Clicks Communicator and Clicks Power Keyboard
The first is an entire BlackBerry-style phone: Clicks Communicator. It runs Android but ships with a custom launcher that emphasizes messaging and notifications; it has a hardware mute switch and a side button with a color-coded alert light they call the Signal LED.
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The second is the Clicks Power Keyboard. It’s a MagSafe-compatible battery back with a keyboard that slides out, underneath your phone. (Reminiscent of the Palm Pre?) It’s a Bluetooth keyboard, and you can pair it with up to three devices. Examples they cite include pairing with an iPad, Apple TV, and, intriguingly, a Vision Pro. (I’d rather type with my thumbs on a device like this than peck at the virtual keyboard in VisionOS, I think.) This strikes me as a much better idea for a hardware phone keyboard accessory than a case.
The Power Keyboard looks great. An easily detached battery pack with a keyboard is way more appealing than a case that makes your phone huge. Unfortunately, my phone is just not a good fit for most of the work I do (code and e-mails/HTML that pull together links and content from multiple places). The software and small screen can’t be overcome by a keyboard, though I guess it does make the useable screen a bit larger. But if I did more pure writing I would definitely try one of these.
Maybe I will, anyway. There are a bunch of longer blog posts that I think I could make more progress on during deadtime when I only have access to my phone. Part of what’s stopping me is that I find typing on the screen unpleasant. But the other part is that there’s no MarsEdit for iOS, so I’d need to move certain drafts to another app ahead of time and then bring them back.
Previously:
Update (2026-01-07): Roberto Mateu:
I returned my new iPhone 17 Clicks keyboard case and preordered the Power keyboard on the same day. The new keyboard basically addresses all my issues about the case: portability, flexibility being the main ones. However, another big one I haven’t seen mentioned, is my hope that the new keyboard allows for a better weight distribution by making the bottom heavier.
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I agree keyboard looks interesting in theory. But I also quit trying to do real work on my phone long ago. If it's more than an obvious one sentence email, the phone is just too painful to try and use when I know I have a real computer.
Apple seems to have leaned in to the concept that the phone is a mobile device for when you don't have a real computer long ago, and I long ago gave up trying to treat it like a real computer.
Real computer in this case being defined as something that can create something useful without being extremely impractical to do regularly.
I've reached a point where even clicking a "forgot password" link has me reaching for my laptop.
Anything where I need to switch between emails and websites is fiddly.
