More on haptics for phones and gestural interfaces: "The truth is, haptic sensing is actually a sort of interesting concept for interface design. As phones get smaller and smaller, and there's less and less room for buttons on their screens, a motion-sensitive phone could offer some intriguing ways to manipulate data. If you've got a big list of phone numbers, you could tip the phone forwards and backwards as a way of scrolling through a long list, and shake it once quickly to select one. Indeed, several interface designers have played around with these concepts. What's neat about haptic interfaces is that they turn data into something physical -- as if the lists of phone numbers on your phone were a long list of beads you could roll back and forth."

Isn't there a room for even simpler stuff? I mean, why do devices with stylus uniformly have interfaces which require you to stab small areas of a small screen with a small pointer? Why not have them use long, sweeping strokes of a stylus, mimicking the way we write with pen and paper?