More Details Emerge About BlackBerry Passport

BlackBerry Passport is making a lot of headlines. Rightfully so. It has incredibly attractive looks and a physical QWERTY keyboard. In a recent blog post published on the Inside BlackBerry blog, BlackBerry said that with its touch-enabled keyboard, Passport will allow users to accomplish more. That blog post has quietly disappeared, but it got its share of eyeballs during the short time span it was online. As we all know, anything that is published online is never gone for good.

BlackBerry has always built phones with great keywords. The upcoming Passport device, too, will have an excellent keyboard. According to BlackBerry, their Passport will show people there are better ways to accomplish things.

The device will have a large square touchscreen and a new touch-enabled keyboard. It will integrate the tactile feel and commendable performance of BlackBerry keyboards with the capacitive technology used in modern touchscreens.

Anyone who uses a touchscreen device understands that excessive use of fingers will smudge the screen. Another problem that touchscreen users often face is the difficulty to get the cursor to the right point. Thanks to its efficient design, Passport will soon make these problems a thing of the past. By gently touching your finger over the keys, you will be able to easily navigate email, apps and webpages. The design is minimalist and the keyboard doesn’t have dedicated arrow keys, but that increases the screen real estate. Also the touch-enabled keys of Passport support several custom commands. Here are certain things you can accomplish.

Scrolling

Using the keyboard, you can swipe up or down. You can use this feature to scroll down or up a long webpage.

Controlling the cursor and selecting text

BlackBerry has reinvented its productivity enhancement features for the Passport. By double tapping the Passport keyboard and then dragging your finger across it you can place the cursor at the right spot. Alternatively, you can select a piece of text just like you would do on older BlackBerry devices. Drag your finger across the keyboard while holding the shift key. This will extend the selection.

Contextual keys

Besides the physical QWERTY keyboard, BlackBerry has added a virtual on-screen keyboard that shows the right keys taking cues from your actions. So, for example, if you are trying to enter your password, symbols and numbers commonly found in passwords will pop up. If you are trying to enter an email address, the @ symbol will be shown. You will get to see them all by swiping down on the keyboard.

Flick

Can’t find the right word? The Next Word Suggestion tool supported by BB 10 gives you a personalized list of words you are likely to enter. BlackBerry compiles these word suggestions after studying the words you enter all the time. You just need to select the right one.

Made a mistake? You can delete by simply swiping back. This is exactly like what you do on the virtual keyboard.

Want to enter an accented character? That is possible, too. Hold down the letter key and then gently tap on the key to add the right accent!