2mo ago

Touchscreens Are Out, and Tactile Controls Are Back

spectrum.ieee.org Q&A: Rachel Plotnick On the Return of Tactile Controls

Rachel Plotnick’s “re-buttonization” expertise is in demand

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Now if only that were the case for phones. Blackberry keyboards were better than any shitty touch screen.
- I'd have to disagree on that one
  
  Having a choice would be a good start. It's either 'Solid black brick A' or 'Solid black brick B' in the smartphone world.
  
  A big selling point for Android is that it isn't controlled by a single manufacturer (in contrast to Apple). Yet they all seemed to converge on the same design so the choices are quite limited.
  
  Exactly. The blackberry keytwo was the best phone I ever owned and I miss that thing so damn much! I just want one competent keyboard based phone!
  
  As is your prerogative to do so but as someone replying to you says just one competent keyboard option would be nice for those of use that hate typing on a touchscreen.
- Having had one of the old Windows phones with a keyboard dumped on me at an old workplace, can confirm it's completely possible for a phone to have a keyboard and be a complete piece of shit.
  A good phone with a good keyboard may have some use cases. If you do a lot of writing but not any more computing power or screen space than a phone has, plus you want to be doing that on the move, then yeah. For me, can shitpost on forums using my phone in my spare time, and dealing with on-call work issues - having multiple tabs of Jira and Slack open, for instance - just isn't really practical on a small screen.
  If your job is very email-centric, then yeah, sure. Blackberry were very good for just having the stuff you need - email, vpn, 'corporate' office documents - in a form that worked.
  
  That is why I mentioned blackberry specifically, phones can have a keyboard and it not be better for sure, I have also used some crap ones. Blackberry however made amazing keyboards on their devices and the best phone I have owned was a keytwo which I used up until around 2 years ago when it died a death.
  I dont see why you have to have some email centric job or need a specific "use case" to want a better, more tactile typing experience. I work running industrial machines, I dont touch a computer or send any emails as part of my work but that doesnt mean that I dont want a phone with a decent keyboard. I still have to type messages on my phone, like I am doing right now and for me personally I think touchscreen is by far the inferior option when put next to a half decent keyboard. I dont need to be sending emails or working on documents or programming or what ever else to appreciate a better typing experience.
  I type every day on this shitty touch screen without those additional work needs or whatever.
  I realise that not everyone wants this and that is fine but the suggestion that because I dont work on my phone in that was so therefore dont need a physical keyboard is ludacris. I am in a niché of people who want this, I know that but that doesnt make my opinion any less valid in terms of my desire just to have the option of not typing on these hateful touch screens :)
- I want my fucking buttons back. Not only easier to type on, but on-screen keyboards eat so much of the screen real estate. Give me a slide-out keyboard.
  
  Hell fucking yeh! I'd take slide out or keytwo form factor. Keytwo is the greatest modern phone I have owned!
- There are only 2 software keyboards I've found where I didn't have to look at the screen as I typed. 8-Pen which took forever to type anything on and Minuum which hasn't updated in years, but you can pry from my cold dead hands.
  I never used a BlackBerry, but I miss the slide out keyboard my first couple smartphones had.
  
  I haven't found a touchscreen / keyboard combination that really works as well as physical keys, it never can. I could write multiple paragraphs on my blackberry accurately without ever looking down at the screen.
  Combine that with keyboard shortcuts to open whatever app or use whatever function I liked made using a phone so much more streamlined, no opening the screen to see what apps are active and scrolling to the one you want or having to go to your list of apps and find what you need, just press the system button plus the assigned letter and I'm in the app I want.
  
  just press the system button plus the assigned letter and I'm in the app I want.
  Oh, that would be excellent. You could even set them to be the same on desktop for equivalent applications.
  I think one of the Linux phones has a physical keyboard. That'll likely be my choice if I can afford it when my current one stops being viable.
  
  I fear computing power and battery live of that Linux phone aren’t viable even at the time you buy it.
  
  It was excellent, it was the dream and I miss it every fucking day xD
  You had short press and long press of any letter so you pretty much had 52 user bindable shortcuts to open any app as well as perform system functions etc.

334 comments