As many an iPhone owner will tell you, while the phone's touch-screen is handy for the likes of text editing and web browsing, it just doesn't have the "feel" of a real keyboard.

For one, there's no reassuring click when your finger makes contact with the corresponding key you're trying to press, which can lead to many a typo on the Apple phone.

With that in mind, we're letting you know of an interesting proof-of-concept homebrew app that's under development by a team from the Computing Science Department of the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

Dubbed the HapticKB, this homebrew application will let the iPhone vibrate just a little when you press a button on its virtual keyboard. Think force feedback or Dual Shock, and you've got the idea.

That said, we warn users that this homebrew app is strictly in the prototype phase. Even the dev team explicitly states that this application may cause serious problems on your phone. To quote their disclaimer:

Our applications use undocumented methods and as a result can be unstable, we have not damaged any iPhones ourselves but please be careful and use our software at your own risk. If the vibrations get "stuck" on, then run the application again and, on the next tap, they will stop. The long-term effects of continually using the vibration actuator in this way are not yet known, for example, battery life or vibrator failure. These should be investigated before making long-term use of this software.

Those still willing to test this app (you've been warned) will need an iPhone running on a jailbroken firmware 1.1.3. Be sure to view the readme included in the file bundle, as well as the dev team's release site (via the source link) for other important details.

Download: HapticKB v1.0