Will future Clies have a 5-way navigator?

[GoldenTiger]

What about 64mb of RAM or a 400mhz chip?? Palm inc has these already... Sony's falling behind :(!

[pstoppani]

No on the 5 way navigator like on Palms because Sony prefers the jog-dial. However, on their P800 phone, the jog dial is 5 way :)

[GoldenTiger]

I would think the opposite, personally: if the phones have it, the next Clie should too in addition to the Jog Dial. It's a major feature for games and for navigating around, and without it some may skip the Clie for a Tungsten C/other.

[n2ifp]

I'd like to have both Jog Dial and 5 way, that would be awesome. I know it's technically feasible too!

[GoldenTiger]

That's what I want too :).

[hansschmucker]

Anybody knows if Palm could get a patent on it? That might just be the most important question, since Palm would probably ask for the right to use Jog in return, which Sony probably won't let them use.

[cbulock]

I can't really see how Sony or Palm could get patents on Jog Dials and 5 Way Navigators. For one thing, they aren't the first to use them. Plus, I think that the 5 Way Navigator function is part of OS5, so any OS5 device could use that function.

[pstoppani]

Originally posted by GoldenTiger
I would think the opposite, personally: if the phones have it, the next Clie should too in addition to the Jog Dial. It's a major feature for games and for navigating around, and without it some may skip the Clie for a Tungsten C/other.

Some thoughts:

1) Phones have 5 way D-Pads because they don't have a stylus
2) The P800 is a phone and has a jog dial and stylus (just like the CLIEs)
3) The TT 5 way D-Pad is not great for games and neither are any of the other PDA 5 way D-Pads that I've tried. Games are simply not a primary use case for PDAs; buy a Gameboy Advance if you want to play games :)
4) In the past, Sony has provided an external Gamepad attachment for CLIEs, it works very well; now they just need one that works with the NZ

[Roni]

Originally posted by cbulock
I can't really see how Sony or Palm could get patents on Jog Dials and 5 Way Navigators. For one thing, they aren't the first to use them. Plus, I think that the 5 Way Navigator function is part of OS5, so any OS5 device could use that function.

Atleast last i checked the Jog Dial is patented, you can patent features in use before too, but it then won't stop parties that used it before from using it... for example windows could support some technology's drivers, but still not own license to build the technology itself....

[hansschmucker]

Gamepad - it would be relatively simple for sony to change the driver to simulate a 5-way. Probably a matter of seconds, since they didn't do it I guess there are legal issues.

I don't really get the legal stuff, I have to admit. But the 5way is certainly not part of OS5, but is copyrighted by Palm Inc., which is the hardware manufacturer.

Maybe Palm Inc. has somehow copyrighted the access code? I know it's available to about everybody, but maybe there are some licesne terms to it.

[Unregistered]

you need the japanese driver to enable the flash read/write, then you can use the 5 way. use babblefish to decompress first.