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Miss Physical Keyboards? New 'Clicks' Accessory Adds Keys to Your iPhone

Some people in this thread say: I love keys, I need to have keys, great idea, I ordered.

My honest question:
If you love physical keyboards, why havent you connected a simple Bluetooth keyboard to your iPhone in the past?
Like a Logitech Keys-to-Go?
Connecting an external BT Keyboard is possible at least since the iPhone 6.
 
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I know a blind guy who would really benefit from this. On-screen keyboard and Siri dictation don't really work for phone numbers and PINs; a minimal keyboard would really improve his iPhone life.

Currently, he carries around a little folding QWERTY Bluetooth keyboard - Bluetooth 4-ish allows phone number dialing with external numeric keyboards. Awkward, but better than phone number dictation.
 
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I think they have missed a beat by launching it for the 14 series first. My other thought is I’d personally if I was in the market for a keyboard have one that was the longest side to give the biggest keys either as a hinged device like the first keyboards for iPads from Brydge or slide out from underneath like the old Sony Xperia Pro.
 
The cognitive dissonance in this thread is literally mind-blowing. I can’t understand why anyone would be so negative about an accessory that would help fix all the awful keyboard mis-taps that are a part of our everyday iPhone lives. Maybe it’s because my first phone was a Palm Pixi (with an excellent keyboard) and I miss the precision of hitting physical keys, but I think this accessory looks *great* and I’ll be keeping an eye out to see if any enthusiasts create a 3D printed adapter for us iPhone mini users :)
 
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I think it's a good idea, but not sure it would be practical in real life. The only thing I have always hated about iPhones is the keyboard and autocorrect. It keeps changing words that are already correct or almost correct, to words that have nothing to do with what I typed. Surely if I type a 3 letter word then I didn't meant to type a 12 letter word. And surely if you can change 1 letter to make the word make sense, then don't change 5 letters? Why can't they fix this?
 
baryon said:
I think it's a good idea, but not sure it would be practical in real life. The only thing I have always hated about iPhones is the keyboard and autocorrect. It keeps changing words that are already correct or almost correct, to words that have nothing to do with what I typed. Surely if I type a 3 letter word then I didn't meant to type a 12 letter word. And surely if you can change 1 letter to make the word make sense, then don't change 5 letters? Why can't they fix this?
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These keyboards were marketed in the early years of android/iOS, to Blackberry converts. They failed then and have even less momentum now. And back then they made slightly more sense as screens were quite small and the onscreen keyboard took up much of it.
 
Ah, one of the last outputs of the effects of cheap capital. Sadly we won't be laughing at too many more of these products for a while unless interest rates magically plummet back down to the historically low levels they were at a year ago.
 
Tbh I’d quite like to try this out, just for nostalgia. I can imagine it being very awkward and top weighted, with the phone wanting to tip out of your hand when you use the keyboard. Even worse with the next set of pros if they elongate the screen even further
 
bLackjackj said:
$US140 fun? I can see a purchase at 5 bucks maybe for S&G's. Honestly, they could be making these for like .14 cents of Silicon and plastic and hoping for 1000% profit.
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No, that's way too much. I'd say $20-30 would be a fine price point
 
sparkinstx said:
Lol. I've heard from our mobile device support folks here that when the iPhone first came out, the BlackBerry rep told them the iPhone would never make it, because "people want a physical keyboard". We see how that worked out.
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Yes, but the 80's are back. So are gas guzzlers from the 60's. So why not physical keyboards 😁
 
A physical keyboard that basically turns your iPhone into an oar, in 2024?

Short reply:

HAHAHA!

Long reply:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
 
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Oh man! OK so I'm too lazy to do it but this is what I want one of you to do. Bring back Palm Graffiti! It can be a add on cheap case with a junk stylus or even better a virtual keyboard pad that makes you do the old shorthand swipes!

For real got a great nostalgic laugh from this. I used to be so good at Graffiti I used to take hand-written notes in college using it for speed. I also had the full-sized keyboard for my Palm Pilot that was three times bigger than the Palm Pilot itself.

EDIT: Oh dear lord it already exists. https://strokeinput.com/
 
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maxoakland said:
No, that's way too much. I'd say $20-30 would be a fine price point
Click to expand...

A similar product ("Typo Keyboard Case") was offered in 2014 for $99 which would be around $130 in today's dollars. The original product was for the iPhone 5/5S and Typo2 was for the iPhone 6 but due to a BlackBerry lawsuit and eventual settlement, it never really went anywhere.

TypoCase.jpg
 
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Like I said earlier, the "lack of need" isn't universal. Some may find this useful, particularly those hard of sight.

However having thought about it, the thing that is utterly stupid is it doesn't survive versions. The fact this isn't universally designed is a bigger problem than anything else.
 
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