Re: Thoughts on the N800 form factor
 

They already exist (BT). I have one.

Re: future NIT form factor - Dpads?
 

The N800's a bit large and heavy for the stands on the keyboards I have (iGo and Palm); they're designed for phones and little PDAs.

I think I'd like one that actually snapped to the tablet (allowing easier free-hand walking use), though that does sacrifice generality (and so drive the price up).

Re: future NIT form factor - Dpads?
 

Hell you're fast ... Others twitch-game, Texrat twitch-posts :-)

I know that such keyboards exist, but apparently the integration with the Nxx0 isn't good enough for many people or they wouldn't insist on a hardware keyboard on the device itself.

The I-love-the-keyboard and the I-hate-the-keyboard enough to post about it crowd seem pretty fifty-fifty to me. Since keeping two devices with this exact distinction on the market simultaneously wasn't feasible I was just looking for a solution to make both camps happy.

Hmm, maybe something that clips on ...

Cheers,

C.

Oh, and I'm looking forward to HxDPA support, grasshopper or not :-P

Re: future NIT form factor - Dpads?
 

It isn't always about "good enough"-- some people just want that integrated keyboard, period. Some don't.

I found my BT keyboard to work well enough, but I'm one of those odd ducks who prefers the virtual keyboard. To each his or her own. ;)

Re: Thoughts on the N800 form factor
 

You have a BT keyboard that directly attaches to the NIT? and doubles as a stand?

Where?

(or do you just mean the way the iGo has that little pup-up stand? I thought he meant something more like a clip-on that actually attaches and makes the NIT more like a tiny laptop, or something)

Re: future NIT form factor - Dpads?
 

Yes to many of these points. :)

As far as for the hard keys, the problem with the hard keys really is that they restrict and dictate the design. If you have keys A and B on the side of the screen, designs try to take advantage of them. (It would feel silly not to use them!) If you have a d-pad on the side of the screen, designs try to use them. It has a big effect on the UI design, and it can easily be detrimental if designers are not careful and mindful.

Getting rid of HW keys is very hard. The larger the platform gets, the harder it would be to get rid of hard keys, since then there would be so many solutions and applications already that require the hard keys being there. In theory for a device that works on the touch screen, not requiring hard keys, these limitations do not exist.

I'm not at all a fan of mixing HW key and touch screen usage on a UI. HW keys are good if they have their pre-determined, always known roles. For instance the iPhone Home key, the user knows what it will do and it does it very nicely. If it would done "something" in every app of the device, it wouldn't work. Having small screens on keys is a poor substitute, it just makes people stuck on hard keys, i.e. the "non-direct" approach in the UI.

Re: future NIT form factor - Dpads?
 

This sentence says it all. Of course that designers should be humble enough and do not expect they know every use case. Fortunately we (users that don't fit designer's mind) have also other choices.
http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...148#post185148

Perhaps it is normal that big company producing stuff in volume cannot satisfy needs of non-average users. Maybe those 5 steps mean dumb it down in every step ;-) Some things are improving but other stuff goes downhill from 770 and N800 days (hardcover, dpad, zoom keys, stylus oriented UI, non-rotating camera, SD/MMC slots,..).

Re: future NIT form factor - Dpads?
 

but surely the idea of "open source" and the aim of having more independent developers come on board with apps would only be helped by the designers having a virtually limitless idea of "use cases"?

Texrat beat me to the pc "function keys" answer. But your response is a little fatuous - the single d-pad was obviously seen a s a good idea for the 770 and 800, and double ones are for gamer/multi-use devices of similar size. The regularity of iphone comparisons in some of the answers on this thread are a little worrying in some respects - the iphone in not a nit and the nit is not a phone.

this is perhaps the strangest comment of all. if we are truly waiting for a step 4 device to be reliant on technologies that are not yet available then surely that's equivalent to being told "we've lost this particular race to the iphone - we're waiting for the next race to start in a year or so".

Re: Thoughts on the N800 form factor
 

It's the Nokia BT keyboard, and has a little pop-up stand. Seemed to me that satisfied what was posted...

Re: future NIT form factor - Dpads?
 

Absolutely not. I bought a stowaway bt keyboard and the integration was surprisingly good. And the 810 version was just a different version for people with different preferences, or who for some reason, are'nt willing to try the separate keyboard.