Multi-finger MacBook trackpad gestures demonstrated on video
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Oct 15th 2008 5:22AM
posted Oct 15th 2008 5:22AM
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I just want right and left click buttons. You would think at some point Apple would acknowldege the fact that one button sucks.
now there are no buttons, right-click is a two-finger pad tap iirc.
I use a mac, I think it's quicker to use no button than use one. Two is better than one, yes, but the two finger tap is an even better solution.
One-Button only sucks with the old apple trackpads. I have the MacBook from Late 2007 and the two-finger tap is much more efficient for me than any other laptop's physical right click button (And waaaaaay more efficient than Control-Click.) I can't wait to try out the new ones in the stores, even if I won't be getting one for a few more iterations.
Have you tested it already to say it sucks ????
Well, I did, and it's brilliant !
I thought the same before I went over to Mac (Macbook Air) about 6 months ago. I actually now find using two fingers to bring up context menus (right click on windows) better and miss it when I have to work on a windows laptop.
I think you need to use these gestures for at least a couple of days, long enough for the muscle memory to get set before you can comment objectively.
Get any 2 button USB mouse and it should work, fool.
I also prefer the two-finger right-click over splitting the button into two halves. Pressing a right button is awkward when my index finger is near the left edge of the track pad. I took me a few days to get used to two-finger right-click, but now I wouldn't want to go back.
My (Dell) laptop lets me do this, but only in Ubuntu (I dual-boot with XP) - one finger = left click, two = middle click, three = right click. It's really useful!
I have a mac, and I don't even use the button. What use would a left and right button be when you can tap one finger for left, or two for right anywhere on the touchpad?
It does have two buttons. You can assign the lower left or lower right part of the trackpad for right clicks.
what part of the entire track pad IS a button dont people understand? This isnt like using an iPhone where everything is tapping, the actualy trackpad depresses down as a button.
They are headed in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.. I believe that multitouch surfaces will replace both mice and keyboards.. I used a Touchstream from Fingerworks before Apple bought the company and the tech. It took a little while to get used to typing with no keys.. Once you get the hang of it you will never look back.. I Promise.. sooo much more powerful.. I cant wait until they do away with the keyboard all together..
http://www.fingerworks.com/
I agree it's the right direction.
I really wish they updated the white Macbook model to have multi-touch.
It's the difference of a grand for me. (I need the firewire ports the new Macbook doesn't have).
The way I use my notebook I like to rest the heal of my hand off to the right of my pad. Two, three, and four finger gestures would require me to reposition my entire hand every time I would want to do one. Talk about promoting major hand craps and discomfort. What is Apple thinking? If you ask me it looks like on this topic iWin.
Yes, I know, Apple does so much to try and distinguish themselves from PCs, but the fact is, they are getting their profit with iPods and the iPhone. The mac sucks, and I personally own one, a now old gen macbook. I would have gone through life never ever trying, let alone buying one if it wasn't for school, finally managed to set up multibooting manually two days ago on this thing (I've had it since the beginning of the summer) No thanks to BootCamp. And I have to say that the mac is the most arbitrarily defiant creature I have ever seen, I had to manually partition my HD with an Ubuntu live cd because disk utility simply wouldn't let me. And don't even get me started on its shitty wifi support, I have to clear all the saved networks at least once a day and then re-enter the details, which isn't fun with a 64 bit hex wep key (I know, I know, not very secure, but I'm stuck with it until the Wii and DS support WPA)
That said, I think Apple would do fine if they just cut the Macs and sold iPods and ported all their software to the PC, Garageband for example is an excellent piece of software. Now for something more related, I really don't feel comfortable with a glass trackpad, considering Its going to be taking the greatest amount of abuse, and I think that tap-to-click on the current trackpad is unresponsive enough, I can see all four of the people who buy this breaking the trackpad because they tapped too hard.
but it doesn't have a middle click. I practically use that more than left click. And would mouse gestures work, or would I end up reading engadget upside-down? Also, the three-finger one looks useless. and the four-finger would be better as a button/keyboard-shortcut.
not button = FAIL
From looking at one of the other videos it appears that if you press enough the whole pad (at least the lower side) sinks down like a button click. (unless my eyes deceive me!)
Look at this video about 5:05 in:
http://www.vimeo.com/1966889
all these commenters = fail, there are gestures, option to tap click and the WHOLE pad clicks, like on a rocker so you can left corner click, righter corner click.
