Now all we need is a surface that deforms to form buttons as the need arises.

I was also thinking, I wonder why no company has marketed a handset/mobile phone that offers a vibration mode for, uh, more intimate purposes.

I'm not sure I see the point of all this touch-feedback stuff, surely you can see if the control has changed? If you can't, due to the way you use the phone, then you might as well use one with standard keys.

22 Different vibrations from Samsung, real feel skin silicone gubbins from LG... Bound to sell.

There's a similar issue with car indicators - they always used to click as a direct function of the way that they worked.

When they were converted to use electronics, it was deemed appropriate/necessary to implement a click to keep people happy - otherwise they didn't know whether the lights were working or not.

There are advantages to using a "dynamic" control method that are not limited to the lack of motion in the keys - the ability to change the size/shape of the controls to match the running application for example.

(as for "intimate purposes", a friend of mine once let his phone just keep ringing when he was half asleep on the train - it felt too good to answer, apparently). Irritated the hell out of me, I needed to ask them a question...

They're supposed to have sensitive fingers. I know for sure I don't even get close to reading Braille.

"They're supposed to have sensitive fingers. I know for sure I don't even get close to reading Braille."

Some blind people perhaps but certainly not all. I know of one lady who lost her sight due to diabetes and the same condition meant that she had very poor sensation in her fingers. Cruel eh?

The reason the clicking stayed, was to remind the more absent-minded driver that the indicator was still functioning. If only they had replaced that reminder with a boxing glove to the chest/bollocks. There should also be a backside electrode that is operated if you don't indicate when turning the steering wheel more than 45 degrees.

take it one step further. Have it shoot barbed electrodes into the genital