Opinion:
Scientific studies have shown for decades now that the most efficient, pleasurable, and effective way of communicating with a cell phone is through a keyboard (also applies to laptops!). Double-blind studies of cave rats in Nambia showed that messages typed with a keyboard are 100% more readable than ones without keyboards, or they would be if cave rats knew how to spell. 9 out of 10 doctors agree based on our best analysis of their prescription hand wiring legibility.
While on my weekly quest to see if any new keyboard phones might be somewhere in the future I came across this article from Saturday
Article:
This Raspberry Pi Project Could Give Your Old BlackBerry A Second Life
Indie tech collective Squarofumi, which, in collaboration with the creators of Matrix-based chat app Beeper, have created a Raspberry Pi-powered device in the BlackBerry's image. This device is aptly named the Beepberry, and it combines that classic keyboard with a simplistic interface.
This device is powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero W hooked up to a high-contrast, low-power 400x240 Sharp Memory LCD and a classic, pleasantly tactile keyboard and trackpad. The Beepberry features native support for the Beeper app, a universal chat app that can be used to connect with users on 15 different major chat platforms like WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, and more.
In addition to the nostalgic BlackBerry-style keyboard, the interface of the Beepberry is designed to be as minimalistic as possible, rendering all apps exclusively with text (and some ASCII art, where applicable). If you'd prefer your mobile device to be a bit flashier, the Beepberry is highly customizable in terms of both hardware and software. It features programmable USB and GPIO ports and buttons, and can support any Linux app that's already operable on the Raspberry Pi Zero W. There's even a programmable RGB light on the front of the device for notifications.
With the raspberry pi zero its 99 bucks, without is 79. They are sold out which is sad because I would buy one if they weren't. Keyboard phones are back baby.
https://shop.sqfmi.com/products/beepberry?variant=43376334962843
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday June 08, @03:20PM (12 children)
Nah. It's just you. Look which phones sport mechanical keyboards on the marketplace: you can pretty much count them on the fingers of one hand.
I have one - the Planet Computer Gemini - and it sucks. Why? Because it's a crowdfunded project made by a well meaning, but ultimately not terribly well heeled company that doesn't have the resources to iron out the problems and the bugs - which turn out to be impossible to live with.
And that's the chicken and egg problem: keyboard phones made today suck, so nobody wants them, so they don't create a market for themselves, there's no money in them as a result, and they keep sucking. The big players have moved away from mechanical keyboard for a variety of reasons - most having to do with screen real-estate - and without them, it just ain't happening.
(Score: 4, Informative) by mechanicjay on Thursday June 08, @04:35PM
I hate the fact that you're right.
I ordered a FxTec Pro1x over TWO years ago -- should be shipping 6 month ago -- still don't have it in hand. For reference: https://www.fxtec.com/smartphones/pro1x [fxtec.com]
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday June 08, @05:08PM (1 child)
The backflip was pure sadness. It was a great idea, but it was underpowered and overwhelmed with the bloatware att installed, but I liked having the keyboard on the back that could fold down when needed. I had to return it because it didn't function due to low power and excessive bloat.
It's as if it was intended as a hit job on future hardware keyboards on phones.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Thursday June 08, @05:11PM
The Blackberry Priv had this back that slid down to give a keyboard, really liked that phone until ATT yeeted it off their network. I wish I were able enough to design/build a slide down keyboard for a samsung or something.
Alas i'll use my Unihertz Titan until i can no longer keep it repaired.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Unixnut on Thursday June 08, @08:29PM (7 children)
Yeah, it didn't help that the company kind of missed its target Audience.
Case in point, I have a Gemini PDA and the battery died. No biggie, easy to remove. Only pull out one cable and the battery comes out. Can I find a new battery anywhere? Not a chance! I contact Planet computers directly. "Oh no, we don't sell batteries, you have to send your Gemini in and we will do it for you". How much? £120 + VAT not including shipping costs (which for me added another £100).
Plus they say they will wipe the Gemini as well, so they say I should back up all my data before I send it to them. Ok, but how to do it when the battery is dead? They admit you can't. The damn thing won't power on with a dysfunctional battery, even when plugged in.
So I try hooking up the battery terminals to my bench power supply, give it the correct voltage, and nothing happens. After a pile of debugging, seems they have DRM on the battery. There is a serial line that has to do some kind of challenge/response with the battery before it will power on, to make sure the battery is genuine (this is probably why I could not find any Chinese aftermarket batteries for sale).
