Ryan Seacrest’s BlackBerry-ish iPhone keyboard returns after lawsuit

The "Typo 2" strives to be similar-to-but-legally-distinct-from BB's keyboard.

Read the whole story

 

[BestUsernameEver]

Well, since I can't have a BlackBerry keyboard on my real phone, guess I'll have to buy a legit BlackBerry...not.

 

[nehinks]

...tech luminary Ryan Seacrest...

Did I miss the /s tag?

Also, I'm curious how well this sells considering how few phones come with keyboards these days. Maybe we'll start seeing the occasional physical keyboards (besides BlackBerry) if it does well?

 

[X1Lightning]

its not something i would buy, but i could see it being handy. i could type way faster on my blackberry tour than i can on my 5s, but that was about the only thing the tour did better.

 

[ken27238]

tech luminary Ryan Seacrest

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[DavidCB]

I expect Blackberry lawyers will still complain and demand that irreparable damages can, in the end, always be remedied by money.

 

[shav]

"if you were shown pictures of the two keyboards side by side with no context, it would be hard to tell which was which."
Except ones connected to a BB and one to an iPhone. Wouldn't this only be relevant if BB sold their keyboards separately as an independent attachment?

 

[SunnyD]

I'm wondering why a license option wasn't floated. I mean any tech person in that industry worth a crap would know the position BlackBerry is in, and this would be a potentially decent licensing option to make some cash for BlackBerry. It'd be a win-win situation.

 

[thickslab]

nehinks[/url]":2kwjlsx5]

...tech luminary Ryan Seacrest...

Did I miss the /s tag?

I remember the good old days when we didn't need tags to tell us what was sarcastic and what wasn't. Wait ... did you forget an /s tag?

 

[nonesuchluck]

Copy the the Nokia e61 instead! Best mobile keyboard ever, and I doubt anyone would notice or care any more.

 

[DOOManiac]

Typo is the singular reason our CEO, who was a die-hard BlackBerry fan, finally switched to iPhone last year. (That and the Z10 finally killed what love was left in his heart)

 

[iconmaster]

On the one hand, good on Seacrest for having an idea and running with it.

On the other hand, covering the home button is really stupid with Apple exposing TouchID to 3rd-party devs in iOS 8.

 

[DanNeely]

SunnyD[/url]":2yr1oz0r]I'm wondering why a license option wasn't floated. I mean any tech person in that industry worth a crap would know the position BlackBerry is in, and this would be a potentially decent licensing option to make some cash for BlackBerry. It'd be a win-win situation.

It's possible they did but wanted more than Typo was willing to pay. It's also possible that BB wasn't interested in licensing anything because they're still convinced that they're going to turn the company around instead of being acquired or liquidated for pennies on the dollar.

 

[MartinHatch]

so .. why don't {Dell / Cherry / Microsoft / Logitech / <insert keyboard manufacturer>} all sue each other because their "PC Keyboards all look the same"?

There are only so many ways you can layout a QWERTY keyboard at the bottom of a phone .. and even Blackberry took the lead from existing Laptop / Desktop keyboards

 

[infernallexicon]

My first thought is, "why?!" I used a BlackBerry a little bit at a previous job for on call work and it was terrible. It had one of the worst physical keyboards I've ever encountered. I would rather used a keyboard from an LG Envy.

At first, I really didn't like the idea of dropping a physical keyboard when transitioning from a cell phone to smartphone, but I didn't really like the first Droid all that much. I thought the keyboard was too weird and I didn't like the keyboard drawer. IIRC, it slid too easily.

So, my first smartphone was a touchscreen. I never really considered going back to a physical keyboard, except for the R2D2 phone.

I feel like the Google keyboard definitely surpasses a physical keyboard, especially since the swipe feature.

 

[Voo42]

Even the shape imprinted on the spacebar key is the same.

Did the author never own -or see- a Nokia dumbphone in the good old days?

