By now, most of the blogosphere has no doubt seen Andy Rubin’s “always within arms length” Motorola Tablet, supporting the new Honeycomb OS (Android 3.0). The device, possibly also known as “Sting Ray”, looks pretty intriguing to all us normal folk. Question is, where are the hardware buttons? That’s right – the device neither has hardware nor capacitive touch buttons. Depending on the orientation of the device at the time, there will be, displayed in the lower left corner, your “back”, “home” and “menu” buttons.
I’m personally not partial to either hardware or capacitive touch buttons like some may be. But what I am for is the “option”. While many users have their gripes regarding capacitive touch buttons, like those found on the Galaxy S line and Galaxy Tabs, I really don’t have a preference – but it’s nice to have more options. After all, that’s what people want, more options to choose from, right? I personally use a Galaxy S Tab on T-Mobile and I haven’t really experienced the issues some have reported with capacitive touch buttons getting hung up. However, on the other hand, there is the occasional accidental tap of the home or back button when shifting orientation. So maybe Google and Motorola are on to something here?
So far I’m liking to the diversity of Honey Comb. As we know, it will also be supported on multiple handsets in the future. No doubt some will support hardware keys, and some capacitive. And – unlike Windows Phone 7 – the OS will not be dependent on a specific type of device and hardware, thanks to the Open Handset Alliance. This is the blessedness of “openness”. You can see a recap of Andy Showing off the monster Moto Tab here. What do you prefer? Buttons or no buttons? Touch or capacitive? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.