“Small-size tablets for navigation have been around for years, but Apple’s Magic Trackpad is one of the first aimed at mainstream users,” Nick Hawkesmoor reports for Register Hardware. “And while the company has desktop owners in mind for the MT’s audience, as a laptop user, I’m keen on it too.”
Advertisement: Introducing the new Magic Trackpad. Let your fingers do the clicking, scrolling, and swiping. Just $69 at the Apple Online Store.
Hawkesmoor reports, “Apple has pioneered the use of larger trackpads on laptops and the introduction of greater levels of gesture control… Apple’s laptop trackpads these days are themselves big buttons, and the MT is no different, a gentle, light click coming as feedback when you push it. Personally, I’d rather tap to click, so I immediately enabled this option in the Trackpad control panel, which was off by default.”
MacDailyNews Take: Our Magic Trackpads are set for “Tap to Click,” too.
Hawkesmoor reports, “Magic Trackpad is a fine control device – for laptop users as well as those folk who prefer desktop machines – that’s a genuine pleasure to use.”
Read the full review here.
Mine arrived UPS yesterday. Already very much enjoying having a wireless keyboard, multi-touch mouse and multi-touch trackpad to go with my big iMac display.
Computing nirvana.
I can achieve the same with my Touch and iPad, using Rowmote Pro. I have an advantage in that Rowmote includes dozens of built in commands to launch apps, sleep the screen, toggle full-screen, sleep, etc.
Rowmote allows these devices to take complete control of my Mac from any room in the house and from anywhere on the road, over 3G.
What would be even sweeter? Screen sharing. It’s only a matter of time.
I was loving my Magic Trackpad until my Bluetooth suddenly stopped working on my MacBook Pro. It’s currently having the display replaced by Apple (apparently that’s where the Bluetooth aerial is located) and it should be ready to pickup tomorrow.
All done under warranty. Can’t wait to get it back so I can sync all my movies to my iPad before my holiday on Saturday!
The magic trackpad is quite amazing, I miss using all the 3 and 4 fingered gestures on the magic mouse, so this is great.
Just a thought. Maybe the magic trackpad would be useful with a future Apple TV, providing the touch for iOS if it is used.
Tap to click is great, but there are things that don’t seem to work well with the Trackpad, at least so far. Dragging objects, especially multiple objects, is a pain for me, and likewise for selecting parts of the display (creating a drag box). I’m finding the mouse much better for these kinds of tasks–if you know a smooth, efficient way of dragging or creating drag boxes, then let me know!
I had to turn off Tap to Click as I found myself doing all kinds of inadvertent things on screen otherwise. Overall I like the new Trackpad but doing some things I will gravitate back to my Logitech Trackball which I infinitely prefer over a regular mouse. I can’t stand trackpads though on any portable and plug in an external trackball instead. I miss the built-in trackball type that was built into my first Mac, the 1992 Powerbook 170. Loved that thing.
I love my Magic Trackpad. The trackpad on my MBP was the first trackpad i found usable, and preferred it to a mouse. The Magic Mouse was OK, but it was not as usable as the trackpad. I have a small keyboard space on my desk and this is a dream.
@spinoza2 try putting the pointer where you want it, than place your finger on the far side of the trackpad, then click and drag the pointer where you want it. It is not like a pin pad where the pad represents the screen.
I LOVE mine! Took a few minutes to get used to it on the 24″ iMAC we put it on, but once we got all the settings dialed in, it feels just like using my MacBook Pro which is what I wanted.
Couldn’t be more pleased with the feel and performance. Although i have always hated trackballs, this pad gives you the advantages of a trackball with all the control and finesse of a mouse/trackpad.
Love my MT!. No issues, saves my index finger.
Magic trackpad? I’d tap that
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To spinoza2 … did you try the new 3-finger dragging option for drag boxes? It’s easier to learn than the old one-finger tap-drag.
@ spinoza2
The best way to do the click-hold-drag on a Magic Trackpad (or the “glass” trackpad of a recent MacBook) is to pretend it is an old-school trackpad that has a big button along the bottom edge. Apple designed the software so that a click near the bottom edge of the Magic Trackpad is treated as a “button click,” not a second point of contact for a two-finger gesture.
So after selecting what you want to drag, click and hold near the bottom edge with your thumb, and drag with my index or middle finger (whatever finger you use for pointing). This is how I did the click-hold-drag on my old PowerBook, and it still works the same way on a Magic Trackpad. A nice bit of attention-to-detail by Apple.
In fact, I tend to do all my clicks this way (with my thumb near the bottom edge) because I’m used to doing it, and because of the trackpad’s design, clicking at the bottom edge takes less force than a click neat the middle. Also, the thumb is used to this action (from using the Space key all the time) and separating the pointing and clicking functions is more efficient and precise (at least for me).
Holy Shit! The Register actually LIKED something from Apple?
Does that really mean that it sucks?
Love mine. I tend to float my hand just above it though and that does, over time, cause pain in my arm. I’ve tried to get out of the habit but so far, no luck. I do love how it works though. The 3 and 4 finger swipes are great. It’s nice not having to clean the bottom of the mouse anymore! Let the desk get dusty, what do I care!
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Thanks for all the tips, everyone, they really did help. I especially like the 3-finger drag, that one works like a charm for heavy duty dragging.
One of the problems I’ve had is a result of using the lower right corner for the context-sensitive menu; I just need to be more aware of where I am on the surface of the trackpad.
One thing for sure, this little device can be programmed and customized to do almost anything!
Did some poking around in driver binaries and found some new pref strings. Try these:
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences com.apple.preference.trackpad.3fdrag-4fNavigate -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.trackpad.orientation TrackpadOrientationMode 1
The second didn’t seem to do anything until we reconnected, turned the trackpad around and rested 5 fingers on it.