Still obviously copy cat but the space bar symbol seems standardized to some degree

 

[ZenMasta]

I don't know what the obsession is with physical keyboards. It's so much faster using swipe. I'm not an IOS user so maybe I'm mistaken in thinking that a swipe like keyboard is available on iphones? I know it's available on android and windows phone.

 

[thomsirveaux]

ZenMasta[/url]":32ahf1um]I don't know what the obsession is with physical keyboards. It's so much faster using swipe. I'm not an IOS user so maybe I'm mistaken in thinking that a swipe like keyboard is available on iphones? I know it's available on android and windows phone.

It'll happen when iOS 8 comes out; previous versions are stuck with Apple's default software keyboard.

 

[DannyB]

DavidCB[/url]":4ckma7f8]I expect Blackberry lawyers will still complain and demand that irreparable damages can, in the end, always be remedied by money.

Then the damages are not irreparable if the damages can be remedied by money.

IANAL, but my understanding is that anything that can be fixed with money is not considered irreparable.

 

[DannyB]

MartinHatch[/url]":e9s6pi4p]so .. why don't {Dell / Cherry / Microsoft / Logitech / <insert keyboard manufacturer>} all sue each other because their "PC Keyboards all look the same"?

Don't give them any ideas.

MartinHatch[/url]":e9s6pi4p]There are only so many ways you can layout a QWERTY keyboard at the bottom of a phone .. and even Blackberry took the lead from existing Laptop / Desktop keyboards

There are only so many ways you can make a flat, rectangular tablet, or a smartphone where the screen covers the vast majority of the face.

But look where that went. OMG, it's flat, rectangular, has rounded corners, is black, has a screen bezel and you touch the surface! And you get the ridiculous and quite disingenuous graphic showing here are company X's phones before they started making smartphones, and here are their phones after they started making smartphones! OMG, the ones after look like they are smartphones! Gasp!

There are only so many ways you put a steering wheel, brake and accelerator pedals in the drivers position in an automobile.

 

[Control Group]

Should have branded it "Typo Negative".

 

[jojoba_oil]

Why would anyone buy a keyboard that's branded as Typo? Just seems like a marketing disaster.

 

[philhanson]

BB is not butt hurt because Ars readers can tell the difference. It's the unwashed tech masses they are worried about.

 

[sheogorath]

tech luminary Ryan Seacrest

Quite the typo right there...

 

[thomsirveaux]

sheogorath[/url]":1rio77gw]

tech luminary Ryan Seacrest

Quite the typo right there...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xECUrlnXCqk

 

[adipose]

ZenMasta[/url]":1jtu87km]I don't know what the obsession is with physical keyboards. It's so much faster using swipe. I'm not an IOS user so maybe I'm mistaken in thinking that a swipe like keyboard is available on iphones? I know it's available on android and windows phone.

I love and use Swiftkey. Swype is good as well. I also have a hardware keyboard on my Droid 4, and Swiftkey works well with that, too.

The software keyboards are great for a quick text or e-mail (although I am faster on the hardware one). They suck at other things, like typing the following password:

d-fathi*&l!

Hardware keyboards let you use the whole screen while typing, instead of a small 20% while the keyboard takes up the rest (esp. in landscape). Tactile feedback is something a lot of people like (why isn't the iPhone button a capacitive button instead of a physical one?).

Backspacing quickly, arrowing around, and inputting symbols are just a whole lot easier on a qwerty slider.

iOS recently allowed the use of 3rd party keyboards, but for years it did not.

 

[Mr_Cynical]

philhanson[/url]":3ir5zo9n]BB is not butt hurt because Ars readers can tell the difference. It's the unwashed tech masses they are worried about.

I think even the unwashed masses can tell the difference between a keyboard that comes attached to a non-touchscreen phone and a keyboard which you have to buy separately and attach to your touchscreen phone as an accessory.

