Clicks, a blackbery style keyboard for IPhones

This does look interesting.

I wonder how small the keys are and how easy it is to type with the device. Seems like it could be tricky. I assume this is a full QWERTY keyboard? Their web site doesn't have much descriptive text and blind people can't see the video.

--Pete

I remember my first smartphone, which was a Samsung Blackjack II, running Windows Mobile. It had a physical keyboard, and for that time, it was pretty nice. While I think this would be incredibly cool, just for nostalgia, I feel like I type just as fast with Braille Screen Input as I could going back to those super small keys. I'm curious just like the rest, but can't imagine shelling out what they're asking for this thing.

I can see this becoming another cell phone trend. Kinda like when Mophie cases first spawned. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Oliver has broken my brain meats. 🤯

Maybe it's just me but if I have a device I want to learn how to use it and don't want another device to use my first one.

There is a point for something like this.
1 it draws little power.
2 it gives real physical buttons.
3 You know what you are typing because it is physical buttons..

I thought about buying one. at $140 it is a hefty price tag. I've never really been able to get braille screen input to work, even though I'm a proficient braille user.

I've given this serious thought as well. What would make me not get it is it is limited to the iPhone. The Orbit Writer can also work with the Apple watch as well. I have one of those so that may make me stay with that versis getting the keyboard case.

I started my cell journey with an accessible one, can't remember what model but it has a slide out keyboard. The keys were hard to figure out because they were so close together. Plus, already being in a country where women don't need pockets except for show, I'm not interested in making my phone bigger and having and hoping it fits in my purse. Of course the purse is the catch all of stuff so who knows if something might've spilled I didn't see and get all over the keyboard. I'm not clumsy but things can happen. The 140 price tag isn't appealing either.

While this thing is mostly getting ripped in mainstream Apple forums, I've seen a few posts from sighted people who think this would be a good solution for blind people. However, they're not aware of the myriad other input options we have.

I don't see the point myself. Want a small pocketable physical keyboard? just get a Hable One or an Orbit writer. Don't want to carry around another bluetooth device to charge? just use BSI because it's epic!

The only use I can see is if you don't know or don't like using Braille on your iPhone but also want a small physical keyboard.

Oh and speech to text if I'm feeling lazy, then I correct the mistakes and move on.

If braille works for you, great! But I think because this keyboard is so small it might actually be harder to type on and if it isn't harder; it might be slower.

Either way it's not for me but if you buy one, good luck and I hope it works for you.

The video that is supposed to introduce and explain this thing has visual stuff as confirmed by my brother but no audio whatsoever except for some G major guitar track thing, which is really not what I want to hear. They promote and advertise their products to be accessible for the blind yet they make such videos and the lack of written information is yet another issue. I couldn't send them a message through the contact form on the website, as I would get an error every time I tried to do so, but I sent them an e-mail to ask how much this thing costed, whether Turkish and Arabic were supported, and whether FinTin was sold in Turkiye or I could somehow purchase it online. I just hope I get a reply sometime soon.

I do use BSI, and like it very much, but I'd rather have a case where there are physical Braille keys on the back of the phone. I think iPhones are wide enough that we could use these keys in portrait mode, and wouldn't have to change to BSI, and how we are holding the phone every time we want to enter text.

BSI is not shit! Indeed, I use it all the time - so much so that I can't see myself going back to any physical keyboard. BSI works splendidly for me. Buy me an expensive bottle of armagnac and I'll show you how to do it.

That said, the Braille keys on the back of the phone (while not something I'd buy) seems a very workable idea, in landscape mode.

Speaking for myself, I used to quite like the Nokia etc. method of input in the old text messaging days. I once had a dream that my iPhone had a keypad like that.

How would you have Braille keys on the back of a phone? Forgetting the case idea for a minute, you'd have to turn over the phone to write, wouldn't you? I'm just having a hell of a time trying to imagine anything like that as I'm one for either putting it on a flat surface to type or more embarrassingly, dictating text, hoping someone understands, then getting a call from your married friend, he didn't think his wife would enjoy me showering with him, when i knew i said let's chat. Seriously they are nice people and I can take a joke, but I can't visualize this idea whatsoever. It could also be I'm awake at five in the morning because a good wind storm.

No no, siobhan, you don't have to turn the phone over. You can hold it with the back facing away from you and type away. I do this with BSI, screen away mode it's called. No need for a flat surface, or any surface at all, for that matter. Go back to sleep.

Sorry I guess I wrote like i wasn't awake or something. Now that i can understand you having the phone facing away from you, I've never tried BSI i should I guess. thanks for the explanation. I swear i'm not an idiot. Irish, but not an idiot. :)

Oliver, mon fils, that's why it exits out of BSI. You could assign a new gesture to deletion of a word if it bothers you...or you could stop making so many mistakes, my error-prone friend. Voiceover stops talking while you're writing, does it? I can see why that might be annoying, but imagine if it started writing while you were talking, all of its own accord? I am sanguine that would be worse. all this is keeping Siobhan awake.

I don't believe that, cause if you did, I want to know how and would like your fingers.

Ah, icey goodness.

BSI has made such a difference in how I use my devices. For the longest time, I only used screen away mode, but discovered table top mode on my iPad, and have gotten to the point where I prefer it even over a physical keyboard. Before I used it on iPhone, I tried to avoid text entry all the time. Five minutes to send a quick text is terrible. With BSI, I think I can write almost as fast as my sighted friends. I tried a keyboard case for iPad with hopes I could make use of the NVDA Remote app, and thus not need a laptop, but certain programs I use on my desktop didn't play nice with NVDA Remote on the iPad, though they work fine with NVDA Remote on Windows. All this to say, I'm to the point where I prefer touch screens on my devices and using BSI as opposed to a physical keyboard. I wouldn't want the extra bulk of a keyboard either.

BSI would be great—I'm using it right now, in fact, so ubiquitous is it—but Apple's sabotaged it to the point that alternatives should still be entertained, in my not-so-very-humble opinion. It used to be better—much better! Dropped input, snapping in and out of BSI because of the slightest rotation, constant need to re-orient and re-calibrate—Apple did something to make these issues more prominant in recent times, I'm sure. So yes, praise where it's due for BSI, and it's made such a massive difference, but I'm on the hunt for other approaches and an enclosing keyboard or Braille input surface that charges off the phone's power through a wire would probably suit me very well. I look forward to seeing how this is received.

BSI certainly does have its own set of issues.

Take Skype, for instance – yeah, yeah, I know, people still use Skype in this day and age. I only use it for one particular group because a few of the other members aren't all that comfortable with Discord.

Anyway, my point is, Braille Screen Input, while activated in the Skype app, doesn't necessarily mean that it actually works. In other words, you can enter BSI, but actually entering what you want doesn't always work.

So basically, BSI, while a godsend to a lot of us, doesn't always function as expected.

If a senior Apple enginere does a ride share service, before inflation, doesn't that say anything to you? If that person has said in their own words, they do not have anyone working under them with any disability. I'm worried with the vision pro, homepod, tv etc, we're headed for just crumbs and as it is, we're barely not being tossed out with the bath water. In other words, if there isn't something done soon with beta testers, and Apple making a real commitment to accessibility, there's no telling how inaccessible things will be in a few years.

This is what i get for being up super early yesterday. I swear, I did know the difference... Son of a... :)

Bloody hell - the times at which some of these comments are written make me shudder, they really do! Anyway look before we get off-topic and have the topic police on the earhole again, I do agree that BSI doesn't work quite as reliably as once it did. The missing input is a problem I have experienced, albeit only occasionally.