Sunday, December 06, 2009

Trackpad vs. Trackball (BlackBerry)


This is a popular debate among seasoned BlackBerry users: Trackpad vs. Trackball.

If you're new to BlackBerry, then you may not be familiar with the issues that are often discussed. Many users evolved from the thumb-operated scroll wheel that used to be on the side. Then, we saw the trackball appear so that you could effectively scroll in 2 different dimensions (up/down and left/right) plus diagonal if you're using an on-screen mouse. Now, the trackpad allows you the same type of functionality without any moving parts (so you don't need to worry about dust, the ball getting stuck, etc.).

At the end of the day, I think this is going to become a dead topic because we'll all be using touch-screen devices and we won't have any trackballs or trackpads. Everything will rely on capacitive touch screens that allow multi-touch gestures so that you can effectively navigate and operate your smartphone using a few fingers on one hand. The BlackBerry Storm and Storm 2 currently offer some limited multi-touch capabilities, but I'm confident that all future models will feature more multi-touch gestures and functionality.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12:48 AM

    If you've ever had problems with sticky unscrollable blackberry trackball, i would like to recommend you to http://www.unique-stuff.co.cc/fixing_sticky_blackberry_trackball.html

    They have the rotating straw techniques, i tried it and my blackberry trackball is working again now.

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