 

[qazwart]

When Android phones first came out, most had physical keyboards. After all, everyone knows they're better. Now, most Android phones have abandoned the keyboard. The market has spoken: Almost everyone who buys a smartphone has decided the keyboard isn't all that necessary.

 

[beebee]

Funny thing is the touch on lens technology works so well on the Z10 that I don't mind giving up the physical keyboard. (Touch on lens is not unique to BlackBerry. Most newer Android phones have it. Apple isn't there yet.)

I was waiting for the Q10 to be released, but came across a BlackBerry kiosk at Costco, played with the Z10, and deemed it good enough to dump the physical keyboard.

I have an old T-Mobile G2. Those who think all keyboards are alike haven't suffered enough with the keyboards found on Android phones.

I assume for the price of a Typo, they use a quality keyboard like a BlackBerry. They should steal the technology used on the new BlackBerry Passport.

 

[daggar]

qazwart[/url]":d4du2wnj]When Android phones first came out, most had physical keyboards. After all, everyone knows they're better. Now, most Android phones have abandoned the keyboard. The market has spoken: Almost everyone who buys a smartphone has decided the keyboard isn't all that necessary.

No, the carriers have spoken. Verizon and AT&T wanted to copy the iphone. If anything, the continued sales of otherwise-gimped phones whose only virtue is a physical keyboard suggest that there is an unmet demand.

 

[jmshub]

When the touchscreen smartphone first came out, I was one that was interested in large slider phones to allow me to use a hardware keyboard. I thought I would never be able to type well on a touchscreen.

Fast forward a few years, and boy have I been proven wrong. Good software keyboards are amazing. With two thumbs and no tactile feedback, I can type 50-60 words per minute on my phone (Lumia 920).

Honestly, I don't get the attraction of these keyboards. They cover the home button, they make the form factor of an iphone look like a television remote control, and I imagine that the phone has to have a very odd weight balance when you hold the phone by the very bottom to type on the keyboard.

 

[potato44829]

Looks cool but I think physical keyboards on phones are on the way out

 

[M-S-G]

I have the Typo (1). It's amazing. Everything you could ever want from a keyboard.
Pairs via bluetooth and battery lasts 10+ days.

So yeah, you DO NOT need to settle for a SQUARE phone in order to have a real keyboard!

 

[sonolumi]

Ryan Seacrest truly is the George Foreman of phone keyboards.

i.e. WTF does this guy have to do with this technology?

 

[adipose]

qazwart[/url]":2dbrrepq]When Android phones first came out, most had physical keyboards. After all, everyone knows they're better. Now, most Android phones have abandoned the keyboard. The market has spoken: Almost everyone who buys a smartphone has decided the keyboard isn't all that necessary.

Unfortunately, a lot of the Android keyboards were poor. The original Droid's keyboard was pretty mediocre, and was one of the best keyboards out at the time. Droid 2 vastly improved it, Droid 3 improved it more and added a number row, and Droid 4 is pretty close to perfection. Unfortunately, in the US, these phone were only on Verizon.

There were a couple other decent keyboards out there, but for the most part, they didn't deliver quality keyboards.

If you talk to a prior Droid 3/Droid 4 owner, they would disagree that the keyboard "isn't necessary." There just was no replacement for these phones available. The rest of the market may well have been sick of poor hardware keyboards--I know I used a few that were terrible, and if that had been my only choice, I would have gotten an HTC One.

This isn't as simple as the "market" speaking. This is hardware vendors that don't want to take a chance on a unique form factor when going up against Samsung. Samsung could definitely afford to take a chance on a keyboard, but so far they are content to build giant thin phones.

 

[kvndoom]

X1Lightning[/url]":3ui1nste]its not something i would buy, but i could see it being handy. i could type way faster on my blackberry tour than i can on my 5s, but that was about the only thing the tour did better.

The Tour was a horrible device. Constantly freezing because of low memory. I've only had a small number of phones, but it was the worst easily.

Now on a Bold 9900. It's great as a phone, music player, and stopgap web browser, but not much beyond that.

