You can emulate a dpad by reassigning the hard keys with AE Button Plus. You don't have to lose the original functions of your hard keys because you can assign more than one task to each key. You may need to reassign certain keys to avoid conflicts though, ie the default setting for the Send key (Voice Command). I'ts not perfect and the scrolling won't be as fast as an actual dpad, but if you're a dpad junkie then you might find it useful.
The program used to be free but costs $7.99 now. There's a 14 day free trial.
http://ae.inc.ru/aebplus.php