Remember the Typo Keyboard? The Ryan Seacrest-backed product aimed to give iPhone 5 and 5s owners a case that would give them a BlackBerry-like physical keyboard. I’m not the only one that thought that the Typo’s QWERTY resembled a BlackBerry’s, though, as BlackBerry sued Typo and eventually won a sales ban on the accessory. Apparently that didn’t deter Typo, as the company today introduced a new model of its iPhone case.
The Typo 2 is now available for pre-order from Typo’s website. As with the original Typo, the Typo 2 is a case that you slide your iPhone into. The Typo 2 features a physical keyboard at its base, and while the size of the ‘board doesn’t appear to have changed, the Typo 2’s QWERTY looks slightly less BlackBerry-like since they don’t feature the a curve on their sides like the OG Typo’s keys.
In addition to the physical QWERTY, the Typo 2 includes backlit keys, a lock key and a Typo battery indicator. Users will also be able to access currencies with the push of a button.
The Typo 2 is now available for pre-order for $99. Orders are expected to begin shipping in mid-September.
Outside of BlackBerry’s new devices like the Q10 and Passport, the physical QWERTY-clad smartphone seems to be dead. Some folks may not want BlackBerry 10 for whatever reason, though, and so the Typo 2 aims to give those people the combination of a BlackBerry-like typing experience with Apple’s iOS software and app ecosystem.
The quality of the Typo 2 remains to be seen, and it’s also unknown if BlackBerry will go after the Typo 2 like it did the original model. If you’ve got an iPhone but are longing for some physical keys to put under your thumbs, though, you can now place an order for a Typo 2 of your own.
Via Typo Keyboards
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