RIM patents tilt-and-slide, multitouch BlackBerrys
Despite the clear advantage of a physical keyboard in a business handheld, Apple's iPhone is obviously making just about everyone in smartphone land a tad uncomfortable -- even if they won't admit it -- which means we could be seeing some new BlackBerry form factors from RIM in the coming months to keep consumers interested. Of course, there's no telling if those new form factors will have a tilt-and-slide mechanism, or multitouch, but these here patents are certainly a start. The tilting mechanism aims at giving users the best of both worlds: a true keyboard and a big display, but the multitouch mechanism is interesting as well, and uses a different tech than the capacitive touch in the iPhone. Only time -- and hopefully Mobile World Congress next week -- will tell if these patents are going to be put to good use (hopefully as a team) in your next BlackBerry, but we're certainly intrigued.




















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mrjasjit @ Feb 8th 2008 10:21AM
Good gawd, DUH! This is too long in the making - yeah touch this touch that, great! But without a full Treo-like qwerty the device is pointless.
Now if we can have the best of both? F' yea!
Dave @ Feb 8th 2008 12:00PM
wow that looks to be in no way a ripoff of the TyTn II's sliding and tilting mechanism...if HTC didn't submit a patent for it in the us already they are even dumber than I thought/
slamEVIL @ Feb 8th 2008 1:38PM
oh yea! now us tilt owners get to jump on the iphone fanboy bandwagon...
they're copying us! they're not innovative! we don't believe in products evolving from others! Peter Chou is a genius and Jim Balsillie is just stealing from him! he even copies how he breaths!
Dave @ Feb 8th 2008 7:00PM
not really, I hate HTC, I just think that if they didnt patent the tilt mechanism for their phone they are retarded. Since you are all about fanboying it, "it would be like not patenting the multitouch on the iphone and then seeing another company patent it"
Constable Odo @ Feb 9th 2008 10:06PM
Touch screens are okay, but I really don't think RIM should change their design. They make very good physical keyboards and they should stick with it. I doubt if loyal BlackBerry fans would be happy with switching over to touch keyboards. Following some other manufacturers designs just for the sake of being fashionable is plain foolish. The BlackBerry is a businessman's handset and it should remain as such. If it remains bulkier, so what. As long as you can do work very efficiently on it, keep it that way.