After reading the first dozen posts or so, I was hoping SOMEONE would post some accurate information instead of all the fanboy bullshit. As you said, this phone DOES have a capacitive touchscreen, which uses a physical 'click' mechanism. (basically the entire display surface is a "button"). I don't particularly like the idea of a two-part sequence of "touch to select, then press harder to execute" though...
I think for most purposes, this difference won't show itself. The problem users may get into is not understanding that they can "highlight" by touching the screen without pushing it down. Really, it's a neat way to do text selection. And the benefits of the click are greater than the minuses here. It doesn't solve any problems with using a virtual keyboard, but it gives a tertiary response (sight, sound assuming its there, and the touch of a mechanical travel) that you've hit a virtual button or key. It so many ways, that's really reassuring and comforting to the user even though it's going to be no more accurate to the user than the iPhone virtual keyboard.
I can't but help think that RIM looked at the iRiver Clix, and a the lightbulb went off for them. The Clix doesn't have touchscreen, but a push-screen implementation and it's pretty slick. A little bit slower than the iPod scroll-wheel, but reassuring in its usage, and a little bit more accurate for slow one-item-at-time movement in a list type browsing.
For Apple's iPhone, text selection will have to be multi-touch affair or multi-step affair, not to say the Storm's way is any easier. There hasn't to be some type of secondary button (be it virtual or real) to anchor the text selection point or to indicate that you want to highlight for copying. Apple should just introduce it just to get in the real world, not to mention a file manager either. I'd love to see a NeXTSTEP shelf+bread crumb+browser on it.
Personally, I'm more excited about the possibilities of WiMax. Once Sprint has built out their new WiMax network for Xohm, that is going to be a real game changer. My bet is on Google to take advantage of it first.
I'm actually doing some work with XOHM right now, and you're right about the game changer. I'm in D.C. right now, one of the test markets, and XOHM officially went live in Baltimore the other day so it's a pretty awesome area to be in right now.
Comments
After reading the first dozen posts or so, I was hoping SOMEONE would post some accurate information instead of all the fanboy bullshit. As you said, this phone DOES have a capacitive touchscreen, which uses a physical 'click' mechanism. (basically the entire display surface is a "button"). I don't particularly like the idea of a two-part sequence of "touch to select, then press harder to execute" though...
I think for most purposes, this difference won't show itself. The problem users may get into is not understanding that they can "highlight" by touching the screen without pushing it down. Really, it's a neat way to do text selection. And the benefits of the click are greater than the minuses here. It doesn't solve any problems with using a virtual keyboard, but it gives a tertiary response (sight, sound assuming its there, and the touch of a mechanical travel) that you've hit a virtual button or key. It so many ways, that's really reassuring and comforting to the user even though it's going to be no more accurate to the user than the iPhone virtual keyboard.
I can't but help think that RIM looked at the iRiver Clix, and a the lightbulb went off for them. The Clix doesn't have touchscreen, but a push-screen implementation and it's pretty slick. A little bit slower than the iPod scroll-wheel, but reassuring in its usage, and a little bit more accurate for slow one-item-at-time movement in a list type browsing.
For Apple's iPhone, text selection will have to be multi-touch affair or multi-step affair, not to say the Storm's way is any easier. There hasn't to be some type of secondary button (be it virtual or real) to anchor the text selection point or to indicate that you want to highlight for copying. Apple should just introduce it just to get in the real world, not to mention a file manager either. I'd love to see a NeXTSTEP shelf+bread crumb+browser on it.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/1...ref=newssearch
And what is this supposed to prove..
Personally, I'm more excited about the possibilities of WiMax. Once Sprint has built out their new WiMax network for Xohm, that is going to be a real game changer. My bet is on Google to take advantage of it first.
I'm actually doing some work with XOHM right now, and you're right about the game changer. I'm in D.C. right now, one of the test markets, and XOHM officially went live in Baltimore the other day so it's a pretty awesome area to be in right now.