Get in Touch with Your Trackpad

ByMike Moffit

Apple’s Magic Trackpad is a revolutionary new product for Mac desktop users which features both familiar and new multi-touch gestures. Though Mac notebook owners have been enjoying many of these fun and productivity enhancing gestures since the new multi-touch pads debuted in 2008, not all gestures are supported by the 1st and 2nd generation Unibody machines.

Don’t get trackpad envy just yet though, Apple’s Magic Trackpad and Multi-Touch Trackpad Update 1.0, which was released last night, enables all of the new goodies on many older machines! The update brings with it inertial scrolling and the new three-finger drag gesture. While, not all machines are fully compatible with both new gestures, it is still nice to see that Apple is not locking out notebook users from accessing some of the new features of the Magic Trackpad.

The following list of machines are eligible for the new features by downloading the Magic Trackpad and Multi-Touch Trackpad Update 1.0 from Software Update. Please note that regardless of your machine, you must be running Mac OS 10.6.4 in order for the features to take effect.

These Mac portables support inertial scrolling and the three-finger drag gesture:

MacBook

MacBook (13-inch, Early 2009)

MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009)

MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009)

MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008)

MacBook Pro

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010)

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010)

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009)

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53 GHz, Mid 2009)

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009)

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009)

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2008)

The following Mac portables support only inertial scrolling:

MacBook Air

MacBook Air

MacBook Air (Mid 2009)

MacBook Pro

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2008)

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2008)

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