Fandroids blow $200,000 on secret PANIC BUTTON for their smartmobes The cleverly-designed Pressy gadget drops into the headphone socket on any Android handset, adding a button that can be linked to any action. While Apple might spend its time eradicating buttons, and touchscreens remain flavour of the decade, physical controls have advantages and there are rarely enough of them. Meanwhile the …
Really? then HOW may I ask will you listen to your music once your bluetooth headset dies? also, have you ever tried using bluetooth handsfree kits, I've used £300 sets for work, and they are crap...
I end up plugging in the free supplied headphones rather than use the crappy Jabra things
@Anonymous
"Maybe, but no real world use in a mobile phone that cannot be done in another way. This has solved a problem that doesn't exist.
"That is the reality, dispute and downvote if you wish."
What this really means is that you are unable to think of a problem that this will not be a solution for. It goes along the same lines as "anyone can design an encryption system that they are unable to break".
Maybe, but no real world use in a mobile phone that cannot be done in another way.
So? There's nothing in mobile phones that couldn't have been done another way. GSM could have been done lots of other ways. The question is not whether or not there may be other ways to do something. The question is whether this is one good way to do it. The answer is yes.
This has solved a problem that doesn't exist.
As with the majority of gadgetry, this is in large part true. It doesn't diminish the value of the gadget, though.
"Invention is the mother of necessity." -- Thorstein Veblen
funnily enough ... it's the one think I've missed hugely since going from my Lumia 800 to the Nexus4 ... that physical button is a huge benefit.
Before the iPhone I remember my Windows Mobile 5.x and 6.x devices had the ability to set what a short or long press would do on pretty much any of the buttons (and they had copy'n'paste!)
I like that Pressy have come up with a pretty cheap solution for the phone you have now and probably a couple of generations (face it... headphone sockets are probably not going away any time soon) so unless Google lock down the APIs like on iOS to block this it's actually not a bad thing to have (and yes, I have ordered one!)
Quote "and the application to poll/monitor for presses and register the click pattern."
Application is linux kernel. Headphone presense on Android phones is reported via the /dev/input subsystem same way you would have had a keyboard. It is simply a matter of hijacking the event later on in android.
Well, I've seen one in the past six months. Not sure how many switching cycles this device is rated for, but as a Winpho alert I doubt it'll get worn out.
Still, another coded message to moron smartphone designers: We now also want assignable physical buttons (and micro SD, removable battery, two days or more battery life, proper DNLA client, and and and and).
"Still, another coded message to moron smartphone designers: We now also want assignable physical buttons (and micro SD, removable battery, two days or more battery life, proper DNLA client, and and and and)."
Do not forget, larger, reinforced pocket to hold larger, heavier device, spare cards, spare battery (is just one enough?), I get two to three days or more of battery life all ready (email, SMS, calls, web, couple of applications for weather, timetables, internet radio etc.): but then I do not spend eight hours a day living a proxy life through my mobile.
Perhaps you need a new mobile.
Actually I DO carry a spare battery, but I can get 2 days battery life from my phone, unless I am a poor signal area that is.
It has a fairly decent DLNA client/Server its cool to send pictures/videos/music to the TV from my mobile...
I also have 3-4 micro SD cards in my wallet most of the time, I like to keep a backup on my person, and often some media if I get stuck somewhere, etc...
doesn't need root, and the app has to be installed and configured to perform whatever actions you choose on the button press so ... if you had that level of access to the phone already you don't need to plug something in and install an app to cause mischief...
The problem with things like volume buttons is locating them in a hurry. A button that stands on its own, usually on top of a phone, and which can be disabled simply by removing it, seems potentially useful.
One of the things I liked about webOS phones was the easily located and unambiguous silent switch. As the owner of what, if recent reports are correct, is the only Q10 in the world*, this is something I miss, just as I would like to be able to fix the camera only to respond to the space key.
*yes I am a loser but I deal with it one sob at a time.
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