Mobile World Cat

Designing interfaces for managing mobile terminals is not an easy task. For a long time, the BlackBerry is handled with a thumbwheel, a trackwheel with capacity of one-dimensional motion (up or down) and sinking to select, combine well with certain keys for other functions.

He drove with his thumb and it's easy to get used to it, but forced to step sequentially through all the elements of a page until you reach the desired, also resulting in an unnatural position in the joint of the thumb that was capable of generating the so-called BlackBerry thumb or trigger finger, an injury resulting from postural overuse. Still, the trackwheel had legions of fans: I've met many people who continued for a long time using older devices to keep from losing his beloved side thumbwheel.

The evolution of the trackball trackwheel was known as the Pearl, a device shaped translucent sphere located in the middle of the device, as an inverted mouse. It was the perfect device for a perfect world: it worked well, allowing a two-dimensional movement and a click to signal, and postural solve the problem of its predecessor. The problem was, of course, that the world is not perfect: the grease from hands and dust pockets for allying ended the pearl was lost benefits. At first we solve the BlackBerry scrubbing inverted over a damp cloth, but after a while, had expired in a process that used to be quite desperate. Now, RIM has a new device, the trackpad, a spindle of rounded corners that can handle the pointer simply by moving the finger on him to lead a lean, and select with one click. In principle, look too good: the only difference to the pearl it creates a shift much faster, but can regular menu. But it serves its function really well, and seems more resistant to dust and moisture than the previous device, but this is something that only time and continued use may prove.

The great dilemma remains among this type of pointing devices and touch screens complete. RIM's essay with the Storm's touch screen seems to have gone too well judging by what I read about it, and my impression as a regular user of iPod Touch remains that in any case write as on a keyboard without physical boundaries between keys in a physical: a physical keyboard like the BlackBerry systematically write faster, infinitely more comfortable and with fewer errors, and write easily with one hand. I have no problem with a touchscreen keyboard in a device designed for maximum movement, I have many years of Tablet PC user, but my experience is that writing in mobility on the BlackBerry did not generate any laziness, while it on the iPod Touch yes ... but of course, as for all to taste colors exist. For now, the trackpad I liked: I notice virtually no change with respect to the pearl. I have not touched the settings, so I feel that I move faster across the screen, smoothly and accurately. Despite being based on a physical device with a radically different function, not a disruptive innovation, but continued, feels the same, and simply better - or be expected to do so - common-use problems of the previous device.