It's not enough that Palm had the ingenious idea of illuminatable hardware buttons (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4316); now they strike back with another revolutionary invention: raised keys on a miniature keyboard (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6940490.WKU.&OS=PN/6940490&RS=PN/6940490). According to the patent, the height of the keys are patterned in a way to improve data entry and decrease the chance of depressing multiple keys at a time.

There exists a need for a miniature keyboard that allows the user to accurately and confidently input the desired characters while maintaining a small and compact design that is desired by users and useful for portable applications...by incorporating different key arrangements and alternating the height of the keys, key differentiation and data input accuracy is greatly improved. Key differentiation is improved because better tactile feedback is provided when depressing keys. A point of reference is provided thereby avoiding pressing multiple keys or improper keys.

I'm hoping to wake up to find it's just an elaborate joke.

Having such a keyboard wouldn't be bad. Data input is still the weakest aspect of handheld computing. If the "idea" of raised keys deserves to be patented... remains to be seen.

At least they're trying to bring something new to us. You have to give them that. If you look on the other hand what Microsoft has been doing all the while... nada!

Wow, it took four years to obtain the patent.