Guest l3v5y Posted August 14, 2009 Report Posted August 14, 2009 Two HTC patents have recently surfaced, one which is far more likely to be relevant in the short term... The first concerns a magnetic stylus designed for capacitive screens, using induced currents and magic. People want finger friendly stuff, for which capacitive is good (although I prefer resistive), but for anything not designed for finger-friendly use, using fingers is a nightmare (hence the stylus silo on most devices), so why not get a stylus to work with a capacitive screen? However, in order to cater to the user’s operation mode of using a finger, icons displayed on a screen must be configured in an appropriate size to prevent the user from miss touching the icons. Furthermore, a part of the screen is often shielded by finger of the user when the capacitive touch panel is used. Moreover, a conventional stylus has a small head, so that a user can click small icons conveniently, but the conventional stylus is only applicable to resistive touch panels, but not applicable to capacitive touch panels. Full patent here. Seeing as the HTC Leo is rumoured to have a capacitive screen, we may well see this very soon. The second patent covers a screen designed to avoid others reading sensitive information, by constantly updating the viewing angle depending on where your head is, and the angle of the device. It may also allow for adjusting of the content (eg rotating pictures, zooming in to text etc) depending on how far away your face is, or what angle you're holding the device at. This seems a little bit more of a long term idea, and having multiple cameras running and an accelerometer polling relatively fast would be a bit of a drag on battery life... Patents are here and here. [Via: WMPoweruser]
Guest argh Posted August 14, 2009 Report Posted August 14, 2009 Nice. I use my device for handwritten note taking and quick diagram sketches quite often and was worried that this would become very difficult with capacitive screens.
Guest arirang Posted August 14, 2009 Report Posted August 14, 2009 this is not innovation, this is another proprietary lock-in, and a step backwards in universal standards [mini-USB, 3.5mm jack, WIFI-enabled, etc]. i wonder what the replacement cost will be for this 'proprietary' stylus? if this is the trend for capacitive, then i'll stick with resistive and use anything with a nub [ie--fingernail, toothpick, key].
Guest l3v5y Posted August 15, 2009 Report Posted August 15, 2009 this is not innovation, this is another proprietary lock-in, and a step backwards in universal standards [mini-USB, 3.5mm jack, WIFI-enabled, etc]. i wonder what the replacement cost will be for this 'proprietary' stylus? if this is the trend for capacitive, then i'll stick with resistive and use anything with a nub [ie--fingernail, toothpick, key]. The difference between this and other capacitive styli is that this appears to just use a magnet, rather than a mass of complicated stuff that costs a bomb. I personally prefer resistive as I don't like the screen responding when I'm just running my finger over it without pressing...
Guest argh Posted August 16, 2009 Report Posted August 16, 2009 this is not innovation, this is another proprietary lock-in, and a step backwards in universal standards [mini-USB, 3.5mm jack, WIFI-enabled, etc]. i wonder what the replacement cost will be for this 'proprietary' stylus? if this is the trend for capacitive, then i'll stick with resistive and use anything with a nub [ie--fingernail, toothpick, key]. I think that micro-USB is the official standard for charging/connectivity in new phones. Also, I wouldn't fancy using a key on most HTC displays! I've already got scratches from one time when I accidentally put my Touch HD in the same pocket as my keys for a couple of minutes.
Guest l3v5y Posted August 17, 2009 Report Posted August 17, 2009 I think that micro-USB is the official standard for charging/connectivity in new phones. Also, I wouldn't fancy using a key on most HTC displays! I've already got scratches from one time when I accidentally put my Touch HD in the same pocket as my keys for a couple of minutes. Micro USB is the standard now (I'm not sure if HTC have noticed yet), though I don't want to replace all my nice extUSB stuff! :angry: And microUSB looks fugly in my mind! Screen protectors are your friends :D (though the back of my Diamond is scratched pretty badly from one key/pocket incident)
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