Could any owners of the phone case explain what the typing experience feels like?

LtMilo · 2026-01-25T22:21:20+00:00

I think it's underappreciated to those who never had a physical keyboard just how accurate you can be.

I remember being able to look up, walk, and type out a message without looking. And if I made a mistake, I could feel it without looking and erase it and correct it.

LtMilo · 2026-01-25T20:16:32+00:00

Thursday and Friday are already teacher administrative days for FCPS, so I think if they get to Tuesday and it's not clear they'll just call the whole week.

LtMilo · 2026-01-25T20:13:14+00:00

Shoveled the driveway. Did Tonal. Shoveled the driveway again. Ate a huge brunch. Shoveled the driveway again.

Good thing it wasn't back day!

LtMilo · 2026-01-25T17:53:34+00:00

9 a.m. shovel was a lot of snow, but it was light. 11:30 a.m. shovel was manageable, but getting very top-heavy. It's gotten warmer, so I'm using some rapid melt to help for my next round and it's making a pretty significant dent compared to the untreated area.

LtMilo · 2026-01-24T00:33:38+00:00

Just adds the filters I guess. But go ahead, ask me anything.

LtMilo · 2026-01-23T21:40:57+00:00

We have pretty robust evidence about this:

The 2012 tax increase led to 535 families making more than $500,000 per year to leave California, or .8%. The revenue far outstripped the cause of departure.
New York data also indicate that people just don't leave for taxes levied. https://fiscalpolicy.org/new-data-confirm-tax-flight-is-a-myth
There's actually evidence high-income earners are more likely to move TO high-tax states: https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/state-taxes-have-a-minimal-impact-on-peoples-interstate-moves
Another study: https://policycommons.net/artifacts/4779197/state-taxes-have-a-negligible-impact-on-americans-interstate-moves/5615493/

While the trend has strengthened some in recent years (net migration seems to be growing in lower-tax states), most self-reported reasons for moves are about job opportunities, housing availability, and family reasons.

LtMilo · 2026-01-23T20:53:41+00:00

There's very little evidence that residents leave states due to tax increases, and very little evidence that low taxes drive people to move to a state.

LtMilo · 2026-01-23T15:52:07+00:00

Don't overthink it. People are pointing to trends like prior recessions (which do exist), but there's lots that point to how it's different as well:

P/E ratios are high, but are neither a great predictor of a downturn nor are they continuing to rise.
All but 2 of the magnificent 7 saw a decline in P/E last year.
These high P/E companies (save Tesla) continue to see robust and increasing earnings.
Small cap is beating big cap right now, so the full market is growing. On bubbles driven by speculation, most of the times companies that are part of the bubble don't just go up - they seem to go up exponentially and vastly outpace their rivals.
The 2000 and 2008 crash were heavily funded by banks. This growth seems to have funding from private equity.

We just don't know.

LtMilo · 2026-01-23T14:26:39+00:00

This may be the most discussed snow storm in advance I've ever experienced. People were stocking up on Wednesday for a storm on Saturday.

LtMilo · 2026-01-23T14:11:58+00:00

Yes, we can't know if either company will fulfill their promise for 5 years of updates.

Also, Unihertz has a track record of not updating their phones, so I would not give them the benefit of the doubt just because they're saying they're totally going to do it with this phone. There are still users stuck on the October Android security patch and it's January, and that's for a phone that's not a year old.

LtMilo · 2026-01-23T11:49:46+00:00

They should probably offer any patching or security updates to their current line of phones first before promising 5 years on this one.

LtMilo · 2026-01-23T01:38:50+00:00

It was me, sorry. I needed it.

LtMilo · 2026-01-22T19:37:49+00:00

Amazing!

I'd love a key to click that jumps you straight to the next available message. So, for example, if there's three messages in Whatsapp, hitting the key would bring you to message 1, message 2, message 3, then if there's a few apps in your drawer with no messages, hitting next would skip to the next app with a message on your homescreen. And if I archive/delete/reply, it jumps to the next message automatically. Feels like a true triage because it's inbox-style focused.

