I do think Nokia is missing out on a huge accessory market. I would probably spend more time on the idea, but the 770 is such a small market due to Nokia's incompetence on marketing and finding a market for this device.

There are bluetooth thumb boards out there, but they're either too small at 3.5" long, or too long at 9-10" long. Something that could slide onto the 770 and either flip out like the Cingular 8125/T-Mobile MDA, or something I could carry with, and just slide onto the bottom of the 770 would be perfect for on the go stuff. Using the on screen keyboard, whether pen or thumb, just sucks after a while. This device, especially with OS 2006, is capable of so much more.

Wake up, Nokia.

I've changed my mind: I'm not sure the market's *that* small, TBH - I just don't think the majority of users/hackers are concentrating on the device. The 770 was recently compared with Sony's Mylo, and the related /. article seemed to have lots of people commenting on their 770.

Of course, thoughtfix was included, so perhaps it was just all of us decamping to /. temporarily :-)

I saw his comment, though considering the chilly reception /. readers gave it in the first place, I'm surprised about the turnaround.

In the Slashdot world, Nokia > Sony it appears.

Ever since that rootkit issue, Sony's standings in the geek crowd plummeted.

I'd tried Starwars Galaxies (a friend roped me into it)... I bought a 3 month chunk of time, scanned the EULA and saw the typical "We'll change the game, if you cry tough crap" disclaimers, etc. If you don't login for 30 days the account goes inactive... So, bored with that POS game, I let my account expire. And got a bill for another 3 month chunk of time. Burried on their website was a clause stating that unless you specifically cancel, you are rebilled whether the account is inactive or not. They may have gotten US$55 out of me, but they've lost hundreds in other stuff where I've deliberately gone with a different brand... even if it had lower specs. I still have a few square inches of my butt reserved if they'd like to kiss it. But I'll never get anything made by Sony again.

ANYWAY. THUMBBOARD.

Typical keyboards work via what's called a scanning matrix, the output from which is fed to an encoder which translates the signal into something the computer will understand.

The matrix is laid out kinda like the game battleship:

. 1 2 3
1 A G R
2 L M N
3 E C Z


Basically if the key(switch) 1,3 is closed, an R will result. If 3,2 is closed, a C will result. Reading up on MAME cabinets people have made leads to some problems, blocking & ghosting. These only occur if multiple keys are pressed at once (excluding ALT, SHIFT, CTRL modifiers) which I don't think will be an issue.

Pin 25 on the PCB is ground and everything must lead to it. The other 24 pins represent "co-ordinate" locations of the matrix. Now, assuming I could gut a USB keyboard with a PCB small enough to fit into the proposed thumbboard case, there would be a TONNE of soldering wires from the PCB to the buttons. I think it'd be messy inside but it would fit. Popping a battery in there too would be really hard (I think toughtfix's plans call for a 9 volt). I don't think the slide-in-case design is going to work real-estate-wise. I think making the case the same shape as the 770 but a little wider (so the 770 slides into it and not the other way around) is the way to go.

Basically, looks possible.