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Posted by microflash 5 days ago

Clicks Communicator(www.clicksphone.com)
420 points | 260 commentspage 3
zx10rse 5 days ago|
I recently charged and old Blackberry to see if it is still alive. They got everything so right I really miss those devices I will buy BB in a heartbeat. The OS is sublime I was surprised how after 10+ years not using a device like this I could go around everything without any friction. So easy to use intuitive the little trackpad is on par with macbooks, BB had stacking messages 10 years ago, the size of the device is just perfect. Everything about it is just a joy to use. I can't understand to this day how this company went downhill.
thekurst_ 5 days ago||
This looks really interesting. Sidephone also falls into this camp since I haven't seen it mentioned so far: https://www.sidephone.com/
aleksi 5 days ago||
> What languages will be supported?

> As a real keyboard with the QWERTY layout, Communicator supports languages that use the Latin alphabet: [...] Russian

Weird

dullcrisp 5 days ago||
Japanese too
altairprime 5 days ago||
> Weird

Clarify?

paxys 5 days ago||
Russian does not use the Latin alphabet
altairprime 5 days ago||
Oh! Okay. I’m not an expert, but the depth of information here appears to disagree?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Latin_alphabet

Karliss 5 days ago|||
If you had read the link you posted you would know those are various historic proposals for language reforms not something that's widely used. Same way there have been various proposals for English spelling reforms. That's not the normal way for writing or reading Russian. Russian uses Cyrilic alphabet which if anything is closer to Greek alphabet than Latin. There are other slavic langauges which actually use Latin based scripts. If you don't read Russian it might look like some of the letters look similar but that's only less than half of alphabet and from those half have completely different meaning than Latin lookalikes.

Yes there are various schemes for transliterating Russian into latin script, which people occasionally use for various reasons like typing on a computer or phone which hasn't been fully configured for use with Russian language, in contexts where unicode isn't supported or to make street signs legible for tourists. That's different from the "Russian Latin alphabet". In most cases where proper Cyrillic is problematic dedicated "Russian Latin alphabet" that's based on Latin with extra diacritic marks would also be problematic.

Similar thing could be said about other languages like Japanese or Chinese, but I don't think anyone would describe them as "languages that use the Latin alphabet".

As for typing on keyboard the main Russian layout is nothing like qwerty. Computer keyboards sold in relevant regions often have dual labels. I personally never learned touch typing in Cyrillic and use the phonetic layout in the rare cases I need to do so since for me it was a second foreign language.

Which exact approach Click chose - who knows. Will it be possible to choose your preferred Russian layout like on a desktop computer? Likely not. If they supported that I would have expect them to also add layouts for more languages. Although maybe they didn't want to promise anything for languages for which they don't have OS UI translations.

altairprime 5 days ago||
> If you had read the link

Fortunately, I then assumed that I knew nothing and asked anyways. I'm glad I did — this thread is now much more interesting than the one-word comment conveyed to me at first.

grishka 5 days ago||||
Transliteration is certainly a thing but it's only ever used as a last resort when you really have to pass Russian text through a system that only supports the Latin alphabet, or when you can't input Cyrillic for some other reason. It used to be somewhat common for SMS 20+ years ago.
Kirth 5 days ago||||
Муч лике хов Ю кан/кулд спел Енглиш ин Кирилик.. but who in their right mind actually does that?
throwaway74354 5 days ago|||
Palm Treo/Pre and BlackBerry users! And probably Clicks users too. It's not a matter of "Does Russian language use the Latin script?" (it doesn't), but rather "What is the least annoying method to input Cyrillic on a BB-style keyboard, which doesn't have enough buttons for the йцукен layout?". Phonetic layouts such as яверты or яшерты were very popular for such devices back in the day.
altairprime 5 days ago||
I’m considering the linked-above device to replace my mom’s Q10 later this year, so this is a specifically helpful answer for me — thanks!
CrazyStat 5 days ago|||
For anyone one confused, the first part is an approximate transliteration into Cyrillic of the English sentence “Much like how you can/could spell English in Cyrillic.”
paxys 5 days ago|||
> The Russian Latin alphabet is the common name for various variants of writing the Russian language by means of the Latin alphabet.

Key word - variant

vpol 5 days ago||
For people who miss blackberry.
SunshineTheCat 5 days ago||
What's funny is I actually use to have a Palm Treo and I feel like I stopped being able to text even remotely efficiently ever since I switched from that to my first iPhone.

