It would be something I'd have to try out myself for a few days before I could pass judgement. But the antenna for a stylus?

I know there were some things that implemented this feature on Windows Mobile devices, though read mixed reviews.

Regarding the battery drainage comment... I don't know for sure, but it's hard for me to imagine the tiny vibration motors in cell phones pull much current at all.

Reminds me of the force-feedback that logitec offered on one of it's mice several years ago. That never took off. I own one, and I know why: the mouse made annoying humming noices when vibrating, and the vibrations were in the body of the mouse instead of under the buttons, so that there didn't seem to be much of a connection between what your mouse was doing on the screen and the vibrations in the palm of your hand.

Twenty years from now Apple will release a new device that incorporates buttons and re-invent the industry. Until then, we will be discovering the joy of vibrating devices to tell us when we pressed a button. This is all in the name of technological progress, folks.

Keep your damn buttonless phones. Touchscreens have their place, and I like them. But I like to feel buttons when I dial.

Does anyone else remember the early Touch-Tone phones where each button press generated a different tone that was send down the wire to operate the switch and was also sent to the speaker so the dialer would know that a button was pressed?

D'oh! Sounds lots simpler than vibrations... As a matter of fact, my 2-year-old LG VX6100 has a key press beep sound so I get tactile and audible feedback - I find the audible is more important when driving on the freeway at 80MPH, passing on the right, stearing with my knees, drinking my scalding hot coffee and txting my wife about dinner plans... :)

Anyone else reminded of the S.S. Heart of Gold?

Seriously, why can't phone designers simply accept that dedicated number buttons on a phone work?

I don't know what the problem is with the 'lack of tactile feedback' when dialing your phone. I use the touchscreen on my Palm T5 all the time without a stylus, sound, or 'tactile feedback' all the time. Love it. If you want, add a little beep or tick to indicate a successful button press, but I don't need moving buttons for successful input.

Sure, typing long text documents is much more comfortable on an analog keyboard, but dialing a 10 digit Ph# and tapping out text messages and memos isn't a problem.

I, for one, look forward to our touchscreen overlords.

My Alpine sat-nav's touch screen vibrates when it registers a touch. It's quite a nice way of confirming that you've done something, though you can't operate it without looking, like you can hard keys.