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BlackBerry #KEY2 in 2023
Brought to you by #chatGPT 👀
The BlackBerry KEY2 is a smartphone that was first released in 2018, but despite its age, it is still a device that is worth using in 2023. Here are a few reasons why:
Physical keyboard: One of the most unique and appealing features of the KEY2 is its physical keyboard. In a world where most smartphones have virtual keyboards, the KEY2’s physical keyboard provides a level of tactile feedback and accuracy that cannot be matched by a virtual keyboard.
Durable design: The KEY2 is built with a sturdy aluminum frame and a textured back panel that makes it easy to grip. It also has a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display, which is resistant to scratches and cracks.
Security features: BlackBerry is known for its emphasis on security, and the KEY2 is no exception. It has a DTEK security feature that monitors the device for potential security breaches and provides regular reports on the device’s security status.
Long battery life: The KEY2 is equipped with a 3500mAh battery, which provides enough power to last a full day of heavy use. Additionally, the device is equipped with BlackBerry’s Boost mode, which can help extend battery life even further.
Solid camera: Although the KEY2’s camera is not as advanced as those on some of the latest smartphones, it still takes great photos and videos. The 12-megapixel rear camera and 8-megapixel front camera are both capable of capturing high-quality images and videos.
In conclusion, the BlackBerry KEY2 is still a great device in 2023, thanks to its physical keyboard, durable design, security features, long battery life and solid camera. It’s a perfect device for those looking for a phone that prioritizes security, productivity and a real keyboard over the latest features.
Jan 4, 2022 – #BlackBerry – the end of an era
Jan 4 will always be a special and important day for me as it is my son’s birthday. However, this jan 4th 2022 will forever be embedded in my mind for a different reason…the end of an era..a sad day for #BlackBerry. The OG and classic OS is being decommissioned and will no longer be supported. For us loyal blackberrians it is truly a sad day.
My first phone was a motorola razr but once I set my eyes on a BlackBerry that was it. No other phone could match it for many reasons but for me it was that physical keyboard. Wow.
I have a shrine to all the phones I have had over the years.. All with the physical keyboard.
I absolutely love BB10. It was incredibly frustrating to me that it was never given a chance. I recall when it first hit the streets how it was mocked for being gesture based.. And now years later both iOS and Android are gesture based. *cough*Hypocrites *cough*
It was ahead of its time.
The only silver lining…as I write this on my BlackBerry KEY2, is that BlackBerry lives on with android, all be it an inferior OS to BB10.
I hope that in the new year onwardmobility gets their act together and puts out the BlackBerry phone we were promised in 2021.
What I’m missing big time on my @BBMobile #KEYone
This morning, like i do every Saturday morning, i prepared my breakfast and sat down to watch my usual blogcast. While watching the blogcast on YouTube it hit me like a ton of bricks that i had a huge brain fart and missed out on writing about the biggest brain fart that exists on Android on my last post Over a month with my @BBMobile #KEYone. My thoughts on #Blackdroid. That is multitasking. Or lack of it. This post won’t be a long one but i will illustrate my point by using YouTube as an example. On BB10 i’d fire up YouTube and if a video was an hour long that’s exactly how long it would take me to watch (or listen to) it regardless of what else i was doing on the phone (ie: multitasking). So, while watching the video, if i chose to fire up Twitter or FaceBook or Instagram or read emails etc, i would minimize YouTube, it would continue to run in the background so i could listen to it while i did other things. On Android now i don’t have this luxury. So if i want a one hour video to last one hour I have to refrain from doing anything else. That’s pretty hard for me. That basically means that a one hour video usually lasts 1hr20mins or sometimes more because every time i minimize YouTube to do something else it stops in its tracks because Android doesn’t do multitasking. A seasoned OS can’t handle this simple job. Shame, shame, shame.
so when talking productivity one should look at BB10 as a leader, not Android.
