Nokia Patent Reveals Coolness, Brilliance
Filed under: Gadgets, Tech — Malcolm Owen @ 1:24 pm
The one thing I have found with keyboards on mobile phones is that my gargantuan hands just won’t fit properly. I have fat fingers and large hands, which means despite navigating a computer keyboard very well, the same can’t be said about the small and cramped cellphone keypad. Add in the fact that I’m one of those people that just can’t stand to send a text message without proper spelling, punctuation and grammar, and text messaging becomes a personal hell. If only there was some way to get a bigger and full keyboard into a mobile phone…
Now, although there is the Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard that projects onto a surface a full Qwerty keyboard, it doesn’t help you when you’re in the middle of the street with no flat surface to place the device on in order to use it. Although that is an answer, it’s not really what I’m looking for.
Nokia, in their latest Patent filing, shows off a new way to get a keyboard onto a phone, by using what appears at first to be a sideways-folding clamshell style handset. That in itself would be nice, but they’ve gone one better. Thanks to some magical hinge work, they’ve worked out how to get the screen to be at an angle, making it a bit easier to see what you’re typing. The extensive space available means a full keyboard could be placed, albeit not a full-sized one.
It is a step in the right direction, and if this really does make it into handsets, I’d be more than happy to try it out.
[Via Electronista]