Being a fan of mobile technology I love news like this. Our friends over at SMS Text News have found that there is a new patent filed by Blackberry to make potentially the best phone ever! Granted this is totally my opinion but I think many will agree. I’ve been a fan of Blackberry for a while now as I currently use the 8830, however, I’ve also had an iPhone and a Samsung Blackjack and a Palm Treo. By far I’ve found Blackberry’s and their OS to be the most reliable and user friendly in addition to the handset design itself. Well, if this patent leads to actual development Blackberry could have a pretty amazing device.

Now this is clearly just a sketch but you can read it all in the patent here stating that Blackberry plans on developing a new handset which has a hideable sliding keyboard with a wider display. Additionally, the handset will adjust from portrait to landscape mode depending on how the user is holding it. It seems to still include its trackball (which I love).

As mentioned in the patent:

In one orientation, the keyboard is exposed to the user. This orientation is named the landscape orientation because the device will be positioned such that its width is larger than its height. The user would opt for the landscape orientation for tasks that require the keyboard, such as inputting data, drafting emails, sending emails, and other functions typically associated with a standard computer. The other orientation is named the portrait orientation because the device will be positioned such that its height is larger than its width. In addition, the keyboard is not used in this orientation and therefore hidden away. The user would opt for the portrait orientation for tasks such as making and receiving telephone calls and for reading documents and emails. The device detects the orientation positioned by the user and modifies the elements shown on the display screen so that they are presented in the correct orientation to the user.

I think this sounds extremely interesting and with the wider screen and self detecting orientations, I can see this device being quickly adopted by other smartphone users as well as a good enough reason for us existing users to upgrade. As long as Blackberry can make sexy devices and continue to build on there already amazing OS I think they will remain one of the most popular smartphone manufacturers.

What do you think of this patent? Would you upgrade or buy this device if it were eventually produced?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 7:00 am and is filed under Mobile, News, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.