I so much wanted to find the meme with Felipe doing the shame, shame, shame bit but couldn’t find it.. however, in this case i don’t agree with Felipe..not for Android, it isn’t. 😉
My @BBMobile #KEYone, Two Weeks Later…
I’ve had the #KEYone for a little over two weeks now and i decided to write a post on my experience so far. A few things to put out before i get into it. I am a hardcore BlackBerry fan. Outside of my very first Motorola flip phone i have never had a cell other than BlackBerry. The #KEYone is my first experience with Android. Also, I will not write about the specs at all. In my previous post i mentioned how this guy at the Montreal KEYone meet up was running comparisons between his dtek50 and the KEYone. Obviously comparing apples and oranges. It was more about how fun it was to see such enthusiasm over the KEYone’s performance and how much he needed to have it.
Although my son rolls his eyes when i say this, i consider myself a power user. I use my phone mostly for communicating (texting, email and if i must, talking 😜) and on the social media front i have 3 main ones i use. I am heavy on Twitter, followed a close 2nd by Instagram and a distant 3rd FaceBook. That’s it. I should also mention that i have not changed my habits now that i have the KEYone. During the work week i turn off data while at work. I do it mostly because having data off allows me to focus on work and not get the urge to look at my phone. It’s not to say i don’t but i do very little. Once i get off work i step up my game. My typical day starts at 6am and goes until about 1030-11pm (occasionally midnight). Therefore, i unplug my phone from the charger at 6am and plug it back when i call it a day. The following random screen grabs show you the typical battery life i have left at the end of my day.
You can certainly tell by the dips when i am off work 😜. Also, during this two week period on a couple of occasions i really used the phone a lot on social media. It’s fantastic that i don’t have to worry about bringing a charger with me. However, having written that, although i have not tried it yet i cannot see how i can go 2 days (or more) without charging the phone. I also think i have tweaked all the settings that will help battery life.
Here’s an example of my battery usage over a weekend. Similar for both days. On weekends i start my day off @7am.
What can be said about the hardware other than it is gorgeous. Look at it. Another great looking and quality phone here. It feels great in the hand and although some reviewers have referred to it as “chunky” i don’t see it that way. It is also much lighter than i expected. Definitely lighter than my Passport SE. Truth be told, my initial observation was that unlike my Passport SE i felt that the KEYone would not survive a drop. I have never dropped any of my phones and i don’t intend to intentionally. The bend test “fail” by JerryRigEverything had me all bent out of shape but the “durability” test by @CrackberryKevin got me back on track and feeling better about things. I sported my Passport SE without a case however, for my KEYone i did purchase one. I opted for a transparent one because like my Passport SE it would be scandalous to hide such a beautiful phone!!!
My typing experience so far has been interesting. I have always been a keyboard guy and my transition from my Classic to the Passport SE (4 rows of keys vs. 3) was less difficult than my transition from the Passport to the KEYone. I struggled more than i thought i would. It took a little over a week before i got back to being my ninja self again . Some reviewers feel the keyboard is cramped. I don’t think so. One reviewer went as far to complain that when he needs to type 7 and he presses the Alt key with his left thumb and 7 with his right it’s cumbersome. Well buddy, try pressing the Alt with your left thumb and the 7 with your left thumb. Amateur. The flicking capability of the PKB is on fleek and i notice that swiping back to erase words is better than with the Passport. Quick and efficient. There are times though that it takes several cracks at flicking successfully the word from the middle of the PKB. As some reviewers have already mentioned .. sometimes when i do flick a word i inadvertently fire either the triangle, circle or square action. Using the PKB to scroll has been for the most part excellent. There are times when it hiccups & is not so smooth. And just like flicking words, when i scroll mostly from the middle, at times i fire off the circle action. Not the end of the world. Finally, one of the best features of a PKB is shortcuts. I cannot stress this enough. I use both the short and long press shortcuts. I have so many set up; from launching apps, to texting/emailing contacts. it’s not only A-M-A-Z-I-N-G but EFFICIENT!!!! For example, i set up the short press ‘M’ to email my wife, long press to text. ‘F’ set up the same for my son and ‘D’ for my daughter. Instagram gets long press “I” and Twitter gets long press “T” while tasks gets short press “T”. Notes gets long press “N”, while Notable gets short press “N”… anyway you get the idea.
