What do you use the optical track pad thingie for?

[PaulQ]

I keep forgetting it's there. It seems like you can do just about everything with your finger on the screen. Am I missing some fantastic functionality?

(I know it is the shutter button for the camera)

 

[tweebee]

You can also use it to select texts to edit.

 

[Grimster]

The trackpad is VERY useful. I use it to move the cursor around while typing/texting since it a pain to use your finger. Works good to scroll down lists and selecting small items instead of using your finger. Its invaluable while browsing the web. Its so much easier to scroll down web pages and select tiny links. Its a shame less android phones have them.

 

[bigsapz]

Agreed. I also use it to wake and lock/unlock my phone.

Sent from my Incredible

 

[RyanPm40]

I only use it to press to take a picture and to go back in texts if I need to fix a mispelling, other than that, it's pretty pointless

 

[tktouch12]

i LOVE my trackball. its one of the reasons i went with an incredible instead of an x.
i use it to move my cursor to certain places, scroll through music, scroll the web, just move around the screen without having to move my finger all over the screen.

 

[jubigret]

Curious , i can't don't where in my incredible where I can customize the trackball settings... I would love to use it to unlock the screen, any help would be greatly appreciated !

Sent from my INCREDIBLE using DroidForums App

 

[enlightened]

Curious , i can't don't where in my incredible where I can customize the trackball settings... I would love to use it to unlock the screen, any help would be greatly appreciated !

Sent from my INCREDIBLE using DroidForums App

You can set it to wake the phone if you are rooted.

 

[ugafan2081]

What is rooted ?
I would love to be able to love to unlock it with the trackball thing.

Sent from my ADR6300 using DroidForums App

 

[kjjb0204]

Dont root just for that. It's not dependable and doesn't always work anyhow.

Sent from my DROID PRO using DroidForums App

 

[texasPI]

The biggest benefit, for me, is cut and paste. Makes it very easy to precisely select what I want to cut/copy.

 

[jubigret]

You can set it to wake the phone if you are rooted.

Thanks! I'll stop looking and driving myself nuts until i root.

 

[schollianmj]

I dont use it. not even for camera use. I simply tap the screen where I want the camera to focus and take the pic...

 

[SwampDog35]

I have been wondering the sane thing. Hardly ever use it.

Sent from my ADR6300 using DroidForums App

 

[USAF_ff51]

It is actually important

You all are forgetting a key use of the optical joystick. If you are rooted, you need it for some aspects of maneuvering when using Recovery. Also, while you can just tap the screen for pics, you can't do the same for video. I found this out the hard way because mine is not working at the moment...

I broke my glass screen a couple months ago and replaced it with one off of eBay and thought I plugged my optical joystick back in just fine. I only realized it wasn't working about an hour ago. I am at work though without my tools, so if it's hardware related (which I assume) then I'll have to fix it tomorrow. If it's software or something then I'm totally lost. Only thing I could think of was hard-reset and clean the thing... neither fixed it. I'll take it apart tomorrow and see if maybe the ribbon cable isn't snug or something.

But just a reminder, although it isn't often used, it does have necessity.