An Inside Look at the New Trackpad

One of the best things RIM did this year was replace the trackball for good.  Sure it changed the BlackBerry for the better but it was time for change.  Things really started to heat up when the BlackBerry Tour released and the infamous trackball-issues/?wpmp_switcher=mobile">trackball problems were discovered.  This was widely publicized and coincidentally the Tour was the last BlackBerry to come with a trackball.  In steps the new trackpad with its high expectations but how exactly does it work?

This is exactly what the team at Inside BlackBerry investigated and it turns out the trackpad is more ‘optical’ than we thought.  See the trackpad operates much like an optical mouse in that it uses a low-res infrared camera to track movement.  This means you could use almost anything to get it to navigate not just your thumb.  It also means no more dirty trackball’s that stick and cause countless hours of pain.  Yes the trackball won’t really be missed but it’s going to take some time to get used to not seeing it on a BlackBerry.  Check out was else the BlackBerry team found out on their blog.