[sushiglobster]

I have yet to see any proof or mentions in any reviews or videos about something that some of us (including me) thought the GN would have.

It was thought that the bottom bezel was touch sensitive to make the soft-buttons appear and reappear by swiping or touching that lower bezel area.

Unless anyone has seen otherwise, I don't think this feature actually exists on the phone.

It's not a deal breaker by any means, but would be a rather cool thing.

Anyone know otherwise?

[ManBearPig618]

......duh?

[sushiglobster]

Hey, thanks for stopping by and gracing this thread with your appearance.

[ceriem]

The buttons don't disappear as was originally thought. They just fade out a little (like they do on Honeycomb when watching a movie or youtube). you click the faded buttons to make them "reappear". This is to take emphasis off the buttons during media playback.

The only reason I liked the idea of a touch bezel tp begin with was for screen unlock (a la the Playbook), but I can do without as well.

[Officerpolabear]

I think Sub-Dawg, may have confused those dots that replace the onscreen buttons when watching a video or in the camera app, with LEDs that indicate that it's touch sensitive.

[pepperonijack]

The only person who mentioned a touch sensitive bezel was that guy who pretended to have had played with the phone a couple of days before the announcement.

He was a phony.

[rabaker07]

So do we know the actual viewing space for video? WIll it occupy the entire 4.65, or will that entire bar remain vacant, simply with dots instead of full icons?

[pepperonijack]

So do we know the actual viewing space for video? WIll it occupy the entire 4.65, or will that entire bar remain vacant, simply with dots instead of full icons?

judging from how Honeycomb works, the hands-on videos (the camera app is "full screen") and the fact that the developer site doesn't talk about how to make an application use the screen space occupied by the buttons, I'd say that the bar remains vacant.

[Auzo]

judging from how Honeycomb works, the hands-on videos (the camera app is "full screen") and the fact that the developer site doesn't talk about how to make an application use the screen space occupied by the buttons, I'd say that the bar remains vacant.

I don't know, For all honeycomb tablets that I can think of they sport a 1280 x 800 resolution screen. So when you account for the persistent buttons you go down to 1280 x 720 which is perfect for 16:9 aspect ratio HD movies. In the GN case your total resolution is 1280 x 720. With the persistent buttons you go down to 11something x 720. That means a 16:9 aspect ratio video won't fit natively.

I think they will have a way to use the entire screen for certain things like that.

[rubi76]

judging from how Honeycomb works, the hands-on videos (the camera app is "full screen") and the fact that the developer site doesn't talk about how to make an application use the screen space occupied by the buttons, I'd say that the bar remains vacant.

Wrong, I saw a video on the italian blog...when a movie / video is played it occupies the full screen...no 3 dots present.

3 dots are there only in camera application.

[boondoc]

what about the 3 seashells? anyone figure those out yet?

[Quasar]

During the announcement of the phone, they showed a picture with a green light on in the bezel. The light is not visible to the naked eye until there is a notification. That's when it lights up through the bezel, and it's located about the same place as the trackball on the Nexus One. It looks like it's an RGB LED so it can change colors.



If there is more than that down there, I would be very surprised. If you look at the picture at the link, the bezel isn't very big in relation to the size of the phone. It looks like enough room to place your thumb when holding the phone in landscape. I think it would mess with your apps if the bezel was touch sensitive too.

[tx_tuff]

The buttons go away when a video or games are being played from all the demos I have seen. As far as the LED light, that is below the three on screen buttons (and the 3 lights behind the buttons). Before long we will all get to find out for ourselevs.

[pepperonijack]

Wrong, I saw a video on the italian blog...when a movie / video is played it occupies the full screen...no 3 dots present.

3 dots are there only in camera application.

I stand corrected then.
Do you have a link to the video?

edit: nevermind, found it: 4th video.
I'd still be surprised if developers had the possibility to make full-screen apps, because then a badly coded app could trap the user (without the back and home buttons to quit). After watching a few more hands-on, Google Books and the Gallery also have the grey dots. So I'd guess that only the system video player can access the full screen mode, and other apps can dim (replace with dots) the buttons to look full-screen.

[hyperdude]

judging from how Honeycomb works, the hands-on videos (the camera app is "full screen") and the fact that the developer site doesn't talk about how to make an application use the screen space occupied by the buttons, I'd say that the bar remains vacant.

If you search for "Controls for System UI visibility" you'll see it includes the option for making the navigation bar go away completely. As soon as you touch the screen or do some other sort of input (volume adjustment/locking the phone?) it will come back, because "... this mode is useful primarily for video playback or other cases in which the whole screen is needed but user input is not required." So, games will most likely just use low-profile mode. Besides, when you're playing a game you need SOME way of going back to the homescreen (or switching apps or just hitting Back) and with on-screen buttons it would be hard to just have them disappear.