Left corner click/right corner click sounds a lot like the mighty mouse philosophy: reinvent the wheel so it works almost as good as before. Rocker clicks never work as well as physical buttons, and if you didn't know the gestures because, for instance, you are using a roommate's computer, you'd be completely lost! Not exactly in line with Mac's "easy to use" philosophy they seem to have forgotten...
Joe Dumbrowski,
You're a jackass who doesn't know what he's talking about. If you don't feel like learning all the new multi-touch tricks (I know, they seem REALLY complicated) the pad wrks exactly the same way as it used to. Fiddle the pad with your index or middle finger and use your thumb to click toward the bottom of it. If you get a little more comfortable with it, you'll be able to start clicking somewhere else on the pad/button and it'll work just the same.
So pretty nice... Pretty nice.
put um on the glass...
How do you drag files with that pad (Like click and drag not stupid-touch and drag)? And what happens if you have a heavy hand?
Not that I'm buying a Mac any soon, but these things get me confused the more I think about this new pad!
if it's like window dragging you'll do a double tap and drag, not a double click but a double tap.
Very interesting point to be raised though. Double tap does not sound fun, and if it's click and hold I'm a little worried that'll be very annoying (like letting go of the "click" because you are moving your finger around). Hope it works
Most of your hand weight would otherwise be on the button, rather than on your fingers, and that doesn't accidentally click. I agree that double tap to move is a bit dodgy, in that I'm probably used to continually moving the mouse wheras I'll have to lift my finger off here.
They show that in the video by demonstrating dragging a window if you actually cared to watch it.
Tom, if you cared to read my comment you would see that I actually clearly said that I don't like the touch and drag thingy; it has been available on all Windows laptops for ages but I can never use them comfortably. I can't even imagine using this with Apple's touch spongy-trackpad! That's a bag of hurt right there.
If you use it the same way you currently use a windows trackpad (click with thumb, or the other hand... drag with trackpad surface) and don't look at the trackpad, it will work exactly the same. you just depress the entire pad with one finger or hand to select the window or file, then use the other finger to drag.
Thanks Adam. I'm still wondering though... I guess I will have to try it myself to have a good feel of what you guys are saying.
Saad,
You may be surprised at what you can learn to use comfortably. When I first bought a Mac, I decided that even though I could add a two button mouse I was going to use one button as Mac users have been doing for years. What I learned was keyboard shortcuts, many of which are identical in Linux and Windows but I had never learned before because for all I knew, I had no need for them. Now I can go back and forth quite comfortably between Linux, Mac and Windows and I have more options in all because I forced myself to do things "the Mac way".
I'm not saying that "the Mac way" is superior. I'm just saying that in some ways it appears to be different, yet I found similarities I previously had not known. Since I had used a Mac in college I was familiar but it was OS 9, not OSX. Then in that time I got my first Windows computer in 1998 and in that same year I got Redhat Linux. Then I got my first Mac in 2005. I can get comfortable in any OS, even though I might miss something in one that I have in another.
One thing I miss in Windows is Expose. Yes, I know you can add something like it and I have tried it at home. I can't do that at work because we aren't allowed to alter the machine. I have my Mac set up with a hot corner. I just move my mouse up to the left corner and it exposes all my open windows. I keep doing that at work and I laugh at myself for forgetting where I am. It isn't a big deal.
I'm not so sure about this new trackpad but I won't knock it until I try it.
Right click is just hold 2 fingers down and press... It's not rocket science..
I honestly don't think I'm ever going to use any of those gestures. I'm a keyboard addict anyways, so I may be a little biased - but come on, four finger gestures? You can swap between apps way, way faster with command-tab.
I feel like they're just making gestures up here to make multitouch seem useful on a laptop. Which I think it is not. It makes sense on an iPhone where I have no keys at all, and no mouse - but it can't compete with those in direct comparison.
Next up: Fisting!
You get the fisting at checkout.
mushy, u made me spew out cereal from my mouth. u bastard
Good thing you said it made you spew from your Mouth,
otherwise I would've been grossed out and spewed from wherever.
pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good
I think they should try doing something like this with the mighty mouse. It's got a touch-sensitive top, I think the pinching would be useful, for instance.
Myself I'm happy with my macbook, if I was potentially in the market I'd have to have a good look at that trackpad. As for the glossy screen, I seem to be doing fine, the ideal is probably somewhere more inbetween. Matte should definitely be an option for pro users, when graphic artists, photographers and video editors are using them.
not bad, but with all the cool things you can do with the new trackpad, why not just go touchscreen and be done with it. I want to see a laptop that is nothing but 2 displays one of which can display a keyboard when needed, or can be used normally for say veiwing movies.
so Steve Jobs has four fingers
I think that is by design. I double-checked my hands, and I have 4 on each as well. Maybe I can take over when Steve croaks.
The second they make a six finger gesture I'm going to show up at his house and give him the ol' Montoya Treatment.
What about boot camp? How is this going to work for windows, or is left click just tapping and right click ctrl-click?
It's a very apple move, it looks nice, but I just don't know how people will enjoy accidentally sweeping down and having all the windows disappear...
I don't know if gestures will be supported but I believe the "leave two fingers on the trackpad and click the button" function works
I dislike booting into Bootcamp... it takes too damn long and you cannot 'suspend' or 'hibernate' your mac when you move over
Right-clicking in XP via Boot Camp has always been a disaster. I never have a problem with secondary clicks in OSX, but for Boot Camp I prefer using an external mouse.
@Funke
Right-clicking in XP via Bootcamp works for me. Two-finger right-click works as well in Windows XP as in OS X. I will admit that two-finger scrolling does not work as smoothly in XP as it does in OS X, though.
The real question is, since the currect MBP have multi touch pads, will they support all these gestures with a software update?
No. Apple doesn't back-port new functionality even though it's possible.
I think if we complain to apple enough then they may give us back functionality support for this. I was one of the unlucky many who bought a MBP 3 weeks before the new ones came out. One of my professors in college bought the new MBP and I watch him use it in every lecture. Major suckage!
I've got a nice one finger gesture for Mr. Jobs.
I want to multifinger someone for dropping firewire.
It's a crappy dilemma to be left with.
Whereas the old Macbook had FW400 and 800, the new ones have nothing. Wish there was a little tack-on $100 in checkout thing that would give me back my ports.
Transformation - Used to use 2 buttons on Windows notebook, Then 1 button on MacBook and now, no button at all !!
Who needs the buttons when you have multi-touch !! And a great designer like Steve....
What's next: Who needs the function keys...? Now it has a strip of touch-screen like HP notebooks.... And later, a virtual touch keyboard.....
I don't see a reason for the early 08 MBPs to not have this functionality. Since the early and late 08 models' trackpads have almost the same tech, why can't they just update the early 08 MBPs' trackpads' firmware?
What am I thinking? That would make too much sense for Apple!
Way more profitable to Apple to make you by a new machine. I prefer Apple's share over there products.
I was wondering the same thing...I love the two finger tap as right button functionality....
WHY CANT APPLE JUST PROVIDE A SOFTWARE UPDATE TO ENABLE THESE FEATURES ON THE F'ING MACBOOK I BOUGHT 6 MONTHS AGO!!!!????
BS!
All these nifty photo touch finger majiggys and no way of actually getting the pics from the camera to the macbook?
You gotta wonder if Stevo starting to lose the golden touch.............
I guess card-readers are not cool in MacBooks. Just carry your camera's cable all the time. It's SO easy!
I can do all that and more on the EeePC 901 and don't ever need four fingers. It's not all that usefull though and is only a lame step towards switching to touch screen systems, which everyone will be doing in a about a year anyway.
Is this video also on youtube? If so, could someone post me a link? Because I am not able to watch it here.. :(
People who have had to amputate a few fingers for whatever reason......have been completely f***ed by Apple (not to mention life in general).
this is going to cause some finger pains ain't it? constantly moving all your fingers. Like people get arthritis from just too much clicking right? How do you think 4 is guna be.
Arthritis is linked to repetitive motions, not simply using your hands.
If anything, forcing you to switch it up is going to help.
Touch screen works best for systems that are laid out flat (or at slight angle) The distance the arm travels away from the body is not that much. It might work in vertical screens in situations when the interaction is for a short duration such as an ATM.
Imagine the amount of arm fatigue if you use touchscreen on a notebook. This kind of use entails arm being extended and floating away from the body for a long period of time. I doubt Apple will move to a touch screen system. Full touch keyboard is more likely.
With a full touchscreen system it will be possible to use a part of it, as a scaled version, to control the full screen. You can designate any part of the screen to use for that purpose and make it as big or small as you feel comfortable with.
I'm kinda disapointed at the no half finger gesture... I'm all for minimalist stuff.
So can all this gesturing be disabled? Like if I don't want to perform those gyrations? With my current MacBook, the first thing I did was disable trackpad tapping. I was always clicking something accidentally. I prefer to click with the button.
