Tag: blackberry

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Replied to I Do Not Recommend Google Hardware by Marius (マリウス)
For its first year or so, the Nexus 5 was actually a likeable phone ... Then the hardware started giving up. The battery, which had been mediocre to begin with, became unreliable and the phone would report 40% charge one moment and shut off entirely the next, and over time it began to randomly reboot and power off without any obvious trigger. The decline was not gradual either and once the battery started misbehaving, the device was effectively unusable within a matter of weeks.

I read an article on マリウス.com titled I Do Not Recommend Google Hardware. The author, Marius, goes through the issues he has had with various Google phones and tablets over the years. One of the issues, the Google Pixel 6a battery problems, struck a chord with me since my Pixel 6a was affected by the same issue (that is the reason I am currently using my 3a XL, which has been solid after I purchased it refurbished on Ebay). But one passage jumped out to me not because of Google, but rather my own BlackBerry Classic memories. The author was describing his Google Nexus 5 (I never had a Nexus 5). He explained it had battery issues:

The battery, which had been mediocre to begin with, became unreliable and the phone would report 40% charge one moment and shut off entirely the next, and over time it began to randomly reboot and power off without any obvious trigger. The decline was not gradual either and once the battery started misbehaving, the device was effectively unusable within a matter of weeks.

This anecdote almost perfectly describes my BlackBerry Classic experience. I purchased a refurbished BlackBerry Classic at the end of February 2018 after my BlackBerry Bold broke. It worked fine until about November 2018, when, on a walk to meet a friend in Williamsburg, it became non-responsive and randomly turning on and off. After a clean reset, it “mostly” worked, but the battery had issues similar to the above paragraph describing a Nexus 5. It would sometimes report 40% or 50% and suddenly turn off. The battery was especially unreliable in cold weather. By late 2020/early 2021, the phone’s performance began to slow, which was a factor prompting me to switch to a mainline Android phone in March/April 2021 (see the story of how I rescued photos from my Classic).

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There were no Pook-Emu Bee links on Saturday because it was newsletter day (22 links in issue 275!). There were no Pook-Emu Bee links on Sunday because I failed. But today is Monday. Monday is a fun day. I will not fail. In fact, I may even have some bonus links (either to make up for yesterday or to keep my link list under control).

1. 420 Court’s Façade Takes Shape in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn (Michael Young and Matt Pruznick for New York YIMBY. April 13, 2026.)

Carroll Gardens is next to Cobble Hill, which is one of Brooklyn’s historic districts. The line between Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill is easy to miss. Yet, as I noted in 2020, Carroll Gardens is not a historic district. With that in mind, this new construction is not bad.

2. Placard Abuse Clogs Downtown Brooklyn Bike Lane (Brooklyn Today. April 13, 2026.)

Placard abuse is a well-known problem. But must everything be about the struggles of bikers? The bikers in the area behave terribly even where the bike lanes are unimpeded.

3. Investors Juice BlackBerry as the SaaS-y Company Racks Up Contracts (Jamie Wilde for The Daily Upside*. April 13, 2026.)

Making QWERTY phones offered more value.

4. Morgan Library (I Love Beets. April 13, 2026.)

I have not been to the Morgan Library in a long time, but these photographs indicate that it is as aesthetic as I remember it.

5. ProPublica journalists walk off the job in first U.S. newsroom strike over AI (Andrew Deck for NiemanLab. April 9, 2026.)

I reached the “choose your fighter” screen between ProPublica and big AI. Then I left the game on and went for a walk.

6. Doki Doki Literature Club Removed from Google Play Store Following Policy Violation or Is This Just Another Attempt by Monika for Our Attention? (It’s Not, They Really Delisted It) (Azario Lopez for Noisy Pixel. April 9, 2026.)

While I never “reviewed” Doki Doki Literature Club, I referenced it in my review of a freeware visual novel called Save the Date in expressing my hope that Save the Date would be published on Steam, Itch, and other places where more people could find it. I never played the “paid” version of Doki Doki Literature Club, but from my knowledge of the free version, this decision strikes me as odd. It certainly deserves an “M” rating (which I presumre age-gates downloads/purchases) but I am sure there is more objectionable “content” on Google Play Store. Of course, I use F-Droid, so what do I know?

7. The Death of the Small Point Guard? (James Barlowe. April 10, 2026.)

Is there really a “death”? How many instances in NBA history have we had where the undisputed best player on a championship team was a “small” point guard? Off the top of my head: 2014-15 and 2022-23 Golden State Warriors (Stephen Curry), 1988-89 and 89-90 Detroit Pistons (Isiah Thomas), and 1972-73 New York Knicks (Walt Frazier). You could argue for a few additional cases in the 1950-51 Rochester Royals (Bob Davies), 1969-70 Knicks (Frazier). 2003-04 Pistons (Chauncey Billups), and 2016-17 and 2017-18 Warriors (Curry). I suppose one could try to include Dennis Johnson since he was “small” and add the 1978-79 Seattle SuperSonics? But if this is all we can come up with, it does not seem like building a team “around” a small point guard has ever been the best path to an NBA championship.

8. Ascendance of a Bookworm anime studio acknowledges gen AI use in opening, promises to replace offending scenes with hand-drawn art (Dorde P for Automation West. April 10, 2026.)

I never watched the first few seasons, and I doubt I will ever catch up. Were I planning to catch up, this would not encourage me. With that being said, I have 2.5 seasons worth of anime to catch up on. Every news article reminds me.

9. Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Monopoly (Dan Lewis for Now I Know. April 3, 2020.)

I never played Monopoly. No one ever tried to convince me to play Monopoly. Now I know that Dan Lewis does not think I should play Monopoly.

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I learned about an upcoming smartphone called the Lotus Diplomat from an article on NotebookCheck (HT to Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony).The Lotus Diplomat looks much like my old BlackBerry Classic, right down to the QWERTY keyboard. According to NoteBook Check, it will have a 5.3 inch display with a resolution of 2560×1920 (which is better than my 24-inch monitors…) with OLED and IPS panel options.  “The SoC is expected to be the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is a high-end chipset that will be paired with 24GB of RAM and 1.5TB of mass storage.” As ana dded bonus, the phone will include an “IR blaster” so it can be used for a TV remote (note that I did not know my BlackBerry phones had that functionality, the more you know…).

I have repeatedly called for the return of QWERTY phones. While I have stated my preference for a QWERTY phone with an e-ink panel running something closer to mainline Linux than Android (or at least something that can be officially supported by LineageOS or better yet GrapheneOS), Lotus Diplomat does look interesting to me on the surface. However, before evaluating whether it may be supported by LineageOS, I agree with Pixy Misa’s assessment of one obvious, still-unstated problem with this device:

Price is not mentioned, and you might be best off not asking.

Pixy Misa

I know not how much the Lotus Diplomat will cost, only that the cost will not be good (I will guess just a touch more than the $109.95 I spent on my refurbished BlackBerry Classic on February 28, 2018).