Printable View
Not sure if I should have posted this here or in one of the Storm sections.. but:
Japan recreates the sensation of buttons on a touchscreen phone - Mobile
There is a video there too, and its pretty interesting.
First off, there was no mention of RIM's surepress, meaning it never made a real impression, and I feel that this new technology is a lot more innovative than just sticking a piece of glass on top of buttons to make it move and click...
Do you know how the Storm2 works?
Yes, I had one for a year.
There are 5 (or so) buttons underneath the glass screen, and you click down on them. The click makes the screen physically move so it feels like you are clicking something.
But with the new tech in the video above, the glass is part of the phone, just like any other, but you actually feel like you are touching a button when you press due to a pressure sensor (unlike the gap between phone and screen in the S2 that personally made it feel like the phone wasn't 'complete')
Nope. Those four circular discs aren't buttons. They're switches, but not buttons. See this thread for more detail.
My point is, it was a great implementation, a lot greater than the credit most people give it (in part due to the general negativity surrounding the first Storm). It's too bad the Blackberry Touch won't feature SurePress, as I will not buy a full-touchscreen phone without it.
If KDDI can somehow replicate the feeling of SurePress without infringing on any patents, more power to them. They may have a real hit. By the looks of it however, they only seem to be combining a pressure sensor with the standard vibration-based haptic feedback.
Well sure press didnt work well for me. And buttons/switches are really the same thing. (or at least i meant the same basic thing when I said buttons). I know it was better than the original storm, but mine always got stuck and I still type a lot more effectively with my bold. (though I do miss the larger screen). In all honesty my major gripe with the surepress implementation was the gap between the screen and the rest of the phone, and as the phone got older the screen began to wiggle and loosen, making the device just feel incomplete.
But since I have an iPad and iPod touch I'm used to typing on a plain touch screen and can't wait for the Monaco/BB touch.