Blackberry Smart Phones Shut Down

Yup, I'm switching to a Linux phone this very day. :(

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Which phone/distro have you chose? I've switched to Ubuntu Touch/UB Ports on a Nexus 5. It's functional, but I'm having issues with Bluetooth. I'll be trying mobian on a Pinephone next.

I have a couple of Pinephones--one beta, one pro. I didn't like whatever it was they came with, so I used JumpDrive to install the weekly build of Mobian. (Jumpdrive is pretty slick actually--boots from a tiny image on SD, and lets you re-image the internal flash using dd over USB in the good old way.)

The main issue with the stock distro (even after updating) was that its map app was completely useless. At least the Mobian one works, but it isn't turn-by-turn yet, so I'll keep using my Garmin for now. (Blackberry Maps needed a network connection at all times, so the Garmin was useful even before they turned off BB Maps last June.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Phil Hobbs snipped-for-privacy@electrooptical.net wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@electrooptical.net:

Were Blackberry phones ever "smart"? I don't think so. They were smart wannabes. Hell an HP PID beat them.

Which ones did you have?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Phil Hobbs snipped-for-privacy@electrooptical.net wrote in news:sr24a7$1d4q$ snipped-for-privacy@gioia.aioe.org:

types.

To me, all I had was the phones with the keyboard still on them. One I had and used in VA about 6 years ago, and the other is newer and I found it in the dumpster after a vacated apartment cleanup. I works fine and still has an active account, which makes me feel bad that the tenant got evicted or whatever that they were not able to get their possessions. There were pills and all kinds of stuff in there. 4 phones total.

Back when I was single I went on a few dates with a significantly younger woman who carried a BlackBerry device long after it was unfashionable among even among people my age. "I like the analog buttons the best, I hate poking at a screen." She drove a Chrysler IIRC.

An unusual lady, though unfortunately our short relationship was not to last. In hindsight I felt like she may have kept a business-oriented device for the "business" of conferring with her many suitors.

A related sea shanty:

So none of the Blackberry 10 models then. Yeah, BB7 and earlier were, well, 2000s-ish. I really like the Classic. The Pinephone will probably be OK, but we'll see.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I had to look closely to see the glasses in front of the guys on the right hand side. There's no connection but the song Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) by Looking Glass popped into my head.

Sweet Rickenbacker bass, some nice Wurlitzer piano work on that tune.

Comment: "The songs we grew up with in the 70’s told stories. They sucked you in. I can envision Brandy getting the sailors drinks. I can picture the busy harbor. Stories. Today, it is rare to find any thought provoking songs. Same old boring crap these days, money money money."

Well it's a good song but the story is an old one. Here's a more recent popular song with 10 times as many views called "Bitch I'm a cow" (the boomers love this one):

"It is what it is"

The predictive swipe-text input is so much faster than any other method on a smartphone once you get the hang of it, for most day-to-day use outside of trying to write about electronics on a mobile device. The kids these days don't sit there doing the two-thumb tap tango like granpa!

A suite of suitors, I guess...

bitrex snipped-for-privacy@example.net wrote in news:gO4BJ.187529$ snipped-for-privacy@fx35.iad:

Them spending so much time texting on a phone to the point that they get good at that crap are wasting way too much of their time. I am busy getting shit done. I got no time for texting and when I do it is concise full words not concatenated fool words. I prefer just talking hands free as I continue to get whatever I was doing done. It has wasted hundreds of thousand of hours in the workplace. One place I worked did not allow them in many labs and some labs you could not even have a pencil or so much as a toothpick and there were white noise generators above the doors to keep folks from hearing lab conversations. Hell, there were labs I was not even allowed in at that time.

Now that you're in your forties, I notice you whistling much louder when walking past the graveyard. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

A salutatory warning for all those who've bought "smart" technology that relies on a central server. The central server will only exist as long as it either provides value to the owner, or they think they cannot turn it off without being sued.

In particular, if the supplier goes bankrupt, the server won't be long for this world.

Sylvia.

Nah, the BB still works fine as a wifi-connected pocket computer. It's just the phone stuff and the app store that went away.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I'm not talking about BB specifically, rather about licensed commercial EDA software and CAD software that phones home. Or the license manager software which you have to install phones home.

If you can live with all open source or have hardware dongles it's not an issue.

Yup. Ugly. I've never uses SAAS apps.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs