capacitive buttons on honeycomb tablets

[zero3187]

I noticed that on one of the demos the capacitive buttons were built into the OS instead of the device itself. So that when you turned the device the buttons were always at the bottom. I think that's a really cool feature.

I think this is a cool feature that could be used in phones as well as tablets. What does everyone think?

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

I think it's a really cool feature for tablets, but I don't know how much I'd like it on phones. I think it would take up too much screen real estate on a 4.3" (or smaller) screen for my liking. I'd much prefer just keep the capacitive touch buttons for phones.

 

[zero3187]

I think I agree. It's great for tablets but might not work so great on a phone. I like the idea that you can make the tablet smaller and be able to hold the device at any angle and have it work great.

 

[E_man]

Tablets, heck yes. Phones...depends. It definitely won't work on anything sub WVGA. You'll probably want at minimum 3.7", preferably 4", for that to work. At least, that's my personal guess.

 

[Nitros7]

I think it wouldn't work well on small tablet like the galaxy tab... its too close to the phone form factor and when I hold my phone I like that the function buttons are right at my thumbs.

the nice thing is Google's split API for phone and tablet with honeycomb. that way your phone works differently then your tablet but they both run the same OS