[kirk0625]

Hi everyone. I'm a new user who will soon have a WebOS device and I just wanted to ask, does anyone miss having a directional pad on their phone? Is there a patch you could make, like "hold down the orange button for 10 seconds and five buttons in the center become the d-pad"?

[sjsamphex]

I have actually completely forgotten my need for the d-pad. The WebOS is perfect for touch-only

[silverthornne]

I miss it. It's just a pain to go to the character you need to fix if you made a spelling mistake while typing. Yes, it is possible to do some fine tuning by holding down the orange key and tapping on the screen, but it's simply not as accurate as a directional pad (or some arrow keys).

[shadavis08]

why dont you hold down the orange key and just place finger anywhere on the screen and move left ,right ,up down. as long as you see the four arrow symbol you can do this easily . takes a little practice to get good with it though.

[silverthornne]

I just posted that I know about the orange key. It's just that it sucks; it's not as accurate as a directional pad (getting it to work to hit the very first character at the left edge is very difficult for one thing), and it only seems to work on webOS applications and not on the browser. So, if I were posting a reply in this forum, when I hold down the orange key I don't get the arrows.

[MaxLOL]

I don't miss it at all. I find touch screens to be much more intuitive personally.

[Grabber5.0]

I miss mine for the same reason, but I'm learning to live without it. Would love to have an option to use some of they keys for cursor keys.

[philbw]

Depends on the app. Forms with lots of data entry sure were easier with the focus ring and 5-way.

[Biggnaa20]

I miss it.

Even though i can get pretty accurate with the screen, I miss the d pad nearly every day...Especially when it is cold outside when i can't use the screen with my gloves.

nb

[RafRol]

I've gotten accustomed to being without the D-pad.

[phillysdon04]

When it is cold outside and you have on gloves, there is no way to operate the phone since it wont recognize your touch without a D-pad. To solve this problem, the phone should have had voice command with a button on the side to activate it and/or a trackball to help navigate through the phone without having to touch the screen.

[sivan]

A D-pad is important for single handed use. The Pre is not very good at that and some of the core navigation schemes like moving a cursor officially require two hands. It's another thing Palm threw away along with Palm OS. Palm also doesn't take advantage of keyboard shortcuts, which is the other big reason for having full keyboards aside from typing.

One thing Android devices do right is including a trackball along with the touch screen. A potential solution might be additional gestures in the gestures area.

[PreJamison]

A potential solution might be additional gestures in the gestures area.

I agree totally. I actually posted the same thing once when discussing what I want to see in a future phone.

I think I will put in a Patch Request.

[redninja]

Sometimes I miss it, but palm did do a good job of keeping the pre very functional without it, so I dont miss enough to worry about it. Of course the button could've been a mouse, that would of been nice.

[ryleyinstl]

Orange button plus finger method is a complete d-pad replacement for me.

[kirk0625]

As someone who currently has an HTC Touch (Sprint vers) and basically goes 1-handed all the way, I'm kind of reluctant to give the 5-way up. Also any Pixi owners with an opinion on this? I would love to see more gestures and originally thought the little pearl on the Pre WAS a trackball. I wonder if Palm will change this in future devices.

[toyotast165]

doing alot of text entry, god how I miss it. I could work so much faster with a form of a dpad! Definitely put me down for that patch, app, tweak whatever! Lol

I type around 30 wpm on my pc, and 55 on my palm, go figure lol

[Joescan09]

I thought I would miss it more but the truth is i'm fine without it.

[Cackhanded]

I forget I ever had it til I look at my wife's centro

[ananimus]

It isn't just webOS either. A lot of platforms are going that direction. Any one-handed option would be great. Sad face.