The Q10 Experiment: Using a BlackBerry Q10 for 30 Days

The Q10 Experiment: Day 4 - Selecting and Editing Text

Attachment 270016

The BlackBerry Q10 was the first BB10 device with a physical keyboard. When it was announced, legacy BlackBerry owners collectively rejoiced...until they found out that it would not have the legendary "toolbelt" of trackpad, physical call buttons, back button, and menu button.

There has been some division over the lack of toolbelt on the Q10. Some claim it's better without it. Others claim it's practically unusable for selecting and editing text.

This issue has been discussed and reviewed ad nauseum, so rather than rehash what's already been said (and thanks to the participants in this thread who tool the time to provide tutorials and screenshots of the functionality) I'd prefer to just lay things out from my perspective.

I've had experience with touch screen devices on every major platform, and for my needs, the touch screen text selection and editing functions on BB10 are by far the best and most precise I've ever used. Better than my iPhone 5, better than my Lumia 521, better than my Galaxy Nexus. When it comes to touch screen text editing, you can (and will) do worse than BB10.

I find the experience of typing and editing text on my Q10 to be excellent. In fact, as with my last post, I am so comfortable with it that I am typing out this entire post on it!

I have seen several requests to compare it to the Bold. I'm finding this difficult because they really are 2 different experiences. The touch screen editing functions in BB OS 7 aren't nearly as robust as they are in BB10, so you really have no choice but to use the toolbelt. This, of course, is not a bad thing. The speed and efficiency of the toolbelt are well known, and I came to rely on it heavily during my recent 30 day experiment with the Bold 9930.

In fact, if I had to choose between using only the toolbelt of the Bold or only the touch screen of the Q10 to select and edit text, I would choose the toolbelt without hesitation.

But I do like the Q10's text editing features, which is why I'm getting really excited for the Classic (Q20) to be released this fall. If BlackBerry does it right (and I have no reason to believe they won't), the Classic will embody the best of the legacy and modern platforms be the iconic BlackBerry device of its time.

But as I said in the beginning, the Q10 is no slouch, here!

I'm confident that as my muscle memory improves over the next 30 days, I'll be even more adept at using my Q10 to churn out more posts in this thread and elsewhere.

And I would not hesitate to tell any legacy user still on the fence to give the Q10 a good faith try for at least 2 weeks, or even 30 days like me and see how they adapt. Because it really is that good. And there are other benefits of owning a Q10 that the Bold simply cannot match.

Posted from my Q10 via CB10

And if you really want to turbo-charge your Q keyboard use, start building a lexicon of Word Substitution entries. A lot of people disregard this, or only use it for a few things, such as names and terminology, but with a little planning, Word Sub can take you to a whole other level.

Originally Posted by Newfangled

I've had experience with touch screen devices on every major platform, and for my needs, the touch screen text selection and editing functions on BB10 are by far the best and most precise I've ever used. Better than my iPhone 5, better than my Lumia 521, better than my Galaxy Nexus. When it comes to touch screen text editing, you can (and will) do worse than BB10.

Ya no, the magnifier is slow to appear and laggy when you're dragging it around. Also you can never tell when it's going to bring up the magnifier or the clipboard shortcuts. Android and iPhone have better response and is more predictable.

But I agree with you tool belt hands down.

Originally Posted by ubizmo

And if you really want to turbo-charge your Q keyboard use, start building a lexicon of Word Substitution entries. A lot of people disregard this, or only use it for a few things, such as names and terminology, but with a little planning, Word Sub can take you to a whole other level.

As it does with the 9900.

Originally Posted by BlazorBoy

As it does with the 9900.

Absolutely. I first became addicted to Word Sub on my Danger SideKick. When I switched to BlackBerry in 2007, the first thing I did was set it up again, and my lexicon migrated from 8320 to 8900 to 9780 to 9900, gradually growing. When I got the Z10, I tried to use it again, but it just wasn't the same. The Z10 touch keyboard really requires a different approach.

Word Substitution in BB10 is, in my opinion, not yet as good as it was in legacy BBOS. There are some quirks that need to be fixed, described in this thread: http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...-quirk-925595/.

At my peak, I had over 500 Word Sub entries in my lexicon. Currently, I have only about 100, but I expect that will continue to grow.

Originally Posted by blee4

Ya no, the magnifier is slow to appear and laggy when you're dragging it around. Also you can never tell when it's going to bring up the magnifier or the clipboard shortcuts. Android and iPhone have better response and is more predictable.

