PinePhone Keyboard update [April 24/04]

[AllhafRA]

It would be interesting to see such a version of the keyboard module (with reduced hinges and the size of the case), and not enough rubber feet to prevent the module from sliding. I immediately apologize for the clumsy picture =) (in the upper part I saved a slice to understand how much the module has decreased)

[bard]

Looks sick, thanks for the update!

I know having different layouts and different keycaps to fit every bill is expensive so I'm guessing the answer for those questions is no, but I'm gonna ask them anyway

- Will there be tactile bumps on the F and J keycaps?

- Will a version with blank keycaps be available (like the prototype)?

- In the future, would a version with an ortholinear layout be possible?

Ortholinear would be great!! It's such a waste to have the massive spacebar and other modifiers when you're trying to fit stuff into this small form factor. Something like the layout of the Planck or Preonic would make sense on a device like this.
I have a Gemini PDA, and honestly the keyboard is horrible. I don't think the Psion was ever worth copying. It would be nice to see people try to innovate more, maybe use some of the knowledge from the mechanical keyboard community.
Blank keycaps would be nice since the thing is programmable. Better a blank key than a wrong key. And little bumps would make it easier to find your spot without looking (labels or not). I would ideally have mine in the Workman layout, and if the spacebar could be replaced with smaller keys on an ortho version, I would have backspace and enter at the bottom along with space.

[Luke]

@AllhafRA Hmm, I'm in two minds about this. Rubber feet would catch on the edge of your pocket - and I can already imagine the number of people complaining about them being torn off with time. The mold also never included indentations for the feet to fit into. However, I recognize that this is an idea worth exploring, so I'll take it up with @tllim and we'll see if there is some viable solution.

[branon]

Maybe an accessory pack could be sold with some nice, small adhesive rubber feet we could stick onto the bottom of the case?

Or even an option for non-rubber, plastic/textured feet so they wouldn't catch on fabric as easily

[AllhafRA]

@AllhafRA Hmm, I'm in two minds about this. Rubber feet would catch on the edge of your pocket - and I can already imagine the number of people complaining about them being torn off with time. The mold also never included indentations for the feet to fit into. However, I recognize that this is an idea worth exploring, so I'll take it up with @tllim and we'll see if there is some viable solution.

Does a Pinephone with such a pot-bellied keyboard module fit in your pocket?) It seemed to me that because of its thickness, it would have to be carried in a backpack. More neat (compact) hinges are not considered, apparently? Well, I tried =) No one will prevent you from redoing the purchased module)

[vinnie]

Finally I can turn the pinephone into a portable console
No, ok I'll be serious. today was the last day to buy the replacement board for the Braveheart at a discounted price, so I did it but I'm sorry to know that I will have to place another order for the keyboard again.
I really like the design that you gave to the keyboard, but i have some questions:
1) I read in the blog post that you were thinking about making the SD accessible without removing the phone from the case, did you do it in the end?
2) the layout looks good to me, thank you very much for putting the ctrl, fn, alt, altgr keys in the right places.  At first glance seem that the only missing keys are F11 and F12 (~ appears to be on key 5). Can you explain to me  with wich combination is possible to press keys like F1 and |? With fn and fn+shift ?
3) thanks for leaving the possibility to use the dock station, I would have preferred to have everything integrated in the keyboard because it would have been more portable but still we haven't lost functionality. But have you made a way for the phone to know when the keypad opens and closes? If the phone is able to understand that the keyboard is connected, the distros will be able to change operation based on this state for example  for example by deactivating the use of the front speaker and using the default landscape orientation. And if the phone knows if the keyboard is closed or open, it can automatically deactivate and activate the screen.
4) Also good choice for the battery and the support mechanism of the screen once opened, it seems really stable, although I would have preferred batteries like those of the "don't be evil devkit" so that they can be hot swapped while the phone remains switched on so that it can extend the life away from the power outlets. But perhaps the costs are lower and with less thickness. It might be interesting to know if with the keypad the phone can work and call without its battery, this would be useful in case it gets ruined (and smaller batteries get ruined always first because they do more cycles).

