Comments on: Where Are All the Flipping Smartphones?

By: Peter Temporale

Peter Temporale — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:39:56 +0000

Yeah,… while i like Star Trek, i want a phone with a QWERTY keyboard (or anything that works as good). Text messages are so much easier with a keyboard.

I like that Samsung i620. I’d like to get my hands on one of those for a bit. It’s not a flip, but it would be better than the 3 button unlock process i have now.

By: Remo

Remo — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:10:14 +0000

Remember the times of the HTC Startrek / i-mate Smartflip:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/12/htc-star-trek-is-the-i-mate-smartflip/

Although I’m generally not a huge fan of sliders or flipping phones, it was a damn coll device at that time. And although many other devices had a follow-up the HTC Startrek was the first and last device in its kind.

By: Mike Temporale

Mike Temporale — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:03:32 +0000

@Peter You might want to consider a slider – like this one from Samsung:

http://www.mobilejaw.com/reviews/2008/06/playing-around-with-the-samsung-i620-slider-smartphone/

It does the auto lock/unlock on slide, plus it has a full keyboard. It’s a great phone and it would be much better if it was Quad-Band so it could be used here in North America.

By: Peter Temporale

Peter Temporale — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:04:55 +0000

I would also like to cast my vote for a smartphone that flips. I don’t like having to always unlock my phone (3 key presses) just to use it.

By: Mike Temporale

Mike Temporale — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:33:32 +0000

Here’s a link to the Delta II keyboard you mentioned – http://www.chicagologic.com/overview.htm

It looks really interesting and I would love to give it a try. There’s been a number of these types of keyboards over the years and they all show promise, but none of them ever seem to make it to market. I hope the guys at Delta II bundle this up as a third party software application that you could buy and install on your phone. That’s great for all the touch screen devices. Now we just need a hardware manufacturer to build it into a device. Somehow I don’t see that happening quickly enough.

By: rkorbus

rkorbus — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:33:16 +0000

The author is right – the form factor doesn’t allow for easy text entry-maybe. Attempted solutions so far are too complicated as evidenced by this thread of words Suretype still can’t disambiguate (e.g. “are” and “see” or “try” and “yet”):

http://www.blackberryforums.com/general-7100-series-discussion/30609-sure-type-most-common-words-gets-wrong-post-em-guys-gals.html

I have better things to do than learn how to use Suretype or Multi-tap. Grandma & Grandpa simply won’t. Luckily, there is an elegant solution to the texting in flip-form-factor problem. Unluckily, nobody’s put it on their phone yet but hopefully it’ll be out soon. Once it’s out there the other solutions will become obsolete.

It’s the Delta II keypad and it’s the fastest, simplest (1 letter per key) one-handed vertical form factor keypad in the world. You can actually give it a test drive at ChicagoLogic.com.

If you’re a flip phone person and you want it on your next phone so you can text with 1 hand while holding an ice cream cone in your other hand, you have to call your service provider and ask them to put it on their flip phones. Hopefully, they’ll wise up to the mega-increase in texting revenues it’ll bring them because of the convenience it’ll bring us.