How does the bold 9700 trackpad work?

Written by SyncMaster on December 18, 2009 – 3:13 pm -

Like many users, i’ve found the blackberry bold 9700’s new trackpad to be a blessing and a curse.
Out of the box it seems hyper sensitive, fast and oddly accurate, and yet if you’ve been a baller or a jogger (track wheel or track ball) fan over the years, the quick witted accuracy of the new trackpad is still something to get used to…

Regardless… RIM has gone out of their way to showcase exactly what it is and how it works, and it’s quite interesting and allows for a deeper appreciation of the new navigation tool and how it works.

Much like any improvement to an existing design, many early adopters will find it strange, but the accuracy and design is something to truly brag about when it comes to being a blackberry owner.

Apparently, this is actually an optical camera taking black and white photos of your finger every few seconds. The advantages over a laptop’s touchpad is that it nolonger requires the heat or actual finger, but could even work in a pinch with a ball point pen, which I imagine opens up all kinds of good things for the handicapped and other folks who cannot use their thumb for whatever reason.

The Official Blackberry blog can tell you more and is quite a good read…

Tags: bold 9700, camera, design, eye, feature, navigation, optical, red, touchpad, tracking, trackpad, working, works
Posted in Technical Tips, Tips & Tricks | No Comments »

Bold 9700 – IS your trackpad low?

Written by admin on December 4, 2009 – 10:46 am -

“Is… your… trackpad low does it wobble to and fro? Can you tie it in a knot? Can you tie it in a bow…”

Sorry, that was pretty funny… But in all serious news, the Bold 9700’s trackpad has been a strange new twist in the Blackberry Bold’s design. Anyone who’s used a Bold 9700 for greater than a week as their full time device has probably found it to be strange and yet comfortable.

I’ve had mine probably a bit more than 2 weeks now and It’s growing on me, but there’s times when it’s really annoying — But oddly enough I can’t go back to the trackball either.

A number of people have complained the trackpad leans, or wobbles and I think someone who goes by the name BaRTiMuS on Crackberry Blogs has commented with graphics about the situation. He actually took his unit apart and got pictures.

In his post, he showed the community that the trackpad itself is resting on a pedestal or a post of some kind and basically attached only by a ribbon cable to the device’s main-board. This entirely clears up the myth that this is a design issue or something that may need repair.

In this picture to the right, you can see the trackpad sitting on it’s pedistal where it’s free to roam, slip and slide only held back by it’s ribbon cable.

I waited a bit to post these pictures because I wanted to make sure I had permission from the author, Bart (thanks bud!) who did get back to me when I asked if I could use these pictures in a post to describe the situation.

Mine doesn’t lean like some people’s does, and mine doesn’t wobble too bad, but it does feel cheap and like it shouldn’t have so much give and wiggle as it does which forced me to study this so hard and dig thru the forums until I stumbled upon BaRTiMuS’s smashing conclusion. His post stopped a 9 page thread of people trying to figure this one out.

Sitting on a Pedestal…

Daniel J Deyette

P.S. COMMENT!!! That’s what it’s for, let us know what you think!
I personally hope RIM recalls and offers to repair free. It’s not that it’s broken, I get that! But it’s because it’s a flawed design… You can look at the early releases, this thing came out of the design shop with a ball and last minute switched to a trackpad. Other trackpad devices have this thing nestled in it’s own box and not up on a plastic post.

Tags: broken, design, fix, lean, leans, repair, slant, slanted, slide, trackpad, vibration, wiggle, wobble, wonky
Posted in Blackberry Bold 9700, Technical Tips | No Comments »