And to randomly replay to others posts: I like that the phone is recessed inside the edges, this increases the protection when the keyboard is open and sure for the cap a lot of people will make plans for 3d printing, sure will be possible to extreme personalize the color

[zer0sig]

Only time will tell how much I like the keyboard - there's a matter of feel and getting some muscle memory on it, though I used to be able to pretty much touch type on an HP 95LX (old DOS-based palmtop) so I am definitely up for giving it a shot. There's always the dock for having a portable console terminal if needed.

[vinnie]

I agree, the most comfortable keyboard I have had was that of an Asus netbook considered a bad keyboard by others.
But I am Italian and I have learned the English layout anyway because I find it better to program and I understand that it is unpleasant to have to remember different layouts together, you end up press the keys at random because the muscle memory no longer knows which layout to follow.

[BronzeBeard]

Sadly, I'm a bit disappointed by this keyboard. To preface, I've been using pkb phones for a good 20 years now and I currently use a Blackberry Passport. (Sadly, it uses 3G for calls, which is depreciated. So I am having to dual carry and use a slab for phone and text... I don't know how you people use these things. )  Most of my interest in Pinephone is the pkg, although all the FOSS stuff is a bonus. I look at this from the spectrum of a Blackberry (or my old Symbols) replacement. I need a portable daily-driver pkg email,phone,text machine.

I'll keep it condensed:

• Hinge system is not 180-degrees which makes this difficult to use as a phone. While I abhor phone calls, sadly the rest of the world hasn't caught up yet. I've received 3 phone calls last week, this phone would make it difficult to receive those calls in semi-public locations. I'm not going to lug around bluetooths and speaker phones make you an asshole if you're in public or semi-public spaces.
  
• Keyboard layout is awful. Yes, programmable keys is a good thing, but the keyfaces are going to be all wrong. I know there was a survey, but in typical Pine fashion it was completely botched. Not all of us hang out on the various chat channels. The polling should have been done everywhere, forums, website, chats, reddit, twitter, etc. And as another user said, left for a month. Having to use FN keys to use the arrow keys by default is an absolute joke. vim users have their heads up their rear ends. There are more people out there in the world that use arrow keys than jkl; I mean seriously, does anyone use brackets and braces MORE than they do arrow keys? I'm a C/C++ programmer by trade, and I don't even use that many brackets and braces...
  
• Really needed a mouse option. A pointing stick (ibm nub, whatever) would have been perfect.
  

All told, a bit disappointed, and now I am on the fence about buying one. I will still probably get it, but I doubt I'll be using it as I intended. Really, I might be better off getting a Unihertz Titan for my needs and then get LineageOS on it to get rid of the spyware. It'll still suck running an Android/Linux rather than a true Gnu/Linux, or better yet, a BSD. :\

Does a Pinephone with such a pot-bellied keyboard module fit in your pocket?) It seemed to me that because of its thickness, it would have to be carried in a backpack. More neat (compact) hinges are not considered, apparently? Well, I tried =) No one will prevent you from redoing the purchased module)

Unless you're a lady (seriously, why are women pockets so small), or wearing skinny jeans, it should fit in your pants. I can lug a gun, a Blackberry Passport, and an overly fat wallet (sadly not from money) in one pocket of a typical pair of khakis. Although I most of the time the wallet and Passport to the other pocket. None the less, your wallet is probably thicker, the Passport is probably wider, and the gun/holster is bigger in all directions.

[Lord Windy]

• Keyboard layout is awful. Yes, programmable keys is a good thing, but the keyfaces are going to be all wrong. I know there was a survey, but in typical Pine fashion it was completely botched. Not all of us hang out on the various chat channels. The polling should have been done everywhere, forums, website, chats, reddit, twitter, etc. And as another user said, left for a month. Having to use FN keys to use the arrow keys by default is an absolute joke. vim users have their heads up their rear ends. There are more people out there in the world that use arrow keys than jkl; I mean seriously, does anyone use brackets and braces MORE than they do arrow keys? I'm a C/C++ programmer by trade, and I don't even use that many brackets and braces...
  

Keyfaces don't worry me too much. If it is programmable than you could just make the arrow keys default to movement. It is what I'm planning on doing. I use VIM and I never use the jk whatever movement keys. I'm one of those plebs who suck at using most of the cool features of those editors.

I'm really happy with how it looks and the layout. I can't wait to buy one!