It seems like the abstract for one of RIM’s many, many patent applications is getting a bit more attention than what they normally do.
It would appear that RIM is tinkering around with the idea of putting the keys on some future BlackBerry device at a slant, compared to QWERTY layout that you know and love.
One has to ask the question: Will this new keyboard arrangement actually improve typing speed and accuracy or annoy the hell out of people.
What do you think about RIM’s potential new BlackBerry keyboard layout?
I’m fine with the current layout they have now. Wouldn’t be interested in the new layout. Just my opinion. And dialing phone numbers would take some time getting used too.
I would actually try it, IF rim decided to put spacing between the keys like the curve’s and 8700s have. That looks like a different way to layout the 8800 keyboard which, I think, is pretty well agreed upon as a subpar keypad.
If you are using your thumbs, people probably do make more contact with the button below the one you want. I would certainly be interested.
I’m sure RIM are just covering all bases with this in an official capacity. Maybe we’ll see it happen, maybe not, but if they have the idea it makes sense to patent it I guess. Plenty of companies patent ideas that they never use and this could be no different.
At first glance this idea is not at all appealing to me. It does seem to kind of be an extension of the 8800 keyboard, which while not bad, is not that great either. However, with an idea like this, I’d have to wait and try it out to really know if it worked well or not.
As others have noted, this is probably just one more idea thrown out there and patented. I think if there were some keyboard design out there that was better than the standard QWERTY one we would have seen it by now. I am all for progress, and I always believe better ideas are just around the corner, but with some designs, like the QWERTY keyboard, it’s just hard to improve upon it.
I write alot on my machine – notes, blog entries, emails, tasks etc because I’m synced with 123 Together to our company’s Exchange2007. Think the slant would be comfortable. Go for it!
I think we have seen better keyboards than qwerty, but social momentum is hard to overcome. In a type-off tournament setting, I predict fastest results will be achieved with the slant keyboard, and users of the slant woukd likely see better long-term health outcomes. I’m eager to try it. I use a similar slant keybd at the desktop and won’t go back to traditional.
It is all in what you get used to. I’ve tried slanted keyboards on a desktop and was OK with it, but found that the real problem was that between work, home, laptops, it was hard to be consistent. So, I just reverted back to the straight-on keyboard. Now, for a BB, I would not likely be using multiple devices…so maybe it would be OK. Like another said, tho…phone numbers would still be strange…but on the other hand, I rarely dial any more. More likely to scroll and punch or talk into Bluetooth phonebook.
It looks novel but I would have to use it to determine whether it wouks or not. That seems like a high-risk proposition for RIM. Svereal people have youched upon a key issue for me, the spacing of the keys. The 8830 keys are too close together which makes typing difficult. This is especially so on the VZW version as they are not just closely spaced but slick. A simple solution seems to be spacing them like the 8700 or Curve devices.