[fnguyen]

Editorial: A less tactile future, and how to avoid it -- Engadget

[belfastdispatcher]

The last paragraph made me laugh, blackberry could do that for 5-6 years now and he dreams of apple passing their great innovation to iphone some day. Smart Cover my arse.

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[fnguyen]

Yes but that is also what he s saying, that RIM is an example worth following...I think he has a point, when you hold a blackberry, you feel it is made for typing, that it is robust, when you hold iphones or so, you just feel like holding a soap bar (iPhone Shaped Soap Bar | Walyou)

[DenverRalphy]

The last paragraph made me laugh, blackberry could do that for 5-6 years now and he dreams of apple passing their great innovation to iphone some day. Smart Cover my arse.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I didn't take it that way from the article. After all, the article did give props to Blackberry for the subject at hand. I read the last paragraph as a reference to their innovation as applies to their own product line to make it feel less "techy", and not an industry wide innovation. Poor choice of words? Maybe. But the tone didn't read that way.

[BergerKing]

I've commented a number of times about how touchscreens have a 'soulless' feel, with their lack of any tactile feedback. I don't wanna have to look at the screen to see what I'm typing all of the time.

Feedback is one of the things I miss from the 8330 Curve, it gave a firm click when you hit a key. I could feel the separate keys a lot better.

But, they're apparently gonna stay with the second generations' keyboard, at least for now.

But, I've gotten used to the Bold-styled keyboard, and probably wouldn't go back, anyway.

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[DenverRalphy]

IMHO, I think most people let nostalgia get in the way of evolution.

I myself, once upon a time, would cringe at the very thought of going from keyboard to touchscreen. I was adamant that a lack of haptic feedback would lower the efficiency of data input. I then bought into the marketing of the BB Storm with its True/Surepress concept.. It was my first touchscreen device, and I was sold on the haptic design. Despite the many many many issues with the device, I was convinced I'd never go full touchscreen without True/Surepress. Fast-forward to today... After graduating to full touchscreen devices with zero haptic feedback, my data entry speeds are faster and more efficient than they've ever been. The very thought of going back to a keyboard I now view as a negative when I shop for a new device.

The same was true while I gradually migrated to reading digital books versus dead-tree books. I was convinced that nothing could ever replace the paper page and the plethora of experiences you'd get from it. Now today, I would always choose my Kindle over a printed book.

Sometimes you have to let nostalgia go in favor of evolution. The trick is to recognize when it's there. I've resigned myself to saving that nostalgia for lecturing ignorant young'ins about the good-ol-days when life was great, the winters were harsh, and everybody had to work twice as hard for half the reward.

[fnguyen]

I don't think I am into nostalgia when I say that I prefer keyboard input...I think that you get used to work with touchscreen only phones, in the end it s a matter of preference. In addition, keyboards do allow you to have more battery life than full touchscreen device.

I am also migrating towards digital books, I just think that keyboards are more efficient for me.

[belfastdispatcher]

Touch screen can be just as good as keyboard but only in ideal conditions, when you try to imput while walking or single handed/with sweaty finger/cold fingers/light rain/in a moving car etc that's when it doesn't even come close to physical qwerty.

With a keyboard you can do many things without even looking at the phone, just feeling it example: redial-double click of the call button, hang up, pause a song, skip to next or previous song, launch the camera and take a quick picture, send a message-double click of the menu button and so on

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[Skeevecr]

The last paragraph made me laugh, blackberry could do that for 5-6 years now and he dreams of apple passing their great innovation to iphone some day. Smart Cover my arse.

Over 10 years now actually, so even older technology than videocalling which apple only recently invented if you believed them.