I will end it by saying that i do love the KEYone PKB but for now atleast i give the edge to the Passport SE PKB.
Not much to say about the fingerprint scanner on the spacebar; super quick!
My transition to Blackdroid has been smoother than i thought. I honestly thought i would lose my shit but i would say that after a few days i was pretty much assimilated. Admittedly a few times i found myself trying to do things a la BB10. Also, and maybe it’s my lack of experience with Android but it seems that to find some setting you have to always go 2 or more levels deep. Like, it’s never ‘voila’ here it is!!! I don’t know, maybe i am being too picky. No. i am not. BB10 is better 😀!
The KEYone is pretty snappy. There have been a few times when i tap on an app in the recents list and there is this lag but for the most part it seems to be the Google Play music & videos app while i am listening to music.
As i mentioned i use Twitter alot. Talon for twitter is my choice and it’s helped cope with not having @Blaq which is a fantastic twitter client on BB10. Instagram is instagram but completely ridiculous that it doesn’t offer the ability to repost photos/videos like BB10 apps. You are forced to download a 3rd party and the drawback to these free apps is the in-app ads … MY GOD, SOOOO ANNOYING!!!! I also notice that if “battery saver” is on, instagram videos refuse to play. I tried it on 3 different occasions thinking “it’s me, not you”… but no, it’s you. I don’t get it though. When you turn on battery saver, you select a threshold so you would think that the saver would kick in when you hit that threshold and not before. It almost seems like it kicks in, period. The Facebook experience sucks. That’s all i can really say there. It was suggested (by Kylie aka @kewlgirl05) i try “Friendly”. I may do so at some point. We shall see, as i mentioned i am not high on FB. btw, she is also the one that gave me the heads up on Talon! I am also not sure what is going on with notifications. On BB10, truth be told, notifications were hit and miss. Very erratic and inconsistent. Well, it appears to be the same for Android. They either happen quickly, late or not at all. Speaking of notifications, during the first couple of days with the KEYone, whenever the LED would go off, my first instinct was to check the hub but at times there was nothing new there and it would drive me bananas because i couldn’t understand what was triggering the LED light. Well, eventually I discovered it was the Android notification bar (or whatever it is called) at the top. And speaking of the hub; no comparison yet. BB10 hub is a rock star, Android hub is still the wanna-be. On BB10 i basically lived in the hub. I still do but it’s like i went from a luxurious mansion to a one room apartment. I also miss the file manager. I have looked at a few alternatives in the Google Play Store but i am still undecided. There are so many and i am weary of just taking any old one. Now as for the Google Play Store i don’t know what the deal with it is sometimes.. There are times when i try to download an update and it takes seconds to download and install and then there are times when that spinning donut just spins and spins and spins and nothing happens.. whether on wifi or data. The last time i got fed up and rebooted the phone, got back into the play store and then everything was fine. Install of updates was seconds.
I use the productivity tab as i think it’s pretty useful.. but admittedly there are times i forget it’s there. I know with time that will change.
The camera is phenomenal. It’s the best camera on any previous BlackBerry phone. The speed is fantastic, as is the quality of the photos. So far, i am a point and shoot guy but I will look to expand on that. My photos posted to instagram are all #nofilter (ok maybe 1 or 2 i used a filter). Over the weekend i had the opportunity to take video on a long road trip we had with our senior AAA soccer team. Great footage (you’ll have to take my word for it) . I really like the slow mo feature.
After getting my Passport SE, i wrote all my blog posts on it. All of them. This is not the case with this post. I do intend on using my KEYone for future posts though. This post was also not written in one sitting but over the course of several days. I used both “Notes” And “Notable” to take notes and screen grabs for use on this post.
I’ll leave off with a few words about my BlackBerry phones. i have always and will always treat them with huge care.
I have never sat anywhere while having my cell in my back/front pocket. And it will never happen. As a matter of fact i have rarely ever had my cell in my back pocket. If my shirt has a pocket i will use it otherwise the phone is always in my hand, front pant pocket or table. I also make it a point of holding the phone such that the BlackBerry logo is facing outward because people have to know that i am a proud BlackBerry supporter 😀!
