Yet another item from the fanciful land of patent filings: the “Hybrid Portrait-Landscape Handheld Device With Trackball Navigation and Qwerty Hideaway Keyboard”. It might be thought that the whole hideaway keypad and orientation detection thing has been done, but obviously not with a trackball, otherwise this filing wouldn’t have gone through. Considering another patent of this variety has been released recently, it’s easy to get enthusiastic about the idea of a BlackBerry with significant form factor changes. For the bookish, you can check out the whole patent filing here.
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I’d buy one of these with cash if RIM was to release this design. Screw that cheezy-looking 9000-series phone.
I wouldn’t. The more moving parts, the more likely it will break. I guess I’m odd though as I like the current keyboard on my 8830. and I got Big fingers!
I would buy one probably …. But only if it had a touch screen with it …. If not then ill keep my 8820
i have normal fingers and I hate the keypad on my 8830…
that doesn’t look like it would last long. the slider may cause problems and the buttons might get damaged from the sliding. it is very reminiscent of the HTC Tilt to me for some reason. i think RIM should just stick to their classic 8700 design that they have improved upon (i.e Curve). It. just. works.
It’s funny. HTC and Qtek are selling such sliders 3 or 4 years already. And here is RIM with it’s brand new patent
Well I commented on the flip idea a couple of weeks ago, but this is more what I had in mind. I would buy this tomorrow if it had this design and all of the other features of my 8130.
It’s wierd how even tech fanatics can be closet Luddites. Why is it that people who have an old technology form factor (e.g., 8800 series with a questionable keyboard) will argue for keeping it in the face of a more convenient one (e.g., slider with portrait/landscape flip, better keyboard, etc.)? Why not embrace change, especially since it is more sensible and the form factor already has a growing number of adherents among users of other brands?
That phone, why not the only thing I think should be inprooved upon on the fone is full html browser support, better camera, video and music player.
Wow This looks sweet when are they Really coming out to the public????