Why Nokia Remove Edit Key in Some Future Phones?
Trends June 2nd. 2006, 9:42pmRecently, I received emails from the users of my freeware, Screenshot for Symbian OS. They said that my freeware cannot be used in some of the future Nokia phones, for instance Nokia N92 and N93. The reason is simple, those phones do not have Edit key (some people call it Pencil key). My freeware uses Edit key as a shortcut to capture screenshot of the screen. If the key is not there any more, then they cannot capture any screenshots.
So what’s going on? If we look at Nokia N73, which scheduled to be released this summer, the Edit key is still there.
But then, if we look at Nokia N92, which is scheduled to be release also this summer, the Edit key is no longer there.
I was very surprise why Nokia removed Edit key. Hope this is not the final design and they will reintroduce Edit key when they released the phones.
Actually, I found that Edit key is quite important. There are some tasks that we can do faster using Edit key, for example:
- Selecting multiple items in a list.
- Copy and paste from one application to another.
- And of course capturing screenshot using my freeware…
Does anyone know why Edit key is removed from some of the future Nokia phones? How can we select multiple items and copy/paste in those phones?
Update (15-June-2006): After receiving some feedbacks, it seems key is only missing in N92 only. I am also still not sure whether the picture on the Internet is the final design of N92 or not. We can only hope that it is not the final design and key will be available in the retail version of N92…
18 Responses to “Why Nokia Remove Edit Key in Some Future Phones?”
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June 2nd, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Hi Antony,
I saw a proto of N93 last week as well here in Finland and that phone didn´t have the edit key either. I agree with you that this is weird, cause I think that key is very useful when deleting SMS’s, E-mails etc. + of course when I´m using your Screenshot application…
Let´s hope Nokia realizes the mistake, cause I haven´t seen any other button that should perform they same thing like the edit key do.
June 3rd, 2006 at 2:03 am
When I saw E50 I also asked myself this question. Later I read in one of the reviews that pencil key is just moved to the side. I don’t know yet if it’s a good place for the key or not. I just hope they have a reason to do it.
June 3rd, 2006 at 5:32 am
It looks like there’s a button on the left side of the keypad, hopefully that’s an edit button.
You can kind-of see it here. http://www.nokia.at/pool/pics/about_nokia/press/photo/phones/jpeg/01_n92_low.jpg
I can’t find any close-up images of that side of the phone.
June 3rd, 2006 at 1:30 pm
@regul8or: You’re right. I also saw the pictures of E50 on the Internet and it has Edit key on the side of the phone.
June 3rd, 2006 at 1:32 pm
@sherbang: I guess that is flash light, not a key.
Again as Henrik mentioned, N93 does not have Edit key, so I think N92 is the same case.
June 11th, 2006 at 4:19 am
It seems they’re adding the extra ’special’ keys like the Media key, and dedicated camera keys and operator keys and what-not, and then (to compensate?) have removed the Pen key.
The Pen key is one of the most useful keys on S60! It’s the most useful of ‘extra’ keys.
At least you can change application it is mapped to, but I still never use the Media key on my phone.
Perhaps if they remove the Pen key entirely, they could let you map the Media key to then Pen key??
June 11th, 2006 at 4:20 am
P.S. Antony, you’re a Forum Nokia Champion, why don’t you ask Nokia directly?
June 11th, 2006 at 7:57 am
@Harry: Good point. Unfortunately I don’t know to whom I should ask this question. Nokia is a very big company, so we have to find the right person to ask. It’s not an easy job….
June 11th, 2006 at 7:58 am
@Harry again: I hope that there is another replacement for Pen key too. Unfortunately Media key seems to behave differently. When we press it, it launch the list of shortcuts. So I don’t see an option to assign it to different tasks, like copy and paste.
June 14th, 2006 at 5:04 am
I just checked the Nokia’s website and the pictures of the phones there. It seems only N92 is lacking the edit-key on the N-series. N93 clearly has one in the pictures. Also, I took a look of a proto N93 and it has the edit key. On N92, I found no button to do the tasks edit button should be doing, like copy-pasting. All E-series phones have the edit key (in E61 it’s shift).
June 14th, 2006 at 7:54 am
It’s good if only N92 that lacks of Edit key. Hope all future phones will have Edit key.
Anyone can help me testing my Screenshot in N93? I heard that it doesn’t work in N93 (perhaps because they change the key code for Edit key in N93).
June 15th, 2006 at 12:01 am
Seems to work ok with N93 that I have.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:33 am
@Jammu: Thanks for testing it in N93. I have removed the reference to N93 too. So for now it is only missing from N92 only.
July 12th, 2006 at 1:30 am
E61 also has no edit key
July 12th, 2006 at 1:35 am
But..hold on.. I tried it with left shift key. and it works!, seems that the edit key is replaced by left shift key in E61.
December 12th, 2006 at 7:03 am
http://www.terramobilis.com/ScreenSnapS60/Pages/FAQ.html
this could be a solution for whom need to take screenshot of N92
Im trying it now
June 4th, 2007 at 6:47 am
The Nokia 5700 XpressMusic is lacking the edit key as well. I have not managed to capture a screenshot on that device with your application. Any thoughts on that?
June 6th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
@Andreas: Please check my posting here, http://mobile.antonypranata.com/2007/04/25/screenshot-for-symbian-os-s60-3rd-version-280-beta/