[Opinion]: The bestest ever thing to happen to blackberry is "Trackpad!"

Yes u read it right.
This little tiny piece of hardware-- obviously, the mightiest thing humans have ever made--- is an epitome of intelligence.
Yes its the same thing which belittles every crap thing out there in the name of technology.
Yes its the predecessor of our old-school Trackball/Trackwheel, which... for some reason I think had its own mind... Had made us sweat and swear.
Yes u guessed it right; its the friendly, beautiful, OBIDIENT Trackpad.

Please enlighten if you feel the same.
P.S: No Puns and Sarcasms intended.

Epitome of intelligence? Hardly. It's a nifty little thing but out of all the invention human beings have made, you centered on this?

If anything, the wheel was the epitome of intelligence. Everything else has been downhill from there.

I only came here to see who's gonna react on 'bestest'.

The TrackBall was a brilliant move for the smart phone,
the migration from the trackwheel to the trackball was a good migration, to the trackpad was more of a cost savings, over added functionality move

Originally Posted by SpaceCow

I only came here to see who's gonna react on 'bestest'.

You got me!
Mee too.

Originally Posted by husainpatan

Yes u read it right.
This little tiny piece of hardware-- obviously, the mightiest thing humans have ever made--- is an epitome of intelligence.
Yes its the same thing which belittles every crap thing out there in the name of technology.
Yes its the predecessor of our old-school Trackball, which... for some reason I think had its own mind... Had made us sweat and swear.
Yes u guessed it right; its the friendly, beautiful, OBIDIENT Trackpad.

Please enlighten if you feel the same.
P.S: No Puns and Sarcasms intended.

I agree that they're awesome. Even once they started adding touchscreens I still use the trackpad mostly.


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I do like the trackpad.

I haven't ever used a track wheel or track ball so I don't know what they're like.

I do remember my Torch 9800's trackpad to be more precise than the one on my 9900's though.

Originally Posted by deRusett

The TrackBall was a brilliant move for the smart phone,
the migration from the trackwheel to the trackball was a good migration, to the trackpad was more of a cost savings, over added functionality move

Support of the trackball and even the trackwheel was a nightmare. Between the two, the trackwheel was more durable. The trackball was a dirt magnet and good riddance. Glad I don't have to take apart BBs anymore to cleay or replace the trackball. If RIM has stayed with the trackball, they might have even more greater defections. If a person must have a cursor manipulation navigation option, trackpad all the way. Touch screen all the way is what the public is apparently enamored with. Mechanical navigation is a dinosaur.

Originally Posted by sinsin07

Support of the trackball and even the trackwheel was a nightmare. Between the two, the trackwheel was more durable. The trackball was a dirt magnet and good riddance. Glad I don't have to take apart BBs anymore to cleay or replace the trackball. If RIM has stayed with the trackball, they might have even more greater defections. If a person must have a cursor manipulation navigation option, trackpad all the way. Touch screen all the way is what the public is apparently enamored with. Mechanical navigation is a dinosaur.

The TrackBall brought multi directional cursor control to the smartphone, the trackwheel did not bring that,
Now I liked the tactile feed back of the Trackball far more than the trackpad, but I can appreciate the cost savings, and the lower maintenance of the track pad, but that doesn't change that the trackpad was evolutionary from the Ball, it wasn't something to be applauded as an achievement or a great feature

The IBM Model M Keyboards were the best Keyboards ever build, classic ones still sell for large dollars online, people moved on to different lower costs styles, and they became the norm, but that doesn't take away that the Model M was the most pleasurable to type on.

Yes it's the best , I didn't have a BlackBerry when they used to put trackballs , but I tried it with my friend's 8900 and it was a nightmare , it's either too slow , or too fast that when you want to press it moves some where else .
I love the trackpad , and have tried a touch screen but its not so functional.

Originally Posted by sinsin07

Support of the trackball and even the trackwheel was a nightmare. Between the two, the trackwheel was more durable. The trackball was a dirt magnet and good riddance. Glad I don't have to take apart BBs anymore to cleay or replace the trackball. If RIM has stayed with the trackball, they might have even more greater defections. If a person must have a cursor manipulation navigation option, trackpad all the way. Touch screen all the way is what the public is apparently enamored with. Mechanical navigation is a dinosaur.

Just plain wrong. First off, the question was not about maintainability, it was about usability. When you need precise navigation, such as selecting a block of text or pinpointing an option on a lengthy menu list, a touch screen alone can't come close to a physical interface like a trackball or trackpad. I could go on and on with the reasons why I gladly sacrifice a little screen size for that 'dinosaur' piece of hardware.

Secondly, maybe more of the public wants full touch screen devices, but certainly not the whole public. I'd argue that most of those want it for media consumption (and because they are perceived to be cooler), while most users who are more messaging-focused still prefer this so-called antiquated physical keyboard and trackpad.

Never knew how much I appreciated my trackpad til it stopped working. Life became extremely frustrating. Even with the luxury of a touchscreen and full keyboard on my 9800. Demanded that we stop at the att tech support center at 630pm on new years day on our way home from vacation, cause wasn't going to survive much longer. I agree, the trackpad is a brilliant invention and I get very sad everytime I hear that it may become obsolete.

