03.55
Funday
With a whirlwind marketing campaign behind it, the RIM BlackBerry Storm 9530 for Verizon has been a highly anticipated smartphone. Why? This is the first touch screen BlackBerry. Gone is the hardware QWERTY keyboard synonymous with the 'Berry. Instead we have an on-screen keyboard-- actually two: 1) a standard QWERTY in landscape mode and 2) 20 key SureType in portrait mode. Who'd have thought even RIM would jump on the touch screen bandwagon gone rampant since the launch of the first iPhone? And RIM has done something different here: this isn't the resistive touch screen usually found on Windows Mobile devices, nor is it the "simple" capacitive display found on the iPhone and a few other phones. The Storm's huge touch screen display is capacitive but it's a screen made of floating layers, and the screen actually moves downward when you press it, giving a tactile click. Thus the whole screen moves just a hair, and clicks like a key on a standard BlackBerry. Funky. RIM calls this "SurePress". This changes the way, or rather ways we interact with touch screens. The light to moderate touch works with the capacitive layer (it reacts to the electrical resistance in your skin, so a stylus won't work). You'll use this to scroll a web page, document or palette of icons. To select a web link, menu item, icon or keyboard key, you must press down until the display moves and clicks. Very funky... but kinda cool. It's one of those things you're either going to love or hate.
The Storm has an accelerometer that rotates the display when you turn the phone on its side (either side). You'll get the full QWERTY on screen keyboard in landscape mode and a SureType keyboard in portrait mode. The accelerometer is quite sensitive and we found a steady hand was required to avoid accidental rotation.
