Advertisement

Checking out MyOrigo's tilt-controlled smartphone

MyOrigo

Rob Enderle checks out MyOrigo's smartphone prototype which you can control by tilting in different directions, and says that this feature could make the Treo 600 (and other smartphones) obsolete:

The MyOrigo phone prototype is smaller than the Treo and larger than the x200. Accelerometers are used heavily in the design, and this allows the screen to change orientation simply by turning the phone. It also allows the creation of a virtual mouse, which also works by tilting the phone. The cursor, or scene, moves by simply tilting the device much as you would if you were balancing a ball on the device. This is the first solution to the "mouse" problem that would allow you to one-hand the device that I've seen. The prototype includes a special touch screen and a virtual keyboard. The touch screen is much more robust than others we have seen, and a device in the phone provides tactile feedback when you push a virtual key. This feedback created the first virtual keyboard that I enjoyed using, and it makes a huge difference in the user's experience, and likely in the user's acceptance, of the new platform.

We suspect he's getting a bit ahead of himself by pronouncing the obsolescence of the Treo 600 (the non-virtual keyboard has a lot going for it), but he does have a point — if we're ever going to use smartphones to spend lots of time online or get substantial amounts of work done then they have to get a lot better than what we have now.