So not only expensive, but actively locked down and unhackable. They seemed to think their target audience is high powered executives and C-suite that will use their Gemini, and the moment something goes wrong just get it sent back and pay what it costs to repair.
Ok fine, but if that is their target audience, why not put more effort into the software? The Linux offering was basically "It boots" and that is about it, nothing else works. Their Android offering was so atrocious that the only way to make it usable was to rip out all their custom UI and software, which was one of the main selling points of getting it in the first place.
The nicest way to put it was that the software was still "beta quality", but then at least offer updates and improvements. In all the years I owned it, they never gave an update, so it stayed beta forever. Instead they released a new PDA, which of course I did not buy due to my experience with their first one.
It seems they left it to the community to hack on it, but executive/c-suites are not going to be hacking on the OS to fix bugs, write drivers and enable HW. They want it to just work. While Hackers don't want a phone that is so locked down you can't even replace your own battery on it, let alone do any fancy HW hacking (ignoring the price for the moment).
The Gemini now sits in my drawer, along with my N900, a few N810s, a HP Jornada 720 and a pile of Blackberries, as a testimony to a bygone age with physical keyboards on handheld machines.
Saying that, this article is timely, just yesterday I was looking at the Jornada, and thinking that it is thick enough to get a raspberry pi in there, and has a nice keyboard + screen. Might be a future modding project if I ever get the time. I don't need it to be a smartphone, a computer with a usable keyboard that can fit in my hand is good enough.
(Score: 5, Informative) by tekk on Thursday June 08, @08:50PM
It's really hilarious how many companies do this. Pine is the same way: "It's not our fault we shipped hardware that doesn't have working drivers" "Sure, we sell defective serial cables which could brick your device, and we know we're selling defective serial cables which could brick your device, but we won't take down the store listing or anything" "Oh yeah, the power supply chip we use is completely unfit for purpose and regularly causes our devices to run out of battery even when plugged in, but we won't be issuing a revision which fixes it or recalls"
Purism regularly sends out e-mails for an investment scam.
At least as far as I know system76 is for real? That's basically the only company targeting the whole hacker demographic which isn't kind of a garbage fire afaik.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday June 08, @11:55PM (5 children)
I had exactly the same problem: my Gemini's batteries swelled up so much I had to pull it out.
I contacted Planet Computers. The helpful man Paul told me the battery couldn't be shipped through Royal Mail (which is true, not their fault) and offered me a replacement for £125 + S$H. I told him no way I'm blowing that much good money after bad (because buying the Gemini was definitely bad money to begin with).
Also, all I use the Gemini for now is as a bedside movie player, so I don't need a battery: just a way to hook it up to a power supply, since it never moves. So I asked him for a schematic of the PCB, or at least where I could get hookup points for an extermal power supply. I didn't really expect an answer, and sure enough, I didn't get one. But the guy immediately dropped the price of the replacement to £80 + S&H :)
I told him I wouldn't even consider blowing more than £40 total for this outdated not-very-good machine. So I figured out the power supply thing myself.
Here's where you went wrong: in the battery itself, there is a little long, thin PCB (where the DRM crap lives probably). It you pull it out, you'll be left with 2 copper strips (that originally went into the battery sandwich proper). All you have to do is attach leads to those tabs, reconnect the PCB to the Gemini, then feed it 4.2V / 6A through the leads. The PCB thinks it has a Li-Ion battery attached to it, and the Gemini thinks it has a legit battery pack attached to it.
And to prove what I say, here are a couple photos of the hack (first with just red and wire leads, and then something nicer I made with copper strips and an external 18650 battery holder), and a video of the Gemini booting off of a bench power supply :)
Germini with battery leads coming out of it [backblazeb2.com]
Final hack [backblazeb2.com]
Gemini booting off of the external power supply [backblazeb2.com]
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Friday June 09, @08:45AM (3 children)
Very nice :-) Glad you were able to solve the issue!
Alas, for me the issue is not the battery itself, I found out there was a small tear in the ribbon cable, just where the DRM data line goes. So my battery is probably fine, but the Gemini thinks it is non original and won't boot as it can't communicate with its DRM chip. As such your trick will unfortunately not work for me.
I tried sanding away the black covering on the ribbon cable to get at the copper traces to bridge it, but all I ended up doing is tearing the ribbon cable even more.
I did have the idea of maybe dismantling the Gemini, tracing the DRM line on the PCB, and attempting to bridge straight to the chip on the battery, but while in my drawer the Gemini developed another fault. Three of the keys now jam when you press them. I took the keycaps off, checked for debris, cleaned it out with solvent, no dice. The Gemini people were just as useless as before, their only advice being to send it back for a keyboard replacement as well. I still don't even know why the keys started jamming. The Jornada has been sitting in that box for over a decade, and the keyboard still works perfectly.
