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The reason I will miss the trackpad are:
When popups can't be closed because touch won't close it.
Easier to copy and paste.
The BB10 button makes it easy to send link to an email.
When all else fails with touch the trackpad or bb button helps many times.
When scrolling with touch on a webpage you constantly hit a link to another page. With the trackpad makes it faster to scroll.
Just an Opinion of a true BB user.
I agree. I have a 9850 with trackpad and use it all the time. My storm2 didn't. Have one and it was very difficult to type and edit without it, like to add or delete a space. In fact, I know it's not "cool" now but I miss having a he trackpad on my playbook and wish they would add one to playbook 2.
See what I mean. I wanted to add a t to what should have been "the".
Several of your issues are BB7 based and may not be an issue in BB10. Copy and paste can often be easier with a touchscreen. Instead of Menu> Start Selection > select text > Menu > cut/copy, you can often pinch the selection and it will give you the cut/copy options. For finer placement, you'll see a magnifier. Instead of using the BB button to send a link, press and hold the link, you'll get a contextual popup with the option to send.
You can't apply BB10 changes to the BB7 paradigm. You should not get pop-ups that require a method other than a screen touch.
IMO, most people will adapt rather quickly and you'll soon feel like the old way was just that - an old way...
Perhaps a little pedantic, but you can copy text simply by holding caps, moving the cursor over a body of text, and pressing the trackpad twice (once to bring up the menu, twice to select copy).
I'm going to miss the trackpad. I too had the Storm2 which I really liked except for the lack of a trackpad which caused me to pick up the Torch.
Doesn't work all the time on a touchscreen. Plus when you get an irritating popular and you try to close it 90 percent of the time the touch won't work and have to use the trackpad to pinpoint the x. Double tapping here hold this and hold that can get irritating and time consuming after awhile. With playbook I have pen and even that does not work all the time.
That is the absolute noob way of copying and pasting on a BB. This is how I do it:
Position cursor/hold caps and scroll to select text/hold alt and press trackpad to copy/position cursor where you want to paste/hold caps and press trackpad.
Done, super fast.
I just bought those new Isotoner SmarTouch gloves and well the touchscreen barely scrolls with the threaded fabric. I have to apply semi hard pressure just to scroll up and down. Using the trackpad worked flawlessly with the gloves.
Copy and paste was a little alarming to me but now I've mastered the two touch technique on blackberry. Hopefully I can still be able to on bb10. I personally won't be missing the trackpad. Yes, it had its days and was a great tool on my 9700 and 8530 but now I think the maintenance and sometimes the feeling it is too slow just now doesn't make me like it much. What I will probably miss is the ease of pinpointing which you don't have in iphone and most android phones.
Sent from my BlackBerry 9860 on 7.1.0.714 with Tapatalk and my fingers
The larger the screen the easier it is to pinpoint, etc. I haven't missed the track pad since my first 4.3" display. Pop ups close on the first try, copy and paste is easier than on BB (that's just my opinion though), and I can easily tap links with the edge of my thumb. Something that will be interesting to see is if the new touch keyboard will have a virtual d-pad like the original SwiftKey software has.
+1
That's right, you don't even have to hold on the caps key, press it once and just swipe the trackpad up or down and it highlights the entire row. Super easy just like Belfast explained.
I love the trackpad too its one of the reasons I chose my 9300 over the iPhone or the Storm 2 I can't live without it when it broke I was crestfallen because it was such an essential part of my phone and plus BlackBerries have always had a scroller of some kind, trackwheels, trackballs and trackpads and they are soo easy to replace - much easier than replacing a whole touchscreen
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iHeart TrackPad and BB key! (and back key I really really like)
If you help a gun to my head, I could give up back key and maybe BB key, but dang it, please please please let me keep my TrackPad. Even on my PlayBook, one of my most used tools is the TrackPad via bridge remote . . . and that's a HUGE screen by comparison to a phone! I might be convinced to go for the touchscreen BB10 even w/o the TrackPad, but WITH it would make me more likely to give it a try vs physKB BB10.
What if the track pad becomes a virtual pad on the bottom of the screen? How cool would that be if you can turn it on or off.
I have rheumatoid arthritis from Psoriasis so clicking this then that can be painful especially during flareups of arthritis.
I don't use my PlayBook much, but I was using it today to post on some forums since the power was out and my PC was, well.. out too.
The landscape keyboard was a bit big and the keys were a bit of a reach while "thumb typing" so I flipped it around to portrait mode. Much better.
Now, if you make an error in your typing and don't notice it until a few typed words later, there's no trackpad to move the cursor around quickly. Tapping brings up the horrible blue arrows which I find to be a nightmare to position accurately.
So I thought "enough of this, I'll use the Bridge Remote". Typing is easier on the Torch keyboard but with the remote, making a mistake usually means the cursor and letters somehow get out of sync and it usually makes a dog's breakfast out of the text on the PlayBook. But it was a lot easier to scroll around and make corrections using the trackpad and physical keyboard.
I was looking at the "power outage" map on the BC Hydro website (here, try this on the PlayBook: BC Hydro - News - Power Outages - Outage Map) it's a nightmare... for one, you can't tap and drag the map like you can with a mouse and when you do somehow finally zoom in on what you want, the on screen keyboard keeps popping up. It's really fiddly and annoying.
