It seems as if the resistive surface of the N900 screen actually spills over the screen. This could be a false assumption, but the browser seems to use an 'off-screen gesture' to bring up the mouse pointer.

The question is: does the touch-surface actually start and stop outside of the screen dimensions?

If so, there are so many uses for this, from zooming, to scrolling, to hidden menus. The palm pre uses something similar to select applications.


}:^)~

The mouse pointer is triggered by a left-to-right swipe on the edge of the screen (i.e., it's not an offscreen mechanism). But, there are mechanisms that relate to what you're talking about (e.g., distance from device and pressure sensitivity -- off the top of my head).

Tim