As you say, the PDA was not worth the money in the first place, and it is not good enough to justify paying that much for simple repairs.
Honestly, I like the design, it is the closest to the spiritual successor to the "Psion 5" (seems to have been designed by the same bloke). For typing it was nice, although I would have preferred if it was slightly larger as I have big hands.
If they targeted hackers, made it DRM free and easily moddable and just concentrated on HW improvement and supply of mail order replacement parts then perhaps it could have taken off. Hackers would have bought it, and then hacked on the OS and modded the HW to their hearts content.
Alternatively if they wanted to make an executives PDA in the style of the old Psion, rather then putting all their money into R&D of a new PDA, they should have instead spent it on refining the software of this one, and incrementally making it better and refined over time.
IMO either would have worked, but they did neither.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday June 09, @09:10AM (2 children)
Are you sure it's a DRM scheme? That line might just be the temperature sensor. Most Li-Ion devices will refuse to power up if they can't get the cell(s)' temperature. That's why I decided to power the battery's PCB rather than the main PCB in the first place.
If I were you, I'd just bypass the ribbon cable and connector altogether. Just run wires from the main PCB to the battery's PCB. It's not like you're going to want a new battery in it anyway.
As for the design, actually I find it quite shit:
- Keys from the top row of keys (digits) kept falling off randomly as I closed the device. It's a small wonder I managed to recover them each and every time. Eventually I decided to run a piece of sello-tape across the entire row to keep the keys still. You can see it on my photos. It looks like shit and feels like shit to type on.
- If you shape the device while closed long enough (i.e. keep it in your pocket for a few months, i.e. normal use) the top of the keys will scratch the screen. My screen is literally imprinted with the edges of all the keys. Completely unacceptable.
- The 4G chip is unstable. Or the driver. I don't care which one. The thing is, it missed calls and randomly crash when receiving other calls. In other words, it was useless as a cellphone, which is why I turned it into a really expensive bedside video player in the first place. Planet promised an Android upgrade that would "definitely fix the problem". I kept asking and asking, of course it never came. Fuck Planet Conputers.
As a portable machine to SSH into my servers at work, it's okay. But you know what? I'm at an age when my vision isn't good enough to work with something like this without reading glasses, and also at an age when I realized a long time ago the last thing I need is to do overtime away from work. If the server fail out of hours, I really don't give a rat's ass. So I'm not using it for that neither.
Nice idea, bad execution, no follow-through, is what sums up the Gemini and Planet Computers. That's why, tempted though I am, I'm not touching the Cosmo with a 10-ft pole.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Friday June 09, @12:07PM (1 child)
Well, I am not completely sure if it is proper DRM. To be honest I didn't bother delving that deeply into it. It acts as one though. Every single other phone has powered up when I put the correct voltage through the pins using a bench PSU. Most will refuse to charge due to the lack of the temperature measurement (because the battery mostly generates heat when charging), but they work fine.
Only this one refuses, so whether intentionally or not, it acts like a DRM scheme. It is effectively bricked until I get a new official battery.
I could try bypassing it completely, but currently there is no point trying if the keyboard does not work. I would still want to use it as a small Linux computer, as I don't always feel like lugging my laptop around.
As for the rest of what you said, it sounds like you really had a bad experience. I didn't have any of those issues, and my Gemini has been heavily used (as witnessed by the scratches all over the case). I guess another thing about these small scale runs is that the quality variance is high between units. Some work perfectly, others have some niggles, and others just should never have passed QA at all.
Most of my issues were just the software, HW wise it was ok (although the noise through the headphone jack was irritating), and the eventual fact the keys get stuck.
Likewise I was very tempted by the Cosmo, but the Germini experience put me off. I don't want to be a forever beta tester for yet another piece of HW from them.
Saying that, I just went on their site, and they have a bunch of new phones, PDAs and computers they now sell, so it seems that they are earning enough to sustain themselves and grow their customers and their lineup.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday June 09, @04:17PM
Well I'll never buy from Planet Computers again. I'm not even mad at the hardware faults in my Gemini: someone tried their hardest to make it right, and it wasn't quite right. But it was a crowdfunded project. I'm perfectly willing to cut them some slack.
What I'm not willing to cut them some slack over is never delivering a much-needed software update to fix a problem they knew about. I was far from the only one to have problems with 4G and instability. But ya know... They sold the machines and then they didn't do jack.
Fool me once... They lost this customer forever.