.. anddddd speaking of the logo.. There is no question that the BlackBerry logo is well recognized around the world but i have to say i was saddened that the BlackBerry brand name is not on the KEYone. It got me wondering how much longer before the logo will disappear altogether too. Ironically while chatting with a BBM contact he made a sarcastic comment that eventually it could be branded AlcatelBerry!
well that’s all folks for this post.. It’s really sad that BB10 was not given a chance. I am not an X-files conspiracy theorist but i do believe the big two had a hand in making sure BB10 didn’t get off the ground. I have zero proof though 😜.. so i guess it is a conspiracy theory!! lol. I am far from being sold on Android right now but i am enjoying every minute of my KEYone. No regrets.
@BlackBerry 10’s future: Will I Need Shades?
I’d like to think I am a pretty positive guy. I’d be lying if I wrote that I always am but I try to be. We’re now halfway through October and still no sign of 10.3.3. In a recent interview Thurber was quoted as saying not to read anything into the delay.
What caught my eye initially was the part I have underlined. If we are not supposed to read anything into the delay what are we supposed to think about his comment? ‘.. support the product until some future date?’ that kinda sorta implies that BlackBerry 10 will/could go away at some future date. When will that be then? Will that be in 2017 when they get their android phone NIAP certified ? Will it be in 2 years, maybe 5, 10? Who knows. I emailed someone I well refer to a ‘E’ about his comment. Essentially she came back with the same thoughts.
‘I wish I could say I know exactly how to interpret it. Honestly, I read it as “It’s our plan to continue, but that plan may change.” So, they’re committed to bringing us OS support for 10 as long as it is feasible for them to do so.’
It’s hard to predict the future but i’ve said It in the past… it’s easy for BlackBerry to say BB10 isn’t going anywhere because that’s their truth now but in the future when it does go away they will have their reason and noone can accuse them of lying.
The other thing that caught my eye was Thurber’s comment that there have been external and internal reasons for the delay of 10.3.3. I understand the ‘external’ part. You can’t control how quickly another entity gets things done but what about the ‘internal’ reasons? What’s that about? This OS release is supposed to only be about NIAP certification. What internal issue could exist? Unless of course there will be more included in the OS after all! That quite frankly would be awesome. I mean it’s the least they could do for us patient BB10 users.
Anyway – I do want to believe that the future for BlackBerry 10 is so bright that I will have to wear shades but I don’t see it. This wonderful OS never caught on. Never got the support it deserves. From the carriers to the devs and consumers too.
Even a dev like Nemory has slowed down his development quite a bit… his apps are good but need updating and the only thing you get out of him when u inquire on anything is ‘maybe’ and a lot of ‘bro’. To this day his #Inst10 app doesn’t allow for video uploading or regramming. Recently he tweeted out that he’s been working on a year long project app that clearly will not be for BB10. Interestingly enough after that announcement he put out an update to a couple BB10 apps; bug fixes. I don’t buy that anything was fixed. I am a software developer. I could add a line of nothing in code and say I fixed a bug. The dev for @iGrann. Same story. I think his last 3 updates have been to fix performance issues. I haven’t seen any improvements. Just the other day @Blaq one of the best twitter apps around put out a small minor update. I was so shocked by the update. This dev jumped ship over a year ago. Actually the last tweet on Blaq was a year ago yesterday.
This is the reality that is BB10.
I will end this with my usual… I hope I am wrong. I want to be wrong.
@BlackBerry licensing #BB10
I was supposed to write about this last week but then got distracted with other things. I had this clear path I was going to take with this post but then I listened to the usual weekly BlackBerry related podcast and got enlightened. They touched on the subject of BB10 licensing and the potential and now I don’t know that my path is clear anymore.
