Play along - create a PinePhone keyboard

[PhoenixLandPirate]

I'd like to remind everyone that the BlackBerries had a teeny tiny trackball(or an optical trackpad later on).
You could still get them as modules for Arduinos, so it seems to be an option if anybody wants to incorporate them into their keyboard designs.

Or even just have them in the back cover without a keyboard and figure out the use case for it later. idk.
Also, the PS Vita had a whole trackpad in the back.

I'm not a big fan of the trackpad on the front idea, the vita's "Track pad" on the back is a bit better than one on the front, because you have more space, you can cover more width, but a small trackpad you cant travel to far, the problem with the vita's is that it isn't the easiest to use, because you're than forced to hold the device a specific way otherwise you're touching the trackpad, and sometimes that isn't the most comfortable, or doesn't allow you to support the device in a way that'll make it a good user experience.

I think the trackball might work a bit better, it'd still have the issue of not having much travel, but I think if you're having it on the front, it'd be a better experience than a small trackpad, partially because a trackball sticks out which makes it more comfortable when sliding your hand over it, rather than your finger constantly hitting the trackpads bump when you hit the end of the trackpad, there is the option of a nub as well like the GDP pocket!

The other question is positioning,

If you have it in the middle next to the space button, then a nub would be a better choice than a trackpad or trackball, however if you have it on the right hand side somewhere, then a trackball/trackpad might be a nicer experience.

Having a Nub, Trackball/trackpad would only make sense if we also have, at least a left click button.

The gdp pocket has a nub just under the spacebar and then underneath the nub is a left click and right click button, later editions changed that to a trackpad on the top right, and left click and right click on the top left, the first GDP pocket seems like its designed to be set on a coffee shop table as you use it, the GDP pocket 2, seems designed to be used while being held in two hands.

I guess if we're going to add mouse input we have to decide, are we gonna use the keyboard more when we're sat in costa or at home, or when we're on the bus, or walking around town? once we know where we're gonna use it more, the easier those decisions will be if we go that route as a community.

If we wanted to do both ways  of using it half decently, than a trackpad on the back with a nub or trackball under the spacebar would probably be the best setup for the mouse input, but left click and right click, I am not so sure, every way has its advantage and disadvantage, but those are my thoughts.