So..
I like the trackpad because it lets me do much more accurate selections and cursor positioning than the blue arrows
I like the physical keyboard because it means 1) there's feedback and feel from the buttons and you can't accidentally tap them easily when moving your fingers around and 2) there's no on-screen keyboard popping up all the time getting in your way when you don't want it.
I'm very interested in the BlackBerry L series but I think the device will be a bit too big to fit comfortably in my pocket, and I'm very reluctant to live without a keyboard. Retailers never have live demos running so I'm taking a chance buying one without being able to try it first.
I don't want an N series - while it has the keyboard, the 1:1 screen size might be limiting for some applications and the lack of the trackpad doesn't help either.
I really want a Torch slider with a trackpad. 3.5-4" screen, trackpad and a proper keyboard will give users the best of all input options.
One more thing...
I was out at the Santa parade tonight (bit early I know...) and my hands were quite cold. I reached for my gloves to keep my fingers nice and toasty. They're nice and snug and a bit of a chore to slip on and off, but that's ok - my hands were warm.
With my hands all bundled up and my DSLR camera hanging from my neck, I heard my phoen ringing in my jacket pocket. I couldn't get to it in time to answer. I didn't bother taking my gloves off, I just dug around in my pocket for my phone and thanks to the trackpad had no problem navigating the phone to view whose call I missed and launch the SMS app to I could text them back. Oh.. texting with gloves? Not a problem on the Torch's physical keyboard either.
I looked down at the woman sitting on the sidewalk. She had an iPhone and had to keep sliding her gloves on and off when she wanted to type.
It was then that it really clicked - having multiple input options might seem excessive, but it really helps when you need it. I think it's a scenario most people don't think about when choosing a full touch phone. Even the N series would have been inoperable without the trackpad. Even answering/ending calls would have required pulling off my glove.
PLEASE RIM, make a Torch slider with all the physical buttons!
As days are getting colder and colder here in good old germany too, I again start to dig those hardware buttons: on the windy station plattform I can perfectly answer and end calls with my gloves on. I can even use my Bold without much trouble, the trackpad doesn't require any special gloves to make it work. Just typing a text is a bit inconvenient with those gloves....browsing, reading and all this passive stuff is fine though.
Nokias Lumia 920 has a touch screen which reacts with virtually everything - no more special gloves required, you can even use a key or something to do your input. A small but very convenient feature IMO which I hope gets adopted quickly by every company for their future devices.
Seriously, there's a million threads lamenting the demise of the trackpad, did we need another? It's not a hugely interesting topic in the first place, but the fact that everyone feels the need to start a thread about their woes is even worse. This is almost up there with can I upgrade from BBOS7 to BB10...
Well then Give the OP the bazillion other thread links so users can post there.
as far as I've gathered understandment, BB10 will be released in qwerty edition as well as touch-screen only.
Is this not correct?
If one of the new BB10 phones are not even equipped with qwerty (trackball is nice, but not as important),
why would I even consider leaving my BB Tour in the dust? I rather dislike typing on a "plain surface",
aint no touch screen which can change that. I prefer the keys... furthermore, so nice to have so many shortcuts
and short commands available only one click away. In general I feel something is missing when there are no
buttons. If touch screens could have some kind of texture (pop out) then we'd be talkin'.
but it can't.
so I won't.
In case someone knows the CEO at RIM please tell him I, Klondike, won't upgrade unless BB10 comes with a qwerty edition.
giving me a free playbook if I upgrade to touch screen only? not in my interest.
giving me a free car? if it got qwerty - then yes, otherwise no.
I'm sticking with what can make my thumbs numbs!
Yes, there is a QWERTY version, but as we understand it so far, there's no other buttons on the face of the device. No call function keys, no trackpad.
And face it, not everyone wants to buy those silly touch-screen friendly gloves.
I see, it's rather unappealing they would remove the BB-key and such, but I guess they want to keep up with appearances
(it might look too much like a "classic" BB if they kept it all)... I do prefer classic BB myself though.
If I would get a BB-10 qwerty device, I'll definitely be missing the "first line" of buttons which I now can enjoy on my BB Tour.
And I do understand what you mean about the gloves, touch screens are just too complicated unless they give you options
(like other buttons to enjoy).
I was born by a button (I think either parents unbuttoned their pants or etc before conceiving me), I live by a button (I love my BB Tour which has so many keys to push) and I'm gonna die by a button (when I'm on life support and somebody decides it's time to let me go).
That's how I roll! I hope RIM can support my button lifestyle in the future just like they did with the Tour.
People are just like buttons to push, with love. Not screens to press and squeeze without care.
It rather seems like you're doubting what I'm saying as OP can and should be searching for this before this thread was made (and can still do it now), plus the forums do such a search for you!
But if you insist:
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...ackpad-752818/
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...ackpad-754014/
http://forums.crackberry.com/general...ackpad-750776/
http://forums.crackberry.com/general...d-bb10-749845/
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...evices-747890/
and perhaps most importantly:
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...y-10-a-749888/
And this was just from the first half page of results for BB10 + trackpad, based on thread titles alone (and Kevin's thread)
Perhaps then a "trackpad and other input methods" thread should be made a sticky...