[Wilsonia Goldens]

It is with big regrets that i post this link:

The trackpad, together with the function keys row, is apparently coming back to Blackberries phones!!!l]

Not on my next phone it isn't. If they want to make improvements make the phone water proof and scratch and break resistant..

[kbz1960]

The lowest hanging fruit, in terms of easier sales, are the folks with a BB7 in their hands. He wants them to upgrade to BB10, this is the crowd Heins was going for as well.

BB probably did a consumer survey, and found these buttons are important for BB7 users today.

He wants to target these, me, customers, (millions) this would be much easier than converting IOS or android to BB10. Again, lowest hanging fruit.

Maybe a smart move.

I posted this in another thread.

I know I'm in the minority but the lack of a belt isn't the reason I haven't upgraded yet. Or a lack of legacy features, although some of them would help.

I haven't upgraded because I'm still waiting to see some clear consistent message from the company so I can have some faith in them again. So far I'm getting mixed messages as to who they are, what they want to be and where they are going.

From my point of view they don't have a clue and just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.

I wonder what will happen when these phones come out and flop as well?

[Omnitech]

The trackpad wouldn't be so important in BB10 if the text editing, cursor management and copy/paste functionality in BB10 were well implemented.

They're not.

So it doesn't really surprise me that people are pining for the trackpad, I do myself sometimes. But as stated above, this is partly due to a substandard touch interface wrt to text editing.

I think a virtual trackpad is a good middle-ground. Make it user-configurable.

I also sometimes miss the dedicated call/end buttons. Which I also think could be at least partly mitigated by improvements in the homescreen and phone app UI.

But it might not be a silly idea to include them on the QWERTY devices. Probably not on the touchscreen devices though.

[David Murray1]

Question to all the touch-screen fascists: why are you so bitterly opposed to some BB users wanting to have a trackpad on their phone? BB will still make touch-only phones for you. Stop being a cry baby and let the other boys and girls join in the play as well. There there!

[17chrisw]

Because it works...
Now I can go back to using a phone with one hand without dislocating my thumb.

Never sure why all the detractors thought BB had to be the same as the others IE a slab of glass
The software is there and is great - what is wrong with a bit more control of it. One of the biggest selling points (and the reason why so many of the users stayed with them) was that the phones were unique. They still are and this will make them more so..

[FCSC]

Sources are now reporting that it won't be a trackpad, it will be the click wheel in order to save screen space!

[Tank1978]

Trackpad or not, would be rather nice for a phone not to have issues after software updates in whatever form it comes in....

Every phone has them

Posted via CB10

[nquyen]

Yeah no. Bad idea.

[ssbtech]

That seems stupid and strange. How on earth are we going to use those on BlackBerry 10.

Hmm.. let's see.

Phone buttons would open and close the phone app, pick up and hang up the phone.
BlackBerry menu button would bring up the overflow menu
Trackpad would bring up an on-screen cursor for precise text selection
Back button would... er... go back to the previous page.

Pretty simple really. Use the buttons to replicate existing BB10 functions. Better for users, friendly for developers.

Every time I try to edit a document, email, BBM message, text, etc... on my Z10 I curse the day they removed the trackpad.

[ravenskman1]

Unless they change it drastically, bringing back a similar look to the old legacy devices is not going to help BlackBerry change its image in people's mind. If anything they will just be cementing what the general view on BlackBerry already is; which is of the old legacy OS and the way behind, can't compete design of OS7.

[Q10Bold]

I LOVE THIS IDEA.

Gonna be a real

Q10BOLD

YEAHH!! I like Chen, because he knows what I want/need to be more productive.

Posted via BlackBerry Q10Bold

[Jamie Wooten]

I never used a BlackBerry up until BB 10, so I really couldn't give a fair assessment. I don't however see the point in a Trackpad when i have no problem using the gesture features on the Z10. Perhaps I should buy a 9900 to see what the fuss is all about. LOL

[sentimentGX4]

It's funny how BB10 will go from the OS with the least hard buttons to the OS with the most hard buttons if the new BB10s have the entire legacy belt. And 2 or 3 of the hardware elements on the belt are superfluous for touchscreen phones.




BTW, if Blackberry were to bring back buttons, I think Android's current home/multitask/back layout is the only one among modern smartphones that make sense. Apple's layout is one of the most elegant but one button shouldn't do 3+ things. Windows Phone has a useless search button.

Touchscreens do not (cannot) cut it. The BB10 selector circle and other features are the BEST solution to the mouselessness problem I have ever seen, and they're just not good enough.

I think Windows Phone's text selector is actually very good.

[ChainPunch]

Why need trackpad when you can do anything you want with your fingers?

If your fingers shake or you have tremors it is not going to workout so well.

As long as Blackberry is making a profit off the device and recover their R/D costs, then why should anyone care if Blackberry releases a device with "the belt". I can see developers being upset, which is understandable and in which case Blackberry needs to come up with a way to make these changes easier on developers.

I am overjoyed if "the belt" is coming to a B10 physical keyboard device, which means I will have to switch carriers to get it and pay a higher cell phone bill per month as well.

I think what is often left out of the discussion about going from BBOS devices to B10 devices is that for many it requres switching to a more expensive plan. Some people make their phone choice based on the cost of their cell phone bill and what BBOS devices still offer better than B10 devices is cheaper cell phones plans to go with them.