Anyway, here goes nothing. I was excited for a split second over the thought of BB10 being licensed. Then after that full split second I started to think about who the target audience would be? It can’t possibly be the consumer. Sadly BB10 didn’t catch on like it should have so how would licensing it out be any different ? However, through different articles and this podcast I came to understand that I have to look past the handset and that BB10 may and can be reincarnated in other areas. One such area is IOT. Well let’s hope this path BlackBerry has taken is clearer than this post’s path!! I still feel that we are getting mixed signals though…
So? Support for BB10 will continue until some future date? Doesn’t that imply that at one point that support will end? Maybe this future date is sooner than we expect?
On a side note.. kind of… BlackBerry will also be licensing out their physical keyboard. I saw this photo in one of the channels I follow… it was captioned ‘makes sense?’
Maybe this is just some mock up or bad photoshop job but nonetheless this could be the future of the BlackBerry pkb on other devices. Basically, the gorgeous pkb that is BlackBerry on ugly handsets. Let’s hope not.
BlackBerry’s Alex Thurber discusses upcoming handsets and company future | CrackBerry.com
I, for one, am excited to see what’s in store for the future!!!
via BlackBerry’s Alex Thurber discusses upcoming handsets and company future | CrackBerry.com
@BlackBerry 10.3.3 is coming. Soon.
It was good to see @BlackBerry put out a small blurb about the state of 10.3.3.
Finally. I think the silence on this topic was deafening to many. I guess BlackBerry wanted a little distraction from all the hoopla that was caused after their ‘exiting hardware’ announcement. It’s great to read that it’s in the ‘final stages’ but does that even mean anything? Final stages? That could still be months away! Lol. I don’t know how to feel about it. I mean, we were all told from day one that this update was strictly security based. Last I read there would be some update to the browser but that’s about it. Or is it? This little gem cropped up a few days ago…
https://tun-technologie.blogspot.com/2016/09/blackberry-1033-what-is-new_27.html?m=1
Could it be possible that even though we were told that the update is strictly security that we will get surprised with all the changes mentioned on this site post? Could it be? Maybe this is the real reason behind the delay? I think it’s wishful thinking on my part. Some folk in the BlackBerry community are already calling bullshit on the post. Some are saying that it’s a wish list and not what will be in the update. I tend to agree. I love BlackBerry 10 but as difficult as it is to write I know it’s going away. Guys like UTB ‘I will never use a BlackBerry android’ Brad while sporting his #Priv Android device preaches that if BlackBerry 10 does go away the fault will rest on the shoulders of the BlackBerry community. Those black sheep of the community that are creating FUD, trashing on John, whining over the lack of anything on the BlackBerry 10 side, etc that are going to be responsible for the potential demise of BlackBerry 10. I don’t know. Should I even put any weight on anything this guy says? On the flip side of things Brad keeps reiterating that BlackBerry 10 isn’t going anywhere…It’s easy to preach that BlackBerry 10 isn’t going anywhere. I agree, it isn’t going anywhere. NOW. Because it can’t now. U just can’t drop an OS that is being used by very important and crucial entities.. but everything that seems to be happening around BlackBerry 10 tells me that the plan is to phase it out eventually.
Here’s what I think BlackBerry’s game plan was once they made the decision to go to the dark side and embrace Android.
1) get former BlackBerry enthusiasts who left the brand and are now androidians to come back with the android offering
2) get newbies who are android enthusiasts to embrace BlackBerry by hopping on their offering of a more secure Android.
3) get BB10ers to convert and embrace the dark side that is Android. You know, assimilate.
Of course all three are risky business but I think it was a risk they obviously decided was worth taking. My take is that they know very well that some of the BlackBerry loyalists will not buy into item 3 but the hope Is that the combination of 1 and 2 with some of 3 will greatly outnumber the portion of 3 that will leave the brand because of their utter disgust over BlackBerry’s choice to embrace Android. I know my view seems to be on the simplistic side but why not? Right? I mean how many times did John Chen say that he would let the market dictate what happens. If you put very little effort on an OS at one point something is going to give. Those of us that make up item 3 will get fed up and will make a decision. I think that is what John is counting on. Good or bad.