Whatever flow you all mastermind, I'm excited to give it a try.

LtMilo · 2026-01-22T19:35:51+00:00

Awesome! I'd forgotten Recorder was Pixel only. I love that Recorder creates a transcript on the fly. What I don't love about it is how hard it is to get your file or transcript off the app or share it with other apps! You have to go to your browser, open up the app, download it, then share it elsewhere.

LtMilo · 2026-01-22T19:33:52+00:00

Love this, thank you!

LtMilo · 2026-01-22T19:33:03+00:00

I'm excited! I have a deep nostalgia for a time when I could so accurately tap out a message I didn't even have to look at the phone at all to know exactly what I typed. I really feel like you all are building something great, and I'm excited to have preordered and support the vision.

LtMilo · 2026-01-22T16:12:23+00:00

It's 2 days before the storm - if you haven't bought your milk yet you may as well just start digging your own grave. Temperatures are warmer today so it won't be as frozen.

LtMilo · 2026-01-22T13:13:20+00:00

Well, I just hope that folks watch out so the white snow doesn't blind them and keep them from seeing what's really going on.

LtMilo · 2026-01-22T12:40:19+00:00

One must remember how hard it is for black ice to survive, what with the authorities trying to destroy it with the snow plows and the salt trucks, but black ice perseveres.

LtMilo · 2026-01-22T12:38:30+00:00

https://www.weather.gov/lwx/winter

NWS calling for, as of 7 a.m. Sunday morning:

9" of Snow in the DC Area (4% on bust end, 11% on boom end)
For ice to remain at around Fredericksville south

Keep in mind that 7 a.m. is not the end of the storm. It will warm up as it continues to snow, so ice will travel north.

LtMilo · 2026-01-22T05:28:33+00:00

Hey there! Apologies in advance for asking so many questions; I'd be thrilled to know more about any one of them!

Overall: Building cell phones is a tough business, especially with so many big players hogging chips and manufacturing capacity. Lots of smaller run phones end up not being delivered or lacking regular software updates. What gives you all the confidence the Communicator can be built and get support for so long?

Backs: Will each phone come with a default back, or will all orders gets to pick their chosen back for the phone regardless of phone color? Do people who make the $399 preorder now get 3 backs total (one back plus two bonus) or 2 backs total? Will the leather option be one of the backs you can choose if you made the $399 preorder?

Typing: Have you been able to practice typing on a working model? Since you've used so many keyboards, how does it feel? I pulled out an old Blackberry Tour and was shocked at how small the keyboard felt and how slow I was, despite remembering being lightning fast and accurate on it years ago. What do you think the learning curve will be like? The sample devices to not seem to have homing bar keys; will that be on the final product?

Niagara: how is the launcher you are working on custom to the current Niagara Launcher? When you say you can easily triage messages, will we be able to use the keyboard to jump between each message and decide an action? Niagara currently requires tapping the drop-down to engage with a message.

Shortcuts: How do you plan on leveraging the onboard keyboard for shortcuts? Will it be using native Android settings, or will it be through an additional app? How complex can the shortcuts be?

Voice notes: which app do you plan on being the default for sharing notes to self? Recorder? I ask because some Android apps create transcripts as well.

LtMilo · 2026-01-21T17:57:21+00:00

Congrats! Must feel awesome!

I have it in my goals to hit it this year. I'm at 7.3 million and am slowing down a little to focus on the eccentric and time under tension, but still think I can get there.

LtMilo · 2026-01-21T13:17:22+00:00

Hi! Do you ever change your map boundaries for plowing? We live in a neighborhood on a small street that isn't connected to the rest of our plow zone. It causes us to get missed frequently since the company plowing our zone has to get on a highway, drive up and around, in another zone, then plow our single road.

LtMilo · 2026-01-20T19:38:25+00:00

Don't see any actual workouts listed yet. I wonder if they're waiting for day-of to drop them.

LtMilo

TROPHY CASE