Foreign BlackBerry phones? Do you want iPhone 15 Did you have a real keyboard, with real buttons that you can press with your thumbs? No one misses having a phone keyboard like old (very old) school BlackBerry fans, and one of BlackBerry’s biggest fans has started an iPhone accessory company to pass the phone keyboard torch to a new generation of fans.
In a bold move, two tech journalists, Kevin Michaluk of Crackberry.com and Michael Fisher from Mr. Mobile YouTube fame, they have teamed up to found a hardware company called Clicks. The two have also recruited team members from companies like BlackBerry (of course), Apple, and Google, although to be fair, I tell people I worked at Apple when I actually worked at an Apple Store in the Chestnut Hill Shopping Center near Boston.
I admit that I know both Kevin and Michael, and have seen Michael recently, but I had no idea he was working on an iPhone keyboard on the sly. Some of my TechRadar colleagues noticed the similarity between this accessory and that time Ryan Seacrest tried to conquer the iPhone world with his own Typo iPhone keyboard. Also that time Ryan Seacrest tried again with Typo2. Seacrest was sued by BlackBerry, who somehow had enough life left in 2015 to win a lawsuit.
Of course, the Seacrest Typo’s design was a direct imitation of the BlackBerry’s tilted keyboard, while the Click keyboard is more like a set of black pearls in straight lines, without tilt. You’d think Michaluk would know enough to avoid the dangers of Seacrest’s failure, since he covered the Typo story for Crackberry.com back in the day.
Will they bring back the thumbwheel next?
Clearly, Clicks hopes today’s users will skip the space-consuming on-screen keyboard and instead plug in their new USB-C or Lightning keyboard. The Click keyboard works with a iPhone 14 (Lightning) or iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro Max (USB-C). It’s unknown why Clicks decided to skip the iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro, but there’s no mention of support for those devices.
Clicks is not just a simple keyboard, there are some sophisticated features on board. There’s a pass-through USB-C port so you can charge your phone even when the keyboard is connected. The keys are also backlit, which is quite stylish and should help with typing at night. There’s an app you can download to make sure the keyboard works and then you get some keyboard shortcuts like CMD-H to get back to the home screen.
The Clicks keyboard is available for pre-order now at Clicks.tech, and the company hopes to start shipping it on February 1. The first batch will be available in two colors, a yellow called Bumblebee (looking for Hasbro?) and a cloudy one. blue called London Sky. It will sell for $139, which is $50 less than the cost of the Ryan Seacrest Typo device.
