It might be time for your thumbs to take a little, tiny rest. It’s been a while since we’ve heard from our pal Russell Shaw from BBHub. He’s set up shop over at ZDNet, and has come through yet again with another great look at a brand new BlackBerry patent.
He’s called this patent a “big one”, and I think I’d agree as it is looking to cut down on the amount of thumbstrokes by introducing auto-capitalizing, auto-punctuation, and more. Here’s the patent’s abstract. You can check out the full features here.
A hand-held electronic device with a keyboard, thumbwheel, display and associated software is optimized for use of the device with the thumbs. The associated software has a plurality of features to optimize efficient use of the limited keyboard space and encourage the use of the device by thumb-based data entry through the thumbwheel and/or through a combination of minimal number of keystrokes.
Software features include international character scrolling, and auto-capitalization. The keys on the device keyboard are optimally shaped and configured for thumb-based input. In addition, the thumbwheel is inclined between the front and a side edge of the device so as to be reachable by either the thumb or index finger of the user’s hand at the side edge of the device.
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Sounds just like the Autotext feature that has been in BlackBerry forever?
Yup, Autotext, and the thumbwheel they’re just in the process of *replacing* with the trackball.
Sounds like a patent application from a while back that’s only just been granted. If not, I’d suspect it’s worthless, as RIM have themselves disclosed ‘prior art’?!?