Hi, I'd say they are bound to be. We have good examples of this already - the aforementioned Droid 4 and Captivate Glide. To clarify, Captivate Glide is essentially a Samsung Galaxy S2 with AT&T branding and QWERTY keyboard (I did took a look at it at an AT&T store near my house). I expect the top competetors by end of this year would be Galaxy S3, whatever the new iPhone would be, HTC 1X and perhaps a new Motorola phone (I really hope Google would come up with a baseline tablet of its own soon to perhaps reduce fragmentation and try to unify the hardware and software experience). iOS (as of 6.0 Beta 2) is also based on Unix core as well, but just like OSX, Apple put some GUI elements on top of a kernel based on Unix. Thus, the underlying file system, concepts and system algorithms would be same or similar on both. As of now, Android 4.0 (and upcoming 4.1 or 5.0 (jelly bean might be called 4.1) is based on Linux kernel 3.0 series, which was released last year. For touchscreen phones, the best alternatives are either speech recognition input or bluetooth keyboards. For a fast typist, BT keyboards paired with the phone would be a good option, while people who like interactive voice operation and dictation fans would prefer speech input (like SVoice on Galaxy S3). So if you do choose touchscreen with speech recognition, expect auditory and functionality arguments (I'd rather say "voice war") between Siri and SVoice soon, just like court battles between Samsung and Apple (a court recently dismissed a court case between Motorola and Apple over patent claims). But then, who knows what these two tech giants are planning for fall (I highly suspect Apple will try implementing NFC (Near Field Communication) chips on their next device, while Google would try providing more centralized API for developers and needed enhancements and user interface and accessibility). To return to the original question at hand, it depends on your preference - since you said keyboards would be the best bet, I think we have narrowed down the choice of devices. The next question would be usaage of your device: do you surf internet on your phone a lot, prefer texting and phone functionality over apps and upgradability? Also, cost of contract, possible data plan costs and others should be taken into account, as well as satisfaction with your carrier. I'm sure people would say that all Gingerbread (2.3.x) devices are upgradable (in theory) to 4.0 (a rep did told me that); however, the question of upgrade release, compatibility and device performance would vary from carrier to carrier, device maker to maker and from among phones as well. For instance, there is no known announcement from Motorola on when Android 4.0 upgrade for Droid 4 would be released, while Samsung rolled 4.0 upgrade to Galaxy S2 (and I'm hoping Samsung would put out an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwitch for Captivate Glide soon, as it is part of Galaxy S2 family). For reference, here's the tech specs for Droid 4 and Captivate Glide (and Galaxy S2 in general): Droid 4: * Released: February 2012. * Type: Touchscreen with slide-out QWERTY keyboard. * Screen size: 4 inches. * Operating system: Android 2.3.6. * Processor: 1.2 GHz dual core ARM processor. * Memory: 1 GB RAM, 16 GB internal storage, expandable up to 48 GB using micro SDHC card. * Other features: Supports 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology.
Galaxy S2 family (including Captivate glide): * Release: Summer 2011. * Type: Touchscreen with slide-out QWERTY keyboard. * Screen size: varies (glide's is 4 inches). * Operating system: Android 2.3.6 - upgrade to 4.0.3 is availible on select markets. * Processor: varies (Glide's is 1 GHz Dual core processor). * Memory: 1 GB RAM, 16 GB internal storage, expandable to 80 GB with 64 GB micro SDXC card. * Other features: world phone and has 4G LTE capability. Hope this helps. Cheers, Joseph -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Leslie Fairall Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 2:14 PM To: Mobile Accessibility Android Users List Subject: Re: [MA] Android phones with keyboards I realize that blind people can use a touch screen phone, such as the IPhone and have fallen in love with them. However, I have steered away from the IPhone because I prefer a keyboard. I've also been a Unix user for a long time, and like the fact that the Android operating system is based on Linux. It gives you the ability to develop applications much easier than Apple, because the Android operating system is open source. I was just determining whether I'm going to be forced into a touchscreen phone sooner rather than later. I noticed some people mentioned phones that are coming out soon. Do we know if they are slated to have both a touchscreen and a keyboard? -- _______________________________________________ ma_mailing mailing list [email protected] http://list.codefactory.cat/mailman/listinfo/codefactory.cat.ma_mailing _______________________________________________ ma_mailing mailing list [email protected] http://list.codefactory.cat/mailman/listinfo/codefactory.cat.ma_mailing