Anyway – I truly hope I am wrong. I simply love BlackBerry 10. It’s so amazing. It’s really a shame it never got traction like it should have. I love my Passport SE. Just love it. Having written all this though I have decided that I will start to save up and I will target the purchase of this here:
According to the photo ‘mercury’ will be out in January of 2017.. I will not make the purchase then but rather wait until April or May of 2017. That’s how I am feeling right now. Time will tell if I will assimilate or I will continue to fight the good fight with BlackBerry 10. Stay tuned.
Is @BlackBerry #BB10 Barb from #StrangerThings?
Over the weekend i watched the final episode of #StrangerThings. Last weekend i watched the first seven episodes and i waited an entire week to watch the last one. I mean, who does that? lol.
Anyway – as i always do every week, i listened to the UTBBlogs podcast. They now have a segment where they answer questions from viewers. Again, there are folks out there wondering about the status of BB10 and 10.3.3 and whether there will ever be another BB10 device. You can tell that Brad and company are tired of answering these questions. It’s the same old, same old. BB10 isn’t going anywhere and it was made clear that in the next couple of years BB10 would be given very little attention. One update supposedly now in September (10.3.3) and one some time in 2017 (10.3.4).
Yes, John Chen and company have stated this a few times but i can’t help but feel like BB10 is Barb.
This poor kid was snatched up by the Demogorgon and she was barely on anyone’s radar. I mean, outside of Nancy who was concerned, noone really went out actively looking for her. Incredibly strange, no? Then later in the movie while chief Hopper and Joyce were in the upside down looking for her son, Hopper sees Barb and it was like “nothing to see here, let’s move it along”… This poor girl!! Nobody cared!
On more than one occasion, John Chen, while re-iterating that BB10 isn’t going anywhere has also mentioned that he “will let the market tell BlackBerry what to do”. This, in my opinion, is very important. You see, while BB10 is getting very little love, Android is getting tons. As a consumer who loves and uses BB10 i have taken notice of this. My son rolls his eyes when i say this but i consider myself a power user and i love how BB10 allows me to be that. So is BB10 an awesome OS? Yes it is. Having said that though i am feeling the pinch in areas where i think it’s lacking. i am not a heavy app user but i do like some social media apps. I am big on Twitter and Instagram and to a lesser degree FaceBook. For the most part the native apps give me what i need and when they don’t i use the android version. Still though at times, the experience on the android side isn’t ideal. For example, android instagram allows me to enjoy viewing “stories” but for whatever reason when i record a story it is transmitted and saved all garbled. Only photos work. Same goes with Snapchat. Android Periscope can’t be installed because of the version of the runtime we have (too old). Facebook live? i won’t even bother installing Android FB as i think it will be the same result as Snapchat. I volunteer at a soccer youth club as their social media guy and certainly some of the features i can’t have/get would come in handy. As you can see there is a struggle within that is happening. I know that if i go BlackBerry Android i can get all this. I am obviously not the only one and that’s what John Chen is counting on. As the Android side gets updated frequently, we the BB10 user, will start to feel “we are missing out” and we will ultimately transition over because nothing is really happening or will happen on the BB10 side. It’s almost like a waiting game. BlackBerry is dragging their feet on the BB10 side in the hopes that BB10ers will get fed up with the lack of “anything” and jump to BlackBerry Android. If this does happen and in a large scale then BlackBerry can come back and state the the market has spoken and they will no longer support or expand on BB10. All you have to do is take a look at the likes of UTB “i will never go android” Brad. Here’s a guy who keeps telling everyone to relax about BB10 and that “it’s going nowhere” while he sports a #Priv and can’t stop talking how great an android it is. The poster boy of what BlackBerry is counting on. For me, the reality is simple. Once my Passport SE goes (and hopefully it will be a long time before it does), i will go the way of BlackBerry Android unless some shocking revelation happens on the BB10 side.
btw I googled the cast of #StrangerThings.. take a look at this:
No respect at all.. where is the actress that played Barb? Even “Will” who was snatched up in the first episode and was seen a few times here and there is listed!!!
My Random Thoughts 