The track-wheel on any BlackBerry made for better one-handed ergonomics than front-facing track-ball & track-pads IMO.

Limiting though.

Originally Posted by BrizzadMan

The track-wheel on any BlackBerry made for better one-handed ergonomics than front-facing track-ball & track-pads IMO.

Limiting though.

I respect ur opinion thoroughly.
Bur wouldn't it be obviously difficult to manouver ur divice and rather ur hand to tytpe some thing while fliddling with ur trackwheel.
Infact the irony is that trackwheel, instead of trackball or for that matter Trackpad, is one one one which will more often require ur other hand to help to finish any given task, isn't it?

Originally Posted by deRusett

The TrackBall brought multi directional cursor control to the smartphone

Well, to the blackberry. Most smartphones had touchscreens in those days. My treo and all my WM devices were touch devices so "cursor control" wasn't really an issue.




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Originally Posted by deRusett

The TrackBall brought multi directional cursor control to the smartphone, the trackwheel did not bring that,
Now I liked the tactile feed back of the Trackball far more than the trackpad, but I can appreciate the cost savings, and the lower maintenance of the track pad, but that doesn't change that the trackpad was evolutionary from the Ball, it wasn't something to be applauded as an achievement or a great feature

The IBM Model M Keyboards were the best Keyboards ever build, classic ones still sell for large dollars online, people moved on to different lower costs styles, and they became the norm, but that doesn't take away that the Model M was the most pleasurable to type on.

I loathe the trackpad. The trackball on my old 8330 is perfect - because I swapped it out lol. I don't know what RIM was thinking with the material on the original trackball, but I got an aftermarket black one and the texture was different. That thing has never gummed up, dirtied up, or malfunctioned.

The thing I hate most on my 9900 (well right after the atrocious battery life) is the trackpad. I hate the thing.


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BlackBerrys didn't have touch screens and they needed a way to navigate menus and move around the screen :rolleyes:

Current BBs have touch screens and trackpads and it's still really handy sometimes. Especially when using the phone with one hand. OS7 still has menus to scroll through. Current BBs definitely need trackpads.

Do I miss a trackpad on the playbook. No. Not at all. It's different. It's touch and swipe :cool:

Originally Posted by xandermac

Well, to the blackberry. Most smartphones had touchscreens in those days. My treo and all my WM devices were touch devices so "cursor control" wasn't really an issue.




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Treo's also had a 4-way directional pad with a Select button in the middle of it. And I believe Palm was one of the very few touch screen phones in those days, and one of the few with a full QWERTY keyboard. And that screen was not capacitive touch but instead required a stylus. Most other phones had numeric keypads only. I clearly remember what a nightmare it was trying to text on a number pad.

Originally Posted by SpaceCow

I only came here to see who's gonna react on 'bestest'.

"Bestest" is Indian slang. Much like some Americans referring to their homes as "cribs" or using the words "that's whack" .

Bestest is the Indian equivalent of "that's whack". Our other favourite is "toooo good".
They are still irritating though. Mauling the English language.

Originally Posted by xandermac

Well, to the blackberry. Most smartphones had touchscreens in those days. My treo and all my WM devices were touch devices so "cursor control" wasn't really an issue.




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in 2006/2007 when RIM introduced the TrackBall there were very few touchscreen+ Keyboard devices, I had a few of them, but the main options for business users were stylus devices, which with excel was horrible to use.


The Treo Was a fantastic but had a less enjoyable navigation method than the Blackberry of the same era.

Originally Posted by deRusett

in 2006/2007 when RIM introduced the TrackBall there were very few touchscreen+ Keyboard devices, I had a few of them, but the main options for business users were stylus devices, which with excel was horrible to use.


The Treo Was a fantastic but had a less enjoyable navigation method than the Blackberry of the same era.

I'm confused by this. Are you saying if it used a stylus is wasn't a touchscreen?


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Originally Posted by xandermac

I'm confused by this. Are you saying if it used a stylus is wasn't a touchscreen?


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No, devices either used a Stylus, or a directional pad with keyboard for navigation, very very few phones offered both.

I prefer not having to use a trackpad/ball for navigation. I much prefer full touchscreen capabilities without the use of a trackball/pad.

They did work well with my BBs though.

Every time I use my PlayBook browser I wish it had a trackpad (physical or virtual). There's always the extra step of zooming in to click links (e.g.the page ##s on threads). Android has recognized the problem with the newest Chrome browser by introducing a "hover" zoom feature to be able to select small links (see the demo from MWC). Not necessary with a touchpad.

Originally Posted by jonty12

Every time I use my PlayBook browser I wish it had a trackpad (physical or virtual). There's always the extra step of zooming in to click links (e.g.the page ##s on threads). Android has recognized the problem with the newest Chrome browser by introducing a "hover" zoom feature to be able to select small links (see the demo from MWC). Not necessary with a touchpad.

I fully agree

on the PlayBook I often wish for a Trackpad, touchscreen controls just suck,
On the PlayBook I view about 160char wide in excel, to use touchscreen naviation I have to zoom in to select, with a trackpad I would not. for most uses my txt size is appox 1-1.5mm wide characters,

I really can't imagine how people can be productive using a touchscreen all the time in a textbased world without a stylus, my finger is large enough to cover 11 characters, on the screen!