http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/08/c...ws-origami-ui/

I quite like this one - it looks nice and leverages your QWERTY spatial memory.

It might take up a bit much screen-space on the 770, however, if the keys were to be big enought for thumb presses.

Any thoughts?

Jonathan

Isn't the 770's screen "palm-resistant", meaning that only something like fingernails will register?

In any case, if the Origami's screen isn't, it will be, at least at those screen sizes, a royal pain in the butt. I have recently acquired a Siemens SimPad, which also isn't palm-resistant (meaning that fingertips, palms and just about anything that touches the screen will register as input), and it is a lot more hassle to do handwriting on it than, say on my Fujitsu Stylistic. For one thing, I have to constantly be aware that my palm doesn't touch the screen, or I get a mighty case of the "jaggies" (that's Newton jargon for erratic pen input).

Is it just me or did anyone else's thumbs ache at the prospect of trying to balance that thing in your hands while extending your thumb to read the 't' key. I just used 't' 11 times in that previous sentence alone. Stupid method.

I'd rather like something like what's on the 770 but 25% opacity so that you can still see what's underneath it. Making it a transparent overlay would be great and there wouldn't be a need to resize half the screen everytime the KB pops up.

Opacity is a cool idea but how do you deal with wanting to enter text in a field that is under the semi-transparent keyboard?
David

That's correct. There has to be a certain amount of 'sharpness' in whatever touches the screen before it is recognized as intentional. This is a software selectable setting. On other devices, like the Hitachi VisionPlate, the setting is more sensitive so it actually behaves more like a touchscreen. You can't really use the 770 like a touchscreen as it's shipped. You have to use the stylus.

This is all due to a pattern of decisions made by someone about the display, 4.1" or 10.4 cm, its size in comparison to a finger and the design of the Maemo GUI itself. The result is that the 770 is designed to be used pretty much the way that a desktop is used.

Anyone using the 770 as a book will not be able, as a result, to turn a page with a light touch of the finger to the screen. They won't be able to make their fingers dance across the screen to manipulate a GUI that is designed for touchscreen use by a 'finger'. They'll have to, instead, search for a poke of a sharp fingernail or use the stylus.

Fixing this will require 770 apps that require this kind of interaction, where fingers can operate the 770's display in a 'dance', as many touchscreen apps allow, to contain a software fix to specifically allow finger dancing by increasing the sensitivity of the touchscreen sensor. I assume, and hope, this is an adjustable setting.

djs_tx: Simple, you can see the field under the keyboard. Not optimal I know, but it beats having 50% of the screen real estate disappear.