Message #1391 From:
TheMachine Date: July 10, 2008 10:47:35 AM
Blackberry Thunder might have Haptics for screen buttons
Posted by Adam Z Lein
July 8th, 2008 at 10:18 PM
There's some speculation over at Crackberry.com about the on-screen keyboard that will be included with the first touch-screen Blackberry; the Blackberry Thunder. Here are the latest rumors:
Localized Haptic Technology - when you press on the
Thunder's screen, it pushes in "just" a little bit (the whole screen is
sort of like a big button) and you get immediate "real" feedback - you
hear an audible clickety sound, and can feel a buzz in your finger
where you actually pressed on the display.
Full QWERTY and SureType entry - hold the phone in landscape
mode and you can take advantage of a full-qwerty keypad. Use the phone
in portrait mode and you can enter data on a SureType keyboard. You
will be able to choose/change your screen/keyboard orientation at
anytime.
As we've discussed here
before, having a flat-screen that vibrates or clicks after you press a
button really isn't that useful. What you really need is a way to feel
the button BEFORE you press it. Who cares what it feels like after you
press it since the command has already been processed. At any rate, the
folks at Crackberry are extremely excited about this.
The ability to switch between a Qwerty keyboard and SureType style
keyboard is nice too, but what about handwriting recognition? What
about a T9 keypad or Fitaly? As you know, Windows Mobile is still one
of the very few touch-screen phone operating systems
that has allowed adding any variety of innovative 3rd party software
input methods. Will Blackberry follow suit and also allow custom
on-screen input methods? http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=5540