Probably just a me problem, but I feel like I've never been able to get any good at typing on a screen keyboard no matter how long I do it.

That said, I may consider this just for the fact that I won't have to retype/correct every other word in a text lol.

wowczarek 5 days ago|||
Well, seems to have all the right ingredients:

- PKB (check) with gestures / navigation (check) - Customisable, colour notification LED (check) - Unified inbox (check).

So far though only BB got all of it right though - very curious how this one works out.

Elidrake24 5 days ago|||
Hell yeah it is. They've found some success with their cases, and I'm excited to switch to their new magnetic keyboard for horizontal portable work, but I do worry this is a moonshot that will sink them.
voxleone 5 days ago|||
If only form factors like these could run general use/free OS's...
9021007 5 days ago||
This is running Android
KingOfCoders 5 days ago||
Me.
Kristopher1337 5 days ago||
I feel where they messed up is including modem hardware especially as they tout this as a secondary device.

I could definitely use a second device that is specific for work. I don't want MDM on my phone mostly because they can erase my phone at any time. I also would check work email and Teams constantly. My work is more than happy to get me connected to work services if I will accept the MDM terms yet they won't help pay for my phone bill nor pay for a phone.

All I need is a device that can easily connect to my smartphone hotspot or wifi when I choose to that will meet my company's MDM requirements, has email, and can use Teams. If Im making a phone call at work I 100% use Teams. All I need is data which I can get from my smartphone. The included modem is extra costs. If this was $200-$300 I would consider it which they could do if they didn't include a modem.

rahkiin 5 days ago|
So you’d basically want what was the iPod Touch?
Waterluvian 5 days ago||
The first rendering made me think it was as thick as a brick, and that got me kind of excited for a moment…

Any device that isn’t as thick and heavy as the original Game Boy feels uncomfortably cramped in my hands.

Being unable to fit in a pocket would be a plus. I want a device I have to consciously choose to carry with me to a new room, like a tablet or a pound of butter.

thehamkercat 5 days ago|
You could create a 3D printed case maybe
novoreorx 5 days ago||
The only thing shown of the UI is a screenshot of the launcher, I still don't understand how the system looks or feels to use. Besides, the entire launch video is too tedious and flashy. It's quite sarcastic of them to claim they hate long presentations full of nonsense at the very beginning.
desireco42 5 days ago||
I totally get people being skeptical, I myself are not pre-ordering nothing :) let's be honest here. This is awesome idea with a lot of really nice touches, headphone jack, button lights up as a notification, keyboard as a touch pad...

So I have a lot of hope for this working and it will be fantastic influence on others. Niagara launcher, if they tweaked it, can be nice as well with keyboard.

I want them to succeed. I am on Google Fi, I have data card with my plan, this would be perfect use. I don't chat nearly as much but this would just me fantastic.

I watched full keynote, it is very good presentation, that thing alone should sell phones.

Price... I don't know, it is OK, it could be lower, but it is fine if it delivers. I am not getting anything until I get it reviewed by multiple people.

Wish them success.

CGMthrowaway 5 days ago|
>Designed for doing, not doomscrolling.

It still has a touchscreen, right? And it even has a blinky light up button on the side, something iPhone doesn't. I read the homepage, but I couldn't figure out how this phone was "anti-doomscrolling" - what am I missing?

tabiv 5 days ago|
The "small" screen is supposed to deter social media and video use.
jeroenhd 5 days ago|||
I find that the Unihertz Titan 2 with its capacitive scrolling physical keyboard to be an even better reading/doomscrolling vessel than a long touch screen phone where the act of scrolling may accidentally open something.

The Clicks Communicator appears to be a bit smaller than the chonky Titan 2, but for those looking to end doom scrolling, this might not be the phone for you.

That said, using a rectangular phone does make the device unappealing for most video based platforms (which are all either in widescreen or tall landscape mode). It'll do in a pinch, but a square screen is pretty good at making Youtube/Tiktok/etc. less appealing.

ulfw 4 days ago|||
It deters any kind of use outside texting.

Apps won't render properly on too small a screen (e.g. Google Maps). Good luck reading a website on a 4" square screen too

carlosjobim 4 days ago||
Reading websites should be no problem if pagination is used instead of scrolling.
ulfw 4 days ago||
Yea good luck restricting yourself to those
carlosjobim 3 days ago||
Pagination would be a feature of the browser of course, not of the websites.
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