“Apple’s latest gadget, the $69 Magic Trackpad, is essentially a freestanding touchpad that brings multi-touch features to desktop Macs, which lack touch screens. Its entire surface also functions as a button for selecting and it measures about the size of a mousepad. The Trackpad connects wirelessly via Bluetooth to any Apple desktop PC running Snow Leopard, the latest iteration of the company’s operating system. It works in addition to, or instead of a mouse,” Katherine Boehret reports for The Wall Street Journal’s “The Mossberg Solution.”
Advertisement: Introducing the new Magic Trackpad. Let your fingers do the clicking, scrolling, and swiping. Just $69 at the Apple Online Store.
“I’ve been using the Magic Trackpad on two different iMacs, one that’s about five years old and another that’s less than a year old,” Boehret reports. “In both cases, I found its glass surface to be cool and smooth, and it worked well as a solution for small work surfaces where a mouse can’t move around much. I was also glad to finally bring the same touch gestures that I use on my MacBook Pro laptop to these desktops. For instance, I placed four fingers down on the Trackpad and pushed up to hide all opened programs and reveal my computer desktop. Then, by swiping four fingers down, I showed all opened windows, a feature Apple calls Exposé. When photos are opened, moving two fingers apart or together will zoom in or out on an image. Turning two fingers clockwise or counterclockwise on the Trackpad rotates the image.”
Boehret reports, “If you can afford it, or if touch gestures simply make you a more productive computer user, the Magic Trackpad is a real asset. It can co-exist with a mouse or totally replace it, if you want. After just minutes of use, I stopped using my mouse altogether.”
There’s much more in the full review – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sunday morning will mark the first week that we haven’t used a computer mouse since 1984.
By the way, “Tap to Click” is enabled. We couldn’t imagine using our Magic Trackpads without it.
Using my mouse on the company computer became harder every day.
I hate those Meeces to pieces!
Not sure why WSJ states that installing the trackpad is difficult. Even without the updates the trackpad will pair, but will work as a normal mouse. Running software update on the Mac will install all required updates and you are ready to run. Total installation took me 36 seconds and a reboot.
God Almighty! Tap tp click!?!?!?!?!
So, how many times a day does MDN end up dragging an icon or clicking a button when they didn’t mean to!?!
Seriously- use a little more force to ensure that a click means a click.
I’m tempted. Really tempted. But the high cost plus the added cost of a recharging option leave me rather hesitant.
For a very long time now I’ve said that I’ve wanted a MacBook Pro keyboard/trackpad for my desktop. I’ve even gone so far as to use my MacBook Pro 13″ to remote desktop my iMac or Tower even when I’m sitting right there in front of it.
Last week I bought a Magic Trackpad and keyboard as an impulse buy…I walk past the Palo Alto Apple store every day.
OMG, it was amazing as I moved aside my old keyboard and mouse. My desk has a marble surface that doesn’t work with any mouse, so I also moved aside my mousepad. It all seemed so clunky with the cables and amount of space it took up.
It doesn’t take long at all to get to the point where the Trackpad feels natural, like as if you’ve been using it all along.
@Jafo,
There is an issue with installing the Trackpad. I ran software update and was on 10.6.4 with no available updates. The manual that comes with the Trackpad says to go to System Preferences -> Trackpad to set up, but that wasn’t an option. Instead, I had to go to Bluetooth and pair it, then run Software Update again for it to be fully installed. Not by any means difficult, but the instruction manual was incorrect in my case, and I could see someone who had no idea what Bluetooth was being stuck during installation.
What I want now is some sort of keyboard/trackpad dock so that I can lift the whole thing up and have it on my lap or walk around with it as a unit. Even better would be a way to easily switch pairing to different Macs so I could move around between my Macs without having to switch keyboards/trackpads.
I turned off the pinch gesture for images as I kept accidentally zooming in on a website when trying to scroll. Very annoying. I wish the gesture could be restricted to when the cursor is over certain file types.
Apple introduced beige computers, then moved on, and on, (being copied every step). Apple introduced the floppy, and the first to abandon it, later the first with a built-in Zip then the optical. They were very early adopters of flat screens. SCSI > FireWire. Wireless mice and keyboards. If not the first at least very early. Not sure if Airport was the first mass marketed router. Of course the iPod was the first really successful digital music player, the iPhone the first touch screen smart phone, similarly the iPad among tablets.
The beat goes on.
@the other steve jobs
For well over a year now I’ve had ‘tap to click’ enabled on my MacBook Pro, and not once have I ended up “dragging an icon or clicking a button” when I didn’t mean to. Literally, not even once. Believe it or not, some people might actually find it easier, faster, and/or more comfortable. Amazing, huh?
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I’m curious. Have any of you Track-Pad users noticed a reduction in fatigue? I’m finding I am getting pain after 20 years of mousing.
If the Track-Pad reduces this, I would be very very happy.
I’m sold!
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Much as we all like to worship the latest Apple products, I believe the Trackpad has no real future.
It is not a multitouch interface. Multitouch fundamentally involves the direct manipulation of objects on the screen. That is the beauty and why it feels so intuitive.
The Trackpad still has to rely on the indirect manipulation model of moving a pointer to an object, selecting it, and then (optionally) using some simple gestures to manipulate the object. The act of having to select the object with a pointer breaks the whole touch-interface illusion, and it becomes no more than a glorified mouse.
Nice as the touch-based manipulations are on the Trackpad, they are negated by the irritation of using trackpads to move cursors around the screen. I’m sure some of you will claim that this is wonderful, but it is clear that the majority of people prefer to move a cursor with a traditional mouse – hence the large number of laptop users that plug in an external mouse.
It is ironic that Apple has decided that mouse users might wanted to plug in an external trackpad! This is an interesting diversion, but not the future of computer interfaces by any stretch.
I’ve been using it exclusively since I got mine, 2 days after they came out. It works perfect, and tap to click is just fine. The rodents are dead now. I love to 2 finger to right click. Bitchin, awesome. And blends in just right with the wireless keyboard. Apple scored bigtime with this device. Way to go.
Played with one at the Tulsa store last week (we have no stores in Arkansas…)
Thought it was great and will eventually buy one but for now I am still happy with my fairly new Magic Mouse with MagicPrefs installed.
Also, I just happened to notice, there are some damn fine women in Oklahoma!
Towertone – as opposed to…Arkansas? Grading on a curve?
@Reality Czech …
Most Mac laptop users don’t use an external mouse. The trackpads of wretched Walmart laptops and their ilk are so bad, most people can’t stand to use them, thus the external mouse.
The Trackpad reduces/eliminates RSI for me.
People who don’t get it about tap to click, etc. just aren’t actually trying it out and are just shooting from the hip. Not unlike Windows users who use Macs for less than a day or never.
panchochico
Well, for all I know, they were from Arkansas…
I have not used my trackball once since receiving my magic pad.
In fact-trackball is disconnected and in my box of cables/connectors in my closet.
Bye bye mousey
What about a wireless numeric keyboard?