BlackBerry Phones Could Disappear as TCL Partnership Ends (slashgear.com) 32
The brand keeping BlackBerry phones alive across most of the globe, TCL Communications, plans to stop selling BlackBerry phones later this year. From a report: In a tweet this morning, TCL announced that it "will no longer be selling" BlackBerry-branded phones as of August 31st, 2020, because it will no longer have the rights to design and manufacture them. Existing devices will continue to be supported. BlackBerry decided in 2016 to stop making its own phones, after years of failures, and to license its brand out instead. The biggest licensing deal was with TCL, which since December 2016 has had the near-global rights to design and sell BlackBerry-branded phones. It's done a decent job of it, pairing classically BlackBerry-style designs with the functions of modern Android phones. None of the devices have been blockbuster hits, though, and recent devices have received poor reviews.
Tired of these terrible smartphones (Score:2)
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Re: Tired of these terrible smartphones (Score:2)
Re: Tired of these terrible smartphones (Score:4, Insightful)
Wrong.
I've used both real keyboards and touchscreens for many years at a time. When the BB key one came out, I picked it up and found that I could type much faster and I could type exactly what I wanted with much more accuracy than was possible with even the most recent touchscreen keyboards. (I still use the BB key one every day.)
If you just want to send inane whatsapp and instagram messages, touch keyboards are fine. If you want to actually express your ideas in a specific way, real keyboards are far faster.
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If you just want to send inane whatsapp and instagram messages, touch keyboards are fine. If you want to actually express your ideas in a specific way, real keyboards are far faster.
I think everybody can agree on that. Of course, they don't mean on a phone. It's the intersection between those who need to churn out lots of text and do it on a pocket-sized device that's too small to justify that kind of product. If I was an author or something like that I'd carry my laptop practically everywhere.
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I have found that short of a keyboard that can touch-type, all keyboards suck to type on letter by letter, keys or not.
However on a screen, the 'swype' style typing where you trace the letters of the words without lifting finger I'v found to be compelling enough to prefer touchscreen to tiny keyboard. Sure, the touchscreen isn't great for typing letter by letter, but going word by word with gesture typing more than makes up for it when typing normal sentences.
Typing arbitrary letters that won't pick up by
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Typing on a screen is insanely faster. Give it a week. Buttons are crap, they are suck that way forever, slower, get debris and dirt in them, and can't be removed to view content full screen. Why on earth would you want that?
I've given it years and my conclusion is screens not buttons are crap.
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Keyboard replaceable without an hours-long operation requiring a heat gun and odd-sized screwdrivers.
No glass on the outside of the phone. Cheaply replaceable plastic impact guard, even on a touch screen.
Fully functional alternative input method, if the phone has a touch screen.
Thick bezels that don't transmit any force directly to the screen on impact.
Replaceable battery, again, not requiring ridiculous precision operations. Failing that, a battery sufficient
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If you want a phone with a real keyboard you might want to look into the Fxtec Pro1 which is a slider phone with a real keyboard. A friend of mine has one and while it is a little large, it does have a good keyboard. https://www.fxtec.com/pro1/ [fxtec.com]
Re: Tired of these terrible smartphones (Score:2)
Thanks for the tip - I'm not the OP but that feature set seems exactly what I'm looking for, and with an unlocked bootloader!
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Wow, the spec's aren't that bad either. LineageOS support too! I want it.
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Blackberry Priv (Score:2)
Was shuch a great phone shell, with too much blobware.
I will love to have another phone within the shell of the BlacBerry Priv, but with a better SOC, Power and less blob.
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Yes, I thought that the Priv was a great design. Full screen slab phone, with a slider keyboard. I would have kept using it except that I had quality control issues with two of them.
My first Priv's side button stopped working, so I couldn't turn it on. I that with a second Priv, but with that one the screen turned green after a few months.
I got a refund for that second Priv, and I used it to buy a KeyOne, which was decent, but after a year the backplate came unglued and that made it super-annoying to hold.
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I use to have every other phone from almost all company . Only 2 doesn't have hardware problems, the original HTC Touch (that was solid like a tank ever for it'S small size) and my Samsung Note 3, the best designed phone.
And nothing of value was lost? (Score:1)
I carried a "Classic" - new OS, old look, and no camera! less than 3 years ago.
Somehow, I am unable to be sentimental, nostalgic or anything like that about it.
When they made me give it up in exchange for a phone from a different kind of fruit, they even let slip that it would have been fine if I had accidentally dropped it off the roof a few times or whatever. It wasn't like anyone else was going to want it.
