Interesting Links for 26-08-2013

[andrewducker]

• Jack Nicholson preparing for one of the most iconic scenes ever
  (tags: movies )
• If you 'just got back' to Africa, mind you don't sound like a colonial
  (tags: africa )
• Been waiting for a phone with a keyboard? There's one coming soon...
  (tags: keyboard phones )
• 12 Historic Photographs That Were Manipulated
  (tags: history photography photoshop )
• The

Comments

[rhythmaning]

My first smartphone had a keyboard, five years ago.

[andrewducker]

There hasn't been one available, so far as I can tell, since the HTC Desire Z, in 2010, which was fine for its time, but is now woefully underpowered (and not available anywhere for ages).

I've had friends looking for a keyboard phone for over a year, and buying second-hand phones as there weren't any Android phones available which had one.

[steer]

My current phone -- Samsung Captivate Glide from November 2011 and my previous phone the Xperia Pro from October 2011.

http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_pro-3779.php
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i927_captivate_glide-4071.php

Not sure either were available in this country but I don't think the Droid range was either.

It is good to know about new keyboard based handsets though.

[andrewducker]

The Glide wasn't - looks like the Xperia Pro was, but is not currently in production.

[steer]

I know the Xperia Pro wasn't for a long time because I had to import one. I can't really understand why keyboard phones seem prone to not getting a UK release (perhaps we don't buy many?)

[andrewducker]

I assume it's just a niche - and that most people are either happy with a touchscreen keyboard or have a Blackberry.

Personally, I find that a swipeable keyboard is much less annoying than a single-touch one, and that the difference isn't enough to make me not buy a Nexus (assuming the next Nexus doesn't have a physical keyboard).

[steer]

It's niche everywhere though... but the US gets quite a few more models than we do. I guess it's niche and we're a market 5th the size of US.

I'm torn I admit as to whether to get a keyboard phone next time or not. Swype makes software keyboards usable for me (I'm used to typing fast and frustrated when I cannot). Devs aren't used to keyboard phones so some software is insanely annoying in keyboard mode (I assume it's that) -- e.g. facebook app jumps to top of screen periodically if soft keyboard isn't up. (Maddenning that the facebook app is so shit considering it's one of the most installed apps).

Keyboard phones are usually underspecced compared to the non keyboard alternative so you end up with soemthing less powerful than you really want.

[steer]

I'm a big fan of the keyboard phone -- believe me they're few and far between. There's a small number on the market, they're old (in phone years) and mostly not available in the UK. There used to be bunches of them so a new one to choose is good news.

[rhythmaning]

I loved my physical keyboard, but I was surprised how easy it was to move to a virtual keyboard - using gesture typing (Swype) makes it much easier!

[steer]

Yes... without gesture typing I wouldn't even be considering a non-keyboard phone. Swype is amazingly good.