More worries develop over touchscreen mobile phones

RUMOURS HAD EMERGED that the official advice to owners of the Prada phone by LG were officially advised not to use their nails to operate the phone. This is untrue. But the worries still continue.

Our source maintained that inside the Prada's owners' handbook there was an expressed warning against the use of fingernails to operate this touchscreen phone.

An LG spokeswoman kindly trawled the whole way through the manual for us and no specific mention of fingernails was found. So the tip-off was incorrect.

However, the manual does say, "Do not tap the screen with a sharp object otherwise it may damage the phone." Plus it also advises, "Use the tip of your finger to press exactly on the key you want."

So using your nails to tap out a telephone number isn't exactly a recommended procedure. With the Apple Iphone due to be released on June 29th, there have been dire predictions as to how long the screen will last.

Especially given the scratchy screens which plagued the first Ipods and John Dvorak's recent prediction that the Iphone keyboard will be a lemon.

Naturally it would worry the INQ that a nasty screen scratch could render a mobile phone unusable. Highly Inconvenient.

Fortunately there is a precedent. The Psion Revo PDA had a touchscreen and it didn't stop working with wear. Indeed a former INQ hackette was so adept at tapping the screen with her fingers that those forced to use the built-in stylus became envious.

Are touchscreen worries simply a sign of technological Luddism? Who remembers when all cars had a crank handle in case the electric start failed. And motorbikes sported kickstarts for exactly the same reason?

Maybe touchscreens will become so reliable that keypads go the same way.

The real test is how the public will react. If the Iphone's screen starts to scratch badly, then the biggest loser will be AT&T which could be faced with a disasterous rate of handset returns. Handsets aren't as easy to replace as Ipods. µ

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Apple's Iphone keyboard could well be a lemon