That Geeky Christian

I went down to the local BestBuy on Sunday and got to take my first look at the new Apple MacBook.  Of most interest to me was the new buttonless touch pad.  I’m one of those people who doesn’t like the tap to click feature on most laptops, but the reviews seemed to indicate that this was an entirely new system, so I was excited about it.

Upon first walking up to the unit, I pressed on the pad, and it gave just like a standard mouse button.  It’s a natural motion that will not be accidentally pushed like a tap to click system will.  The pad was smooth, and yes, you can push anywhere on the pad to activate the mouse.

What I was most excited about, having grown up in a Windows world, is the ability to set up the touch pad to recognize a “right click.”  You can set up the Apple software to recognize a two finger push as a right click.  I like this feature as it makes common tasks a bit quicker, and in a standard Apple computer you have to use the “ctrl + click” method.  I found that this task wasn’t recognized everytime.  A couple of times when I clicked with two fingers it would enact a regular click.  This could have just been my inexperience with the product, so I’m not going to condemn every pad in that way unless I start seeing more people saying it.

Bottom line, this is a really cool trackpad, and using it isn’t awkward at all.  I didn’t even try any of the three or four finger motions, so there’s even more it can do.  Apple is a trendsetter in many ways, and this multi touch track pad will likely make its way into Windows based laptops soon.  That is, unless something even more spectacular comes around.