Nokia goes happily haptic

NOKIA HAS COME UP with a way of improving on the Iphone - by including a feedback sensor on the touchscreen of its upcoming S60 phone.

Many have complained that the major problem with Apple's phone is that there's no feedback from the keyboard, making it hard to type - and ensuring that Blackberry converts are left wanting more.

However, at a recent press event Nokia unveiled its Haptikos technology, named after the study of touching behaviour, haptics. A small piezo sensor has been inserted under the touchscreen and the screen itself made slightly more flexible, allowing both for a button 'pressing' and a 'click' response.

Will this be the key feature for onscreen keyboards? We suspect not. Most of those afflicted with Crackberry thumb know that the key feedback isn't the issue - it's the key presence. Being able to 'feel' for a key is far more important than the feedback from pressing it - hence the bumps on your keyboard's F and J keys. Until Nokia can address this issue, we suspect the on-screen keyboard will remain the domain of casual users and fashion victims. µ