reduce the screen size to a rather small form factor compared to modern phones. And I dare say that swyping is faster and just as accurate, so even if there would be new phones coming out with hardware keyboards of the same quality as old BlackBerry's, I doubt I would switch back.
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I had two BlackBerry devices for work, right about the time they were going away. I'd heard the keyboard was good on earlier models but it seemed like the quality had gotten pretty cheap on the later phones. The BlackBerry 10 OS on my last phone was actually pretty good, and probably would've kept them in the market if they'd launched it 5 years earlier.
Hopefully that means somebody other than Unihertz will make a keyboard phone.
I don’t need it to be super high end, I’d just rather not own a Chinese made phone with all the data they send back.
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Dolomite
I'm 40% dolomite
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They were so fantastic for gaming. I could actually see what was happening on the screen.
My HTC Desire Z (aka T-Mobile G2) got many years of extra use as a dedicated emulation machine for exactly that reason.
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I have a Unihertz Titan and love it. I guess they skirted around the keyboard patent. https://www.unihertz.com/products/titan
It's not three straight rows of keys with the other buttons on a fourth row at the bottom. That's what BB had a design patent for.
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So for 20 years, it wasn't possible for anyone but BlackBerry to manufacture phones with the revolutionary technology of... checks notes... keyboards, and now that it is irrelevant to modern devices, is free for anyone to use.
Patents should be abolished.
BB being able to protect itself from the big players is actually a success story of patents. The 800 lb gorilla's of the industry never made as good of a keyboard, but if they could have copied BB's superior design, they would have stomped them in a heartbeat.
There's a lot of shit about what happens for a dying company and selling patents and so forth that absolutely is scummy. Serious discussion needs to happen there, but calling for them to be abolished? That's just naive.
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The LG Env2 would have been the perfect smartphone form factor, change my view.
5 line keyboard!
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Forgot about this one. I loved this phone back in the day. Remember when it would say
DROIDwhen you booted it up?I had forgotten! Relive the magic: https://youtu.be/3vLMa5tq1tE
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I miss phone keyboards so much. I wish I still had a slide out keyboard
With all the craze to make phones super thin, soon they'll be so thin you could add a sliding keyboard on it, and it'll be thinner than phones of a year or two ago!
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I had two BlackBerry devices for work, right about the time they were going away. I'd heard the keyboard was good on earlier models but it seemed like the quality had gotten pretty cheap on the later phones. The BlackBerry 10 OS on my last phone was actually pretty good, and probably would've kept them in the market if they'd launched it 5 years earlier.
remember some of the older phones had a sliding keyboard from under the phone.