But I agree with you tool belt hands down.

I just got my Q10 and i have been quite impressed with the selection tool on the device. No lag at all. Fast and reliable. I thought I would miss having a trackpad, having had a Bold but not anymore.

Sent from my Q10 or Z10.

The Q10 Experiment: Day 5 - Home Screen and Active Frames

Attachment 270366

Home Screen

The home screens don't look all that different from iOS or Android in that you see familiar rows of icons and folders.

The size of the Q10's screen, however, only allows for 4 columns and 3 rows of icons (12 icons) on each home screen. I can get around this limitation somewhat by clever use of folders, but I still have my icons and folders spread out over 4 separate screens.

A little side-comment about icon styling. I've never liked the black rectangles around each of the icons in BB10. It's obviously not a deal-breaker for me, I just think It looks tacky. I've heard that 10.3 will do away with them, so I'm pleased with that if it's true.

The neat thing about BB10 is that you can either swipe through the different screens to get to your apps, or you can tap on the little corresponding icon along the bottom - between the call and camera icons - to go directly to the screen you want.

And here's one of the many ways where the Q10 really shines with its physical keyboard: if you know the app you want to open, just start typing the name of it from any home screen and select it from the search results!

Attachment 270370

For those of you who are Android fans, one thing the home screen does not support is widgets. So even if you install an Android app that might have an associated widget on an Android phone, you will not be able to make use of the widget on BB10. There were only a couple widgets I ever really used on my Galaxy Nexus and I felt that most of them were just a novelty and waste of space. So the fact that BB10 does not do widgets doesn't bother me at all. I think the BB10 Active Frames are a better and cleaner solution.

Active Frames

Attachment 270373

This, for me, is one of those features like the Hub that really sets BB10 apart from the rest. It allows for true multi-tasking between up to 8 apps. Using the OS gestures and the active frames screen, it's very easy to go back and forth between multiple apps as needed. I find it to be much better than iOS and Android, where you have to either double-press the home button or press a dedicated icon to scroll through your recently used apps. In BB10, you exit an app and it immediately goes to the Active Frames, and you can immediately see all the other apps you've recently used. If you want to close the app, just hit the X in the lower right corner of the frame.

Another neat feature of active frames is that - in supported apps - they are like the "Live Tiles" functionality from Windows Phone. They display pertinent information from the app. For example, a weather app might display the location and temperature, the Twitter app displays recent tweets from your feed, the CB10 app displays recent posts from the CrackBerry main site, etc. This is a great feature and I wish more apps would make use of it.

Originally Posted by Newfangled

And here's one of the many ways where the Q10 really shines with its physical keyboard: if you know the app you want to open, just start typing the name of it from any home screen and select it from the search results!

If the Q10 was preset only with homescreen shortcuts as found on the Bold (s to trigger search), would that be more useful to you or are you happy with only universal search? I know options would be much better. Which setting did you use on the 9930?

Originally Posted by mrskycar

If the Q10 was preset only with homescreen shortcuts as found on the Bold (s to trigger search), would that be more useful to you or are you happy with only universal search? I know options would be much better. Which setting did you use on the 9930?

I used universal search on my 9930, as well. It seems to work well enough for me, but I'm all for having more options. If people prefer shortcuts, and that was an option on the 9930, I don't see any good reason to omit that functionality on the Q10.

Posted from my Q10 via CB10

Guys q10 is without argument the best BlackBerry in the market. I keep selling it n going bk to it. The next in line is z10.

Posted via CB10

The OS 10.3 update also introduces "Endless Folders" which will allow us to have more than 12 icons on one screen, and simply scroll to bring them into view.

Originally Posted by Newfangled

The size of the Q10's screen, however, only allows for 4 columns and 3 rows of icons (12 icons) on each home screen. I can get around this limitation somewhat by clever use of folders, but I still have my icons and folders spread out over 4 separate screens.

A little side-comment about icon styling. I've never liked the black rectangles around each of the icons in BB10. It's obviously not a deal-breaker for me, I just think It looks tacky. I've heard that 10.3 will do away with them, so I'm pleased with that if it's true.

Posted with my Q10, SQN100-2, 10.2.1.2947/2274 Radio

Originally Posted by mushroom_daddy

I remain very tempted by the Q10 (and the many advantages of BB10), .... but I continue to suspect that the editing of text may frustrate me.

Regarding 'ease of editing' with the Q10, I hope that it would not be inappropriate to cross-ref the following CB thread: Still a huge pain to select words

It seems there is a general consensus that the trackpad is better for selecting or editing text, but I see a wider range of opinions on the BB10 touch screen editing functionality.

