CES 2007: The future of phones: no buttons?

The Onyx concept phone (Credit: Synaptics)

If there were no buttons on your mobile phone, imagine how big the screen could be.

Synaptics is doing just that with its Onyx phone, a new concept in mobile phone technology. Shaped like a remote, it's a bar-style phone that would integrate GPS, music, teleconferencing and calendar events.

But the coolest part is the screen, which takes up nearly the whole handset. Synaptics calls it ClearPad, a thin, high-resolution touch screen based on the company's proprietary sensing technology.

With it, there would be no need for buttons to input information. Information can be entered into the Onyx concept phone with two fingers, or via text entry.

Unfortunately, no company is planning on releasing this phone anytime soon, but the Onyx is out there and could be an indicator of what's to come in the design of mobile handsets.

Advertisement

Talkback 0 comments

Reviews by category

Sponsored content

Power Centre - Content from our premier sponsors

Blogs

  • David Braue 12 days without ADSL: A local loop eulogy
    When your broadband speeds are limited to 38Kbps it's not hard to join the ranks of people demanding the NBN already. Telstra's copper network is a renovator's delight.
  • Array An abridged history of the Aussie internet
    Journalist Glenda Korporaal has written "20 years of the internet in Australia" to commemorate two decades of AARNET. On this week's Twisted Wire I talk to Glenda and Chris Hancock, the CEO of AARNET.
  • Array G'Day USA: Aussie start-ups head to America
    The G'Day USA: Australia Week campaign today announced the finalists for the Innovation Shoot Out event, which will see eight Australian technology start-ups travel to San Francisco in January 2010 to demonstrate the commercial viability of their products in the US.
  • More blogs »

Tags

Back to top

Featured