 

[BestUsernameEver]

DannyB[/url]":1jdcqpoo]

DavidCB[/url]":1jdcqpoo]I expect Blackberry lawyers will still complain and demand that irreparable damages can, in the end, always be remedied by money.

Then the damages are not irreparable if the damages can be remedied by money.

IANAL, but my understanding is that anything that can be fixed with money is not considered irreparable.

Are we missing another /s tag?

 

[BestUsernameEver]

adipose[/url]":3tyt0yzk]

qazwart[/url]":3tyt0yzk]When Android phones first came out, most had physical keyboards. After all, everyone knows they're better. Now, most Android phones have abandoned the keyboard. The market has spoken: Almost everyone who buys a smartphone has decided the keyboard isn't all that necessary.

Unfortunately, a lot of the Android keyboards were poor. The original Droid's keyboard was pretty mediocre, and was one of the best keyboards out at the time. Droid 2 vastly improved it, Droid 3 improved it more and added a number row, and Droid 4 is pretty close to perfection. Unfortunately, in the US, these phone were only on Verizon.

There were a couple other decent keyboards out there, but for the most part, they didn't deliver quality keyboards.

If you talk to a prior Droid 3/Droid 4 owner, they would disagree that the keyboard "isn't necessary." There just was no replacement for these phones available. The rest of the market may well have been sick of poor hardware keyboards--I know I used a few that were terrible, and if that had been my only choice, I would have gotten an HTC One.

This isn't as simple as the "market" speaking. This is hardware vendors that don't want to take a chance on a unique form factor when going up against Samsung. Samsung could definitely afford to take a chance on a keyboard, but so far they are content to build giant thin phones.

For the longest time my wife refused to give up the Evo Shift because it had a keyboard, even though the phone was getting more and more outdated every second.

I wish the manufacturers would realize that people WOULD purchase a phone with a keyboard if a decent one was offered.

 

[bb-15]

adipose[/url]":31r02pe7]

qazwart[/url]":31r02pe7]When Android phones first came out, most had physical keyboards. After all, everyone knows they're better. Now, most Android phones have abandoned the keyboard. The market has spoken: Almost everyone who buys a smartphone has decided the keyboard isn't all that necessary.

Unfortunately, a lot of the Android keyboards were poor. The original Droid's keyboard was pretty mediocre, and was one of the best keyboards out at the time. Droid 2 vastly improved it, Droid 3 improved it more and added a number row, and Droid 4 is pretty close to perfection. Unfortunately, in the US, these phone were only on Verizon.

There were a couple other decent keyboards out there, but for the most part, they didn't deliver quality keyboards.

If you talk to a prior Droid 3/Droid 4 owner, they would disagree that the keyboard "isn't necessary." There just was no replacement for these phones available. The rest of the market may well have been sick of poor hardware keyboards--I know I used a few that were terrible, and if that had been my only choice, I would have gotten an HTC One.

This isn't as simple as the "market" speaking. This is hardware vendors that don't want to take a chance on a unique form factor when going up against Samsung. Samsung could definitely afford to take a chance on a keyboard, but so far they are content to build giant thin phones.

I think that Samsung used to make some keyboard phones.
Here is a list of several of them.
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/manufa ... Y+keyboard

But they have pretty much been discontinued.
Maybe the "market speaking" doesn't tell the whole story but imo it would be a major factor in Samsung no longer producing these kinds of phones.

 

[PsychoStreak]

So basically, a new mold for the keys, move a couple around, 5 minutes with an x-acto knife to notch the bars and BAM! new product. Nice.

The original was very popular with our users who wanted an iPhone but just can't type comfortably or well (or at all in some cases) on the iPhone's on-screen keyboard.

I'd probably pony up for an Android version, but that would be more R&D for them since there's so much variation in form factor. It's the main thing I miss since switching my personal phone to an S3 mini from a 9700. Typing on the work 9900 is almost a relief by comparison.