RIM developing angled Blackberry keyboard?

If you've been astounding friends and family with your thousands-of-words-per-minute typing skills on your Blackberry, RIM's latest patent may come as a bit of a heart-stopper. According to "recent" filings from the smartphone manufacturer, a new style of keyboard is on the table which may move your familiar key placement into a slightly more angular position. The purpose of the proposed pad is ostensibly to improve accuracy by creating a more "natural" placement for your thumbs -- though this concept might be a little more effort than required. Of course, since all kinds of crazy designs get filed with the patent office, we wouldn't put too much faith in this seeing the light of day, though it is an intriguing look into RIM's design process.

[Via Mobilewhack]

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 25th 2007 10:26PM]

It looks cool, and functional. I don't know why people are so afraid of change? It could be tons better than the old layout for all we know.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 26th 2007 12:56AM]

yeah, it's all about the user experience. It's like the iPod touch-wheel, I read somewhere it's one of the worst things you can do to your thumb, yet it's oh-so good in terms of user experience... it's just a matter of giving it a try.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 25th 2007 10:33PM]

BB 9000 anyone? Let's hope it launches on Verizon and has a camera. The one thing I can't stand about my 8830 is its lack of camera.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 26th 2007 9:38AM]

It likely has to do with demand from the legal sector. Lawyers more specifically. Cameras are not normally allowed in courtrooms and other such government buildings.

Now, why they don't offer both a phone with a camera and one without, I don't know.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 26th 2007 12:53PM]

The recent Blackberrys have cameras like the pearl and curve. I don't see why not, the cameras on all those devices have an audiable click sound that you can not turn off.