Double touch screen gaining popularity

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Double touch screen gaining popularity

Posted by admin | Category: Mobile Phone, Trend Watch & News

If you have an affinity for pushing buttons, this is not going to be your year.

AT&T and Verizon Wireless have added two more touch-screen phones to their lineups. And you can expect more.

AT&T, of course, is known for selling the iconic iPhone. Selling it exclusively, I might add. But I can’t blame AT&T for not putting all of its eggs — er, Apples — in one basket.

So, it has introduced the LG Vu ($299 with a two-year contract and mail-in rebate).

As with the iPhone, buttons are minimal — just a small row along the bottom of the phone for making and ending calls and a couple along the side for locking the phone. Yet, navigating the Vu is a straightforward process because most of its touch-screen menus are clearly marked.

Still, the Vu isn’t intuitive.

It will take you six steps to accomplish something that should have taken two steps. I can’t even remember how many times I had to hit "OK" and "Yes" and "Done" to log into MySpace Mobile. I zoned out because the Vu was beginning to remind me of an annoying Windows PC.

The Vu also has a QWERTY keyboard similar to the one on the iPhone. But again, the Vu’s version isn’t intuitive. The keys are too close together, making typing with two hands awkward and typing with one hand really awkward. It does at least have tactile feedback.

Still, the Vu is pretty and sleek, duplicating the minimalist trend that’s been so popular in the LG Voyager. The phone is also light — so light that I didn’t think the battery was attached when I took it out of the box.

The highlight of the Vu is AT&T’s Mobile TV service, which lets you watch as much live TV as you want for a flat fee of $15 a month. The channels include CBS, ESPN, FOX, NBC 2Go, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and CNN.

This is the same service, provided by MediaFLO USA, that Verizon uses to stream TV to its subscribers. However, that V Cast Mobile TV service isn’t on Verizon’s newest touch-screen phone, the XV6900 from HTC ($299 with a two-year contract and an online discount).

The XV6900 is Verizon’s version of Sprint’s HTC Touch.

Some of you may recall that I disliked the Touch because operating it requires a stylus — and a thumb. Plus, it runs on Windows Mobile, which is a must for business users, but not for me.

The XV6900 uses so-called "TouchFLO" technology, which is similar to the multitouch technology in the iPhone that lets you flick through e-mails or zoom in on a photo with a tap.

There seems to be more support for these finger gestures on the XV6900 than the Sprint Touch. The menus also are easier to navigate with a finger.

For Windows users, the XV6900 is an excellent choice.

[indystar]

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