"So can all this gesturing be disabled?"
Of course, just like you've been able to disable them in previous MacBooks. Actually they're not even turned on by default.
Any information whether the "old" multitouch-trackpad of the last version MBP will support the 4finger gesture?
I so much like the expose gesture, I want to have it :)
Generally, the mouse has been a negative in terms of user efficiency (which is why VI still has so many fans). This doesn't change that, but I think it is making using the touchpad a little bit more efficient than it was before.
I 'm wondering if we'll be able to use our iphone/ipod as a trackpad on old macbook.
Great now we have sign language for a trackpad. Nice gimmick but i dont see this as being groundbreaking most people will prob forget all these gestures.
Once you get used to something like this a machine without it seems crippled.
I wish he would of demonstrated using three fingers on the girl.
I'm making a One finger gesture at you. Can you guess what it is?
Apple is forgetting the most important gesture . . . the middle finger gesture. Way to go apple, your innovative design gets in the way of normal operation.
I can understand the usefulness of multi-finger gestures but why don't they just go whole-hog and make a touchscreen. The tech is obviously there. I mean lets get with the creativity again Apple!
It won't be long before we can attach a USB artificial vagina to our dicks and just fuck the dam thing..
one to four finger gestures from apple? i thought one way to do it makes simpler & intuitive just like one button mouse from apple.
perhaps apple should make one button laptop...from a to z to make it simpler & no confusion...one click=>a two clicks=>b etc
Why do they have to be 'creative' and make it like that, what's wrong with having a NORMAL touch pad.
Looks cool when you show people but has zero practicality.
This dude is very annoying.
no claps at the end?
"glossy displays" AND no firewire ports. What the H, Apple?!?
what is next? seven fingers combinations?
I can't wait to get my MBP. Going to wait for a couple of weeks before getting it, but how do you highlight a selection for copy and pasting or did they get rid of that too :)
Sadly, this is not designed for people with 3 or fewer fingers. Just sayin...
first of all they keep saying its a glass trackpad but it looks the same way my 2 year old macbook pro looks. they shouldve put in a REAL glass track pad like the one on the iphone that woudve been hot and beautiful. i feel like apple is the greatest player out there, but there letting there competition catch up to them. 1) blackberry has the storm out now that can do most of what the iphone can if not a bit more, and 2) hp has a full on touch desktop. apple needs to stop holding back and put sick shit out. the 3rd iphone better have some sick features like 1) video confrencing, 2)tehering ur phone with your mac, were paying 30 dollars a month for data plan, are home internet service cost the same we should at least be able to tether 3)paying with your phone, a technology thats used in japan but it would be sick if apple brings it over 4 )and all the basic features a phone should have!! if apple comes out with this in 2009 the competition will be left far behind!
This trackpad feels really goofy in person. I'm not sure that I could get used to it. Well, that and the glossy scren.They should have just kept the one button.
Those gestures look so sweet. I might sell my desktop mac and buy one of these laptops instead.
Actually, I hope Apple releases a netbook that can dock your iPhone so you can use it as a trackpad and as the brain of the netbook.
Like this thing: http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/13/olo-dreams-up-iphone-powered-netbook-celio-shouts-dont-do-it/
The only reason Apple doesn't use two mouse buttons: pride. They're so shallow and insecure in wanting to position themselves as being artsy and progressive, that they can't stomach the notion of Microsoft doing something right (for once).
The first thing I do with a laptop is turn off tap button functionality. It never works well enough to interpret your actions correctly. That's esp. annoying in photoshop, when it thinks you're tapping instead of dragging.
This to me is an obvious case of form over function, which Apple seems to be doing more of. Less buttons isn't always better, even if it better matches your minimalist aesthetics.
How can you argue with the slick Aluminum? Ok- you all have good points. But sucha beauty. Had to order one along with a new sleevecase from www.sfbags.com. Shipping next week. Sweet sistas.
Except I normally use my thumbs on the touchpad since my thinkpad has buttons above the pad as well (designed to match the stick in the keyboard) - multifingering the pad is not something I ever want to do since that means moving my hands, which is inefficiant.
My Asus EeePC 1000H makes almost all the same, costing € 349.00 ...
i do like the full button track pad.... interesting.
Apple hasn't made a single button mouse or single-click trackpad for years now.
is there such thing as a external trackpad? i like using a trackpad more than a mouse, any hacks or mods if there is no product?