[southlander]

This might be a rumour, but it still irks me to an extent

What was the whole point of transitioning people to the new experience then? Bring in a trackpad and you can't call it an all gesture based OS anymore

Posted via CB10

Well. Folks have said on here that the issue with touch on the old BBOS was that it was not engineered as a touch OS. Ie. The BlackBerry Storm.

So then if BlackBerry 10 was designed from the ground up for touch and especially gestures, I wonder how easily they'll adapt it for buttons and a track pad if true.

Z10STL100-4/10.2.1.2141

[Bonnie Bonzai]

What next?? Back to the trackball ? Noooo the screen is fine, what is wrong with people? The idea is to move ahead not take 4 steps back!

[Bonnie Bonzai]

Question to all the touch-screen fascists: why are you so bitterly opposed to some BB users wanting to have a trackpad on their phone? BB will still make touch-only phones for you. Stop being a cry baby and let the other boys and girls join in the play as well. There there!

Fascists? Lol

[Aju]

I just wish only call start and end button comes instead of trackpad and back key. Ol r pretty happy with de way v can move front and back with getures I guess...anyways I am pretty well happy with it.

Posted via CB10

[RyanGermann]

The trackpad wouldn't be so important in BB10 if the text editing, cursor management and copy/paste functionality in BB10 were well implemented.

They're not.

My problem / opinion is that those things aren't well implemented on ANY all-touch device, because by nature touchscreens are imprecise. Don't get me started on the trainwreck that is trying to select a large block of text where half the text isn't visible in the text editing window, especially on Web browsers. That's a maddening failure of form and function if ever there was one, and you'd think more participants in a technology discussion forum would have encountered the expletive-inducing rage that this causes.

Well, I have. Too often. "How do you people live like this?" comes to mind... yet so many seem to be perfectly content to wait in line all day for water, when they COULD have indoor plumbing. I get confused sometimes.

[redlightblinking]

Finally. Now they just need to get back all of the other things they tossed away as well....and add them to the advantages of BB10.

Trackpad and band keys - CHECK
Still waiting:
-Charging contacts
-message waiting icons
-screens that can light up when you have a notification
-backgrounds that can be revealed to use as changing themes (like weather, calendar, etc)
-automatically go into beside mode based on power connect and current time
-holster profiles
- full screen pop ups from headless apps
-BIS

One down, eight to go. Then they might actually get BlackBerry faithful to stop leaving BlackBerry.
All other phones have buttons because they are faster. They take less time. They take less energy and contortions from the user compared to a swipe of some sort. There is no reason why you can't have both gestures and buttons other than vanity.

First rule of making a new version of a product: Don't take away features people love when making the new version. Keep everything you had and add from there. Don't add Bluetooth to your new car but take out the power windows. Every feature stays from last year and you keep adding. BlackBerry clearly didn't get the message. Maybe now they are.

[eddy_berry]

Sure. Why not? A Legacy version of BB10. Great. Although I'll vote with my wallet and not buy it. I have a feeling there will be one and only one and it will not sell as well as some people here seem to think it will. It may also be more expensive because of its niche within a niche market. But let those who spoke out have what they wanted. If it pushes BBOS users to finally dump their phones and stick with BlackBerry then I'm all for it.

[klhman475]

I'm still using my 4 year old Bold 9700 and though I've tried mobile phones that are more gesture-based, for what I use a mobile phone for - calls, emails, and texting, I would love to be able to get a new BB that still has the trackpad and the other 2-buttons on either side of the trackpad and not be forced into having to buy a gesture-only phone. I like the fact that there will be a choice in the matter and it will still be Blackberry, which have been my favorite phones.

[ChainPunch]

Well. Folks have said on here that the issue with touch on the old BBOS was that it was not engineered as a touch OS. Ie. The BlackBerry Storm.

So then if BlackBerry 10 was designed from the ground up for touch and especially gestures, I wonder how easily they'll adapt it for buttons and a track pad if true.

Z10STL100-4/10.2.1.2141

I think BB10 is more flexible than BBOS and thus things can be added to it that originally may have not be plain for the OS. Perfect example: the delete from handheld or delete from server option.

[klobb]

When I saw Q10 first time I said where is trackpad? Now realise thats not important anymore. BlackBerry should see in future not back.

Q10

[ChainPunch]

Finally. Now they just need to get back all of the other things they tossed away as well....and add them to the advantages of BB10.

Trackpad and band keys - CHECK
Still waiting:
-Charging contacts
-message waiting icons
-screens that can light up when you have a notification
-backgrounds that can be revealed to use as changing themes (like weather, calendar, etc)
-automatically go into beside mode based on power connect and current time
-holster profiles
- full screen pop ups from headless apps
-BIS

One down, eight to go. Then they might actually get BlackBerry faithful to stop leaving BlackBerry.
All other phones have buttons because they are faster. They take less time. They take less energy and contortions from the user compared to a swipe of some sort. There is no reason why you can't have both gestures and buttons other than vanity.

First rule of making a new version of a product: Don't take away features people love when making the new version. Keep everything you had and add from there. Don't add Bluetooth to your new car but take out the power windows. Every feature stays from last year and you keep adding. BlackBerry clearly didn't get the message. Maybe now they are.

I think BIS maybe a no go because of the carriers at least in the USA. Outside the usa carriers maybe willing to have BIS plans provider blackberry can get BIS working with BB10 devices like it did with BBOS devices.