Coping without an optical trackpad

[andyg1]

I was an early adopter of the HTC Desire and have been really impressed with it. But it's time for an upgrade.

Where the Desire has been frustrating is the internal memory, so my replacement will have to better in that department. However my concern is that the newer HTCs don't have the optical trackball. Strangely not many of my contemporaries use it, but I think they are missing out. I regularly use it in the following ways:

- moving the cursor round the textfields (I have fat fingers)
- moving between links on webpages without having to pinch zoom right into pages
- for hover intent on some webpages e.g. menus or popups or tooltips
- as a button (opening menus, taking photos, "enter"ing forms)

My question is how would I achieve the above without the optical trackpad? (Or are there any new HTCs that are worthy of an upgrade that have a trackpad)

Thanks in advance

 

[SUroot]

No idea in answer to your question, but I too use the trackball in such a way.

 

[Rastaman-FB]

+2

 

[womb raider]

LOL The only thing I use the trackball for is taking pictures! If there was an onscreen way of doing that I'd probably never use it again!

 

[andyg1]

LOL The only thing I use the trackball for is taking pictures! If there was an onscreen way of doing that I'd probably never use it again!

Press and hold the screen where you want to focus the image.

 

[Jon_LTD]

+3

I suffer from SFS (Sausage Finger Syndrome) - or are as my friend says I've got "Brickies hands" and find it rather useful when it's fiddly work placing the cursor between some letters.

 

[coos lick]

Wasn't too sure about it at first - but have found myself using it loads in the same way as above, and also to wake the screen.
Looks like the current fashion is to do away with hardware buttons altogether, so doubt we will see another one soon on anything other than niche devices.
These things come and go though - so give it a couple of generations (say 2 - 3 years?) and I bet somebody will release a mainstream flagship with some sort of hardware button.

 

[Abdur]

I honestly couldn't live without my trackpad.
The hardware buttons are also awesome because they give REAL feedback, and are more satisfying.

 

[Jon_LTD]

I honestly couldn't live without my trackpad.
The hardware buttons are also awesome because they give REAL feedback, and are more satisfying.

Except the Desire seems to have a common issue with them slowly failing. My "back" button needs a little persuasion these days. I've still got 9 months left.. I have a bad feeling that they'll get infuriating.

 

[Parsen66]

+4

Fat fingers here too. Trackpad great idea, new phone (when due) will have a lot to live up too.

 

[dccollie10]

I managed to outfox my Desire HD using friend when I was able to hover over my fantasy football teams overall points score to enable me to see a breakdown of how they scored th points.

To which his response was... "eiiii!"

 

[Hadron]

I don't have sausage fingers, but still find the trackpad easier for precise movements of the cursor when editing text.

Maybe the newer phones will have more precise touchscreens, in which case I might be OK. Or I'll have to start using large fonts (which to be fair I'll probably have to face up to at some point anyway).

 

[Keith Newman]

+3

I suffer from SFS (Sausage Finger Syndrome) - or are as my friend says I've got "Brickies hands" and find it rather useful when it's fiddly work placing the cursor between some letters.

+5

I use it for all the above, and can't imagine editing texts/emails without it - trying to get the cursor in exactly the right place!

 

[Griff_LI]

+6, no contract means I can replace the Desire any time I like but I haven't found anything that quite matches-up yet...

 

[GrenW]

It's one of the things that I miss on my new toy - the bigger screen is not that much help. I think any Android phone without one is missing a trick.

 

[Jon_LTD]

It's one of the things that I miss on my new toy - the bigger screen is not that much help. I think any Android phone without one is missing a trick.

What was your new toy? Was it a SGS2?

 

[SUroot]

The optical is not as accurate as the heros ball, but that comes with its own set of issues

 

[GrenW]

What was your new toy? Was it a SGS2?

Galaxy Nexus - wanted a bigger screen and ICS

 

[NorthernNoel]

I found it a little annoying at first but soon got used to using the marker they added in gingerbread. Don't miss it anymore.

 

[Jon_LTD]

Galaxy Nexus - wanted a bigger screen and ICS

How are you finding the lack of expandable memory? That severely put me off

 

[GrenW]

How are you finding the lack of expandable memory? That severely put me off

Not a big issue for me. 16gb was enough on my Desire and if I need more app space I can just delete a few tunes. Space can be expanded using USB sticks although that's more for temporary storage and transfer. I'm more pleased with the 'one huge partition' route that the Nexus has gone so you will never run out of space for apps. Would have loved an SD card slot (as well as the 16gb internal) but it wasn't a deal breaker for me.

 

[Tyseyh]

I like the sound of the nexus, just it (in my opinion) looks boring.

 

[SUroot]

 

[Jon_LTD]

It just seems to be too big for my liking. I hope I can adapt as the screens (clarity and resolution wise)! on these bad boys and delicious. I have smallish hands (can play octaves on a piano but I have to concentrate!) I just think I'd struggle.

 

[GrenW]

One handed my thumb struggles to reach some of the screen so 2 handed is best a lot of the time. Not sure the space and resolution is used to its full potential but that could be down to the apps more than anything.

Otherwise the size is not a problem.