It's different from other platforms. It definitely takes some getting used to. But once I figured it out, it made sense to me, and I think it works great.

Tap once to bring up the circle. Long press and hold the bottom edge of the circle to move it around. Long press the center of the circle to bring up text selection options.

To select a word, double tap or long press it. Move the teardrops to select more text.

It doesn't seem horrible to me, it seems quite intuitive and precise. But I'm used to trying out different platforms and phones a lot, so maybe I'm just able to adapt more quickly?

Posted from my Q10 via CB10

Hold the arrow button beside 0 and highlight the word u want to copy using thumb just like trackpad :)


Posted via CB10

Originally Posted by usman_hidayat19

Hold the arrow button beside 0 and highlight the word u want to copy using thumb just like trackpad :)


Posted via CB10

Woah! So much this! Thank you!

Posted from my Q10 via CB10

Well great thread and very informative for sure. I started off with the Z10 and am currently using the Z30 but my white Q10 is due to show up via the ups man very shortly. Looking forward to trying this device out. My favorite devices on the legacy OS by far has been the bold 9000 and 9900 but the Z30 is by far the best overall smartphone I've ever owned. Looking forward to setting up the Q10 today.

Posted Via my ? Z30 ?

This is one of the best new tricks introduced in 10.2.1!

Originally Posted by usman_hidayat19

Hold the arrow button beside 0 and highlight the word u want to copy using thumb just like trackpad :)

Posted with my Q10, SQN100-2, 10.2.1.2947/2274 Radio

Originally Posted by usman_hidayat19

Hold the arrow button beside 0 and highlight the word u want to copy using thumb just like trackpad :)


Posted via CB10

Thanks mate, it's juste awesome

Posted via CB10

Originally Posted by Ragbert

This is one of the best new tricks introduced in 10.2.1!


Posted with my Q10, SQN100-2, 10.2.1.2947/2274 Radio

It's too bad BlackBerry decided not tell anyone.

Posted via my Q10

The Q10 Experiment: Day 6 - Selecting and Editing Text, The Movie

I've seen opinions ranging from "it's unacceptable" to "it's the best" when it comes to the text selection and editing features on the Q10.

I thought it might be helpful to do a short video showing the Q10 in action and let you decide for yourselves.

http://youtu.be/bi9jhGibno4

Originally Posted by Newfangled

The Q10 Experiment: Day 6 - Selecting and Editing Text, The Movie

I've seen opinions ranging from "it's unacceptable" to "it's the best" when it comes to the text selection and editing features on the Q10.

I thought it might be helpful to do a short video showing the Q10 in action and let you decide for yourselves.

http://youtu.be/bi9jhGibno4

The video explains exactly what I've tried to show with my screen-shots, a few posts above.

NOW, the next thing to do is to post it in the "I miss the trackpad" thread of the Forum!!

Nice work, could not make it myself!
Cheers.

Posted via my BlackBerry*Q10, Germany - SQN100-3, Running OS 10.2.1.2102

TO FORUM MODERATOR/ADMIN:
Please put the Link of the Video above, explaining how to Edit, on the first page of Crackberry! As you did for the "Why I hate my Blackberry" series.
It is worthful to watch and it could explain the process to every one that still can't do it and to whom still claiming to miss the trackpad.


Posted via my BlackBerry*Q10, Germany - SQN100-3, Running OS 10.2.1.2102

I found out about it here in the CB forums after the update which added that function was made available. (I forget now which OS ver it was).

Originally Posted by blee4

It's too bad BlackBerry decided not tell anyone.
Posted via my Q10

Posted with my Q10, SQN100-2, 10.2.1.2947/2274 Radio

Great job on the video!

Originally Posted by Newfangled

The Q10 Experiment: Day 6 - Selecting and Editing Text, The Movie

I've seen opinions ranging from "it's unacceptable" to "it's the best" when it comes to the text selection and editing features on the Q10.

I thought it might be helpful to do a short video showing the Q10 in action and let you decide for yourselves.

http://youtu.be/bi9jhGibno4

Posted with my Q10, SQN100-2, 10.2.1.2947/2274 Radio

There is even more!!
If you got a lot more text you want to select tap a word and hold still tapping the word.
There it goes- first line+ first sentence + the whole time you tap the word it select more text. Here is a screenshot. I've selected the whole text by just tapping and holding the first word.

Attachment 270714

Posted via CB10