So, I am reading this article titled “Touch-screen tech coming to cellphones” by United Press International correspondent Georgina Voss and all of a sudden I this sentence stood out…
“Touch screens have already been integrated into the majority of wireless PDAs, including the ever-popular BlackBerry, and users typically use a stylus to enter data onto the screens.”
My first thought was that someone leaked specs in a new BlackBerry with a touch screen and I missed it. I couldn’t even finish the article. I immediately started searching the Web for “Touch Screen BlackBerry” and I all I could find was this old fake Photoshop picture of a BlackBerry with no keyboard from a few months ago.
I decided to go back and finish reading the article and I came across this sentence towards the end…
“Industry watchers cited one of the major barriers to adoption of BlackBerrys in China was the QWERTY keyboard used — Chinese users were much more comfortable using a touch screen and stylus to input Chinese characters.”
Which is it? Does the BlackBerry have a touch screen or not? I think that that first sentence should have read…
“Touch screens have already been integrated into the majority of wireless PDAs, including except the ever-popular BlackBerry, and users typically use a stylus to enter data onto the screens.“
I agree that the article is in some respects written in a sloppy fashion.
Unfortunately, this is more the norm with the press. I know I grew up thinking that the writings of those in the major media were almost infallible…only to realize over time that this was not so.
Many writing in the media have no particular expertise on what they write…they are simply journalism majors with a very shallow understanding of what they are covering. Consider the reporting on science…it is abysmal. Media writers exhibit no understanding whatsover of that subject matter.
We really don’t know what qualified this writer to be their “technology correspondent”…maybe they happened to be the one who knew a little bit more about using Word in the office. You never know.
So it’s not surprising that the media would get this report confused. That is one reason why blogs like this one give out more accurate information…they are written by people who actually have an interest and experience in what they are writing about. Bloggers care about the details; too often, those in the traditional media do not.
as a matter of fact, qwert keyboard is convinient for Chinese as well, at least for me. I prefer entering Chinese charactor through PinYin by typing on keyboard, but not “drawing” on a touch screen. It is faster and easier. And there is another disadvantage when the touch screen is used to often: it will make abrasion on the screen.
the only problem, i think, of the phone with qwert keybroad is that the size of the cell phone is too big. Many people prefer to a smaller cell phone that fits asian’s palm size.
this is one ugly BB
A Blackberry without a Qwerty keyboard is not a Blackberry.