...And Nothing of Value Was Lost (Score:3)
Although they started out as the Premier business phone, as time went on, Blackberry was discovered to be Privacy-Averse, while still attempting to portray itself as Privacy-Centric. And the whole idea of them being MITM for every email was antithetical to Privacy, and nothing more than an unnecessary money-grab.
But even worse, they created crap phones that used crap SoCs,
So, all-in-all, Nothing of Value was Lost.
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They were privacy-centric, if you were a large enough organization to have a BES. The encryption between the BES and the device was effectively uncrackable it was strong end-to-end encryption. The problem was that if you were just relying on their own services, all they did was replicate this setup, but with them hosting what amounted to the BES at their facilities, which meant it needed all your credentials and had access to all your data in plaintext.
The BlackBerry was very much an artifact of its time, a
Re:...And Nothing of Value Was Lost (Score:4, Interesting)
Although they started out as the Premier business phone, as time went on, Blackberry was discovered to be Privacy-Averse, while still attempting to portray itself as Privacy-Centric. And the whole idea of them being MITM for every email was antithetical to Privacy, and nothing more than an unnecessary money-grab.
But even worse, they created crap phones that used crap SoCs,
So, all-in-all, Nothing of Value was Lost.
Spoken as someone who hasn't used one in a very long time. By contrast, I've got one in my pocket.
BIS and BES services have been gone for years. For that matter, so is BlackberryOS. The Prive, KeyOne, Key2, and Key2 LE are all straight up Android phones. The specs don't exactly show an intent to compete on gaming, but I'm perfectly happy getting 2 1/2 days on a battery charge.
The bundled software is super helpful - I specifically like "Blackberry Hub", which puts *all* of my communications in one scrollable widget on my home screen. Calls and e-mail are easy enough, but it even coordinates with MatterMost, a Slack clone we use in my office. WhatsApp and a bunch of others are supported too, and the ability to scroll through all of my notifications in one shot is super helpful. I don't use the Locker functionality personally, but it is great in that it's possible to have an isolated area for my work stuff, such that an Activesync wipe won't impact the whole device, just that locker section. Sadly, the LE version doesn't do this (I really miss it from my Priv), but being able to scroll by sliding my thumb up and down the keyboard and never worrying that I'll accidentally click a link (or ad, or video) I don't want is incredibly helpful. Oh, and while I personally do like rooting my personal phones because of Xprivacy, I've yet to see a credible, verified example of a system root or bootloader unlock of a Blackberry.
So yes, I agree that BIS being defunct is a good thing, and that BES made more sense but that Blackberry priced themselves out of their own market...but the recent crop of Blackberry phones have all been fantastic as professional communications tools, and I am very sad to hear that there will be no Key3.
Surprised theyâ(TM)re still alive. (Score:1)
Like a botched roadkill incident.
I didn't think... (Score:1)
Blackberry had three partnerships (Score:2)
Granted, the TCL one was the biggest, most important, and with the most global reach. but they also had two more parthners.
The fisrt one was BB Merah Putih in indonesia, and the second one was Optiemus Infracom in india, sri lanka, bangladesh and other markets.
While highly unlikely, is possible that one of those partners could step up and do handle it on a global scale.
Also, is possible, but even less likely than the scenario above, that a new player enters the fray
But, the most likely scenario, is no new B
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Well, apparently, TCL could not handle it either. I purchased a top of the line Key 2 for 700 € and it was the worst buy ever. The phone is a lemon - fragile, no water-resistance, mediocre processor, camera, small screen (due to physical keyboard). It had the specs and build quality of a 300 € phone. The damn physical keyboard premium was more than half the cost of the thing. TCL severely over-estimated how much that keyboard was worth to users.
Re: Blackberry had three partnerships (Score:2)
âoeWell, apparently, TCL could not handle it either. I purchased a top of the line Key 2 for 700 â and it was the worst buy ever. The phone is a lemon - fragile, no water-resistance, mediocre processor, camera, small screen (due to physical keyboard). It had the specs and build quality of a 300 â phone. The damn physical keyboard premium was more than half the cost of the thing. TCL severely over-estimated how much that keyboard was worth to users.â
My Key2LE has survived plenty of falls.
Oh no! (Score:2)
URL in article is for different story (Score:2)
Hello,
Apparently, the person who posted this story (msmash?) linked to the story from another article:
https://www.slashgear.com/goog... [slashgear.com]
The correct source, if you want to read the article, is:
https://www.theverge.com/2020/... [theverge.com]
Fortunately, I was able to find it because the post quoted liberally from the article, and I was able to search on that.
I tend to let Slashdot's editing team off the hook for a lot of things, such as confusing summaries and grammar, mainly because I'm guilty of the same things myself, bu
What I would not give (Score:2)
For a key2 that will boot off an SD card without all of the DTEK crap.
Keyboard limits (Score:2)