Abracadabra: Apple Introduces Magic Trackpad!

ByMike Moffit

Do you enjoy using Multi-Touch gestures on your iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad to scroll, swipe, pinch, and zoom through photos, songs, documents and other content? Like the idea of a Multi-Touch trackpad for your desktop Mac, similar to the trackpad used on the MacBook and MacBook Pro? Do you enjoy the Magic Mouse but wish it supported more Multi-Touch gestures? Well, your moment has arrived in the form of the brand-new (and much rumored) Magic Trackpad.

Introduced early Tuesday morning, the Magic Trackpad is the first Multi-Touch trackpad designed to work with your Mac desktop computer. It’s also the largest Multi-Touch trackpad ever, nearly 80 percent larger than the built-in trackpad on the MacBook Pro. It’s large size provides plenty of room to perform gestures. Speaking of gestures, Magic Trackpad supports a full set of them, giving you a whole new way to control and interact with what’s on your screen. Swiping through pages online is reputed to feel just like flipping through pages in a book or magazine. Inertial scrolling makes moving up and down a page more natural than ever. Because the entire surface of Magic Trackpad is a button, you can click on objects just as you would using a traditional mouse.

Magic Trackpad connects to your Mac via Bluetooth wireless technology, and can be used in place of a mouse or in conjunction with one. Go from typing to gesturing in one motion, or do both at the same time. Magic Trackpad sits at the same height and angle as the Apple Wireless Keyboard, so you can go from trackpad to keyboard in one seamless motion.

I was at Macworld when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007. I remember how people were already hoping that the then revolutionary Multi-Touch gestures would somehow make their way to notebook and desktop Macs. They day is now here. Not quite to the level of the iPhone, with on-screen gestures, but close.

Magic Trackpad requires a Mac with Bluetooth wireless technology (most Macs shipping since 2005 have this), Mac OS X v10.6.4 or later, and Latest Magic Trackpad software update. It requires two AA batteries (included) to operate. Apple recommends using rechargeable AA batteries, and is actually now offering a Apple Battery Charger for this purpose. More on that new product shortly!

Similar Posts

  • What's New in Lion?

    Tossed into the myriad of Apple updates last week, was the biggest sneak peak of Lion—the next version of Mac OS X—Apple has…

  • iTunes 10: A Social Music Experience

    To compliment their freshly updated line of iPods, Apple has released iTunes 10 software. Replacing the tried and true CD based icon with…

  • Initial Verizon iPhone 4 Reviews

    As of this morning, the long awaited Verizon iPhone 4 is available for pre-order for existing Verizon Wireless customers. As the handsets will…

  • iOS 5 Available October 12 (that's next week!!)

    On Tuesday Apple announced the October 12 launch of iOS 5—a free upgrade for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 2nd and 3rd generation, iPad and iPad 2 and a standard feature on iPhone 4S. iOS 5 will include over 200 new features, and Scott Forstall—senior vice president of iOS software—gave an overview of the top ten new and enhanced iOS 5 apps:

    Notifications
    All of your notifications—from email and text messages to social media updates—will be housed in one location that you can access by swiping down from the top of the screen in any app or on the home screen. New notifications will be briefly displayed at the top of the screen in apps so as not to interrupt whatever you’re doing when they arrive. You’ll also be able to swipe to notifications from the Lock Screen.

    iMessage
    Send unlimited text messages to other iOS 5 users from your device via Wi-Fi or 3G. iMessage will support photo, video, location and contacts as well. Messages will be synced to all your devices so you can seamlessly switch from one device to another during a conversation.

    Reminders
    This brand-new app will help you organize your life with to-do lists that integrate with iCal, Outlook and iCloud. Location-based reminders will alert you to to-do items when you when you’ve reached the point where you want to be reminded. iPhone 4S users will be able to use Siri’s voice recognition capability to set reminders.

    Twitter integration
    Now you’ll only have to sign into Twitter once—in Settings—and you’ll be able to Tweet from multiple apps, including Camera, Safari and Maps.

    Newsstand
    Organize your newspaper and magazine subscriptions so you can access them from one location. Subscribe to a publication on the App Store and it will automatically be directed to Newsstand and updated when a new issue drops.

    Camera
    Accessing Camera will be easier than ever in iOS 5 because you can open the app right from the Lock screen. The volume-up button will function as a shutter button for added usability.

    Game Center
    A number of new features will be available in Game Center, including friend recommendations, new game notifications and enhanced opponent score information.

    Safari
    Enhancements to the built-in browser will include Reader, which allows for easier reading of articles, and Reading List, where you can save articles to read later (saved articles will be synced across your devices via iCloud). Tabbed browsing in Safari will be available on iPad.

    Mail
    Text formatting, flagging, mailbox creation deletion, search features and more will be available in Mail. Plus, you’ll be able to create a free email account that iCloud syncs across your devices.

    PC Free
    Device activation, software updates, back ups and more will no longer require syncing your device to your computer. (This is huge!)

    According to Forstall, Apple has seeded iOS 5 to 100,000+ developers who “love it,” and we’re sure we will too! Visit apple.com/ios for more details.

  • Three Bonus Features of iOS 5

    This past Monday Apple unveiled iOS 5, showcasing 10 of its over 200 new features. Scott Forstall took the stage Monday afternoon and…