Besides, my next cellphone will have to run some sort of de-Googled Android. The Cosmo ain't it.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday June 09, @12:17PM
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday June 08, @10:57PM
I hate typing on a phone whether it has a keyboard or not. Maybe if you had a bluetooth full-sized keyboard it might be okay. I'm thinking seriously of trading my smartphone for a flip phone, loved my old Razr I had a decade or more ago.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 4, Funny) by ikanreed on Thursday June 08, @05:05PM (2 children)
Phones? For talking to people? Preposterous. Their purpose is only for scrolling.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday June 09, @12:19PM (1 child)
Or is that swiping?
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday June 09, @12:55PM
Telling someone I'm interested in dating them is dangerously close to telling them I'm interested in what they have to say. Best not to.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 08, @05:22PM (5 children)
I had a Crackberry given to me by the company back in 2005 - the fact that it was a company device made it somewhat special. I did carry and use it for personal things also, I did not pay anything for it. These factors made some Crackberry assignees irrationally loyal to their devices and by extension the keyboard included form factor.
You can buy Crackberry looking bluetooth keyboards for about $25, I have a couple that I use to drive Raspberry Pi media players. They're not very compelling to use, but they are small, cheap, and good enough to launch a video or playlist on Kodi. I actually use the touchpad mouse interface on those more than the keyboard, but having keys does make Kodi a lot easier to manipulate.
The lack of clicky-clicky feedback on the human interface in "swipe oriented" phone interfaces is a huge plus. I never used the Crackberry enough to get it, but the scroll wheel on my mouse has given me a painful neuropathy in the finger that drives it. I suspect similar things happen to avid Crackberry users' thumbs.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday June 08, @10:39PM (4 children)
I've seen Bluetooth keyboards at Walmart.
Anyone know if these work with generic Android, like those HSN Motorola tracfones or those cheap ONN Walmart tablets?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 08, @10:48PM (1 child)
No guarantees, but the rando cheapo Bluetooth keyboards I have gotten off Amazon (3 different ones so far) have paired with Raspberry Pis, Ubuntu NUCs and an Android phone or two, basically whatever I threw at them.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday June 09, @12:50AM
Thanks!
So many times I buy electronics that disappoint.
Usually some compatibility issue or I gotta buy a subscription to use it.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 09, @12:08AM
I was able to use a cheap bluetooth mouse with a Galaxy S3 phone years ago. I think most Android devices should be able to handle it. The functionality has probably been there for over a decade for things like keyboard cases to work.
If it doesn't work, you're out $10.
(Score: 2) by xorsyst on Friday June 09, @09:47AM
I have a logitech bluetooth keyboard that can bind with 3 devices - I have one of them set to my phone so I can type nice long replies on it sometimes :) Works flawlessly with Android.
(Score: 5, Funny) by SomeGuy on Thursday June 08, @05:58PM (1 child)
By smashing the cellphone to pieces with an IBM "Model M" keyboard.
That is how I communicate with cellphones.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday June 08, @06:59PM
Perhaps you could build some kind of adapter to connect it to your phone instead ... DIN-2-USB? or PS2-2-USB. It might just not be what would consider to be a portable device anymore.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AlwaysNever on Thursday June 08, @07:00PM
My workplace issued me with a BlackBerry, many years ago. It was a nice step up from the "dumb" mobile phone I had previously. Then, I was issued an Android smatphone (Samsung Galaxy Ace), and I never missed my old BlackBerry.
Physical keyboard are to be set up on tables, and a mobile phones are no table.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Thursday June 08, @09:04PM (1 child)
I love physical keyboards for input.
That said, the predictive-text feature of most virtual keyboards is great. And the ability to access a vastly extended character set easily.
So I'd like both.
When mobile phones had just numeric keypads, there was a de facto industry standard texting facility ("T9") [wikipedia.org] that predicted the words you were typing and gave you a quick way of selecting between choices.
I'd like something similar for standard mechanical keyboards, and an easy way of selecting from a display of extended characters on screen. Having to haul up the 'Character Map' application doesn't work well. My phone allows me to long-press on a virtual key to get a selection of characters to choose from - so a long press on 'a' gives a choice of a, ä, à, â, á, ã, and å.
I loved my Psion 5mx [wikipedia.org], and wish I could get something like it now.
(Score: 3, Informative) by kazzie on Friday June 09, @06:14AM
It already exists in some places: a long-press on the physical keyboard of my Android Blackberry defaults to inserting a capital letter, but it also brings up a thin band of onscreen keyboard where you can select an accented letter instead.