Multi-finger MacBook trackpad gestures demonstrated on video

You've seen our hands-on first impressions, now check the video summary of the new multi-touch, glass trackpad featured on Apple's new MacBooks. It covers 2-, 3-, and 4- finger gestures in addition to the traditional 1 finger gesture some of you would like to direct towards Steve for all those glossy displays. See the demonstration after the break.

[Tim @ Oct 15th 2008 5:28AM]

I just want right and left click buttons. You would think at some point Apple would acknowldege the fact that one button sucks.

[turn_self_off @ Oct 15th 2008 5:31AM]

now there are no buttons, right-click is a two-finger pad tap iirc.

[Liam @ Oct 15th 2008 5:36AM]

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.

[Ed @ Oct 15th 2008 6:52AM]

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.

[Muttley @ Oct 15th 2008 7:33AM]

Have you tested it already to say it sucks ????

Well, I did, and it's brilliant !

[Rob2256 @ Oct 15th 2008 7:47AM]

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.

[ZaxCG2 @ Oct 15th 2008 8:27AM]

Get any 2 button USB mouse and it should work, fool.

[Evan @ Oct 15th 2008 9:16AM]

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.

[chezzo @ Oct 15th 2008 9:39AM]

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!

[AaRoN @ Oct 15th 2008 10:11AM]

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?

[Darren @ Oct 15th 2008 10:34AM]

It does have two buttons. You can assign the lower left or lower right part of the trackpad for right clicks.

[Brandon @ Oct 15th 2008 10:52AM]

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.

[routb3d @ Oct 15th 2008 11:00AM]

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/

[water.and.sand @ Oct 15th 2008 11:35AM]

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).

[Dave @ Oct 15th 2008 4:19PM]

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.

[Shade @ Oct 15th 2008 5:25PM]

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.

[middle-click @ Nov 15th 2008 10:15PM]

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.

[Abraxas @ Oct 15th 2008 5:28AM]

not button = FAIL

[nebulus @ Oct 15th 2008 5:55AM]

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

[bob @ Oct 15th 2008 9:06AM]

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.

[Joe Dombrowski @ Oct 15th 2008 10:38AM]

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...

[dg @ Oct 15th 2008 12:24PM]

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.

[Alfyx @ Oct 15th 2008 5:30AM]

So pretty nice... Pretty nice.

[Dannybuoy @ Oct 15th 2008 5:33AM]

put um on the glass...

[Saad Rabia @ Oct 15th 2008 5:37AM]

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!

[Pat @ Oct 15th 2008 5:48AM]

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

[Ethan @ Oct 15th 2008 5:49AM]

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.

[Tom Robertson @ Oct 15th 2008 6:14AM]

They show that in the video by demonstrating dragging a window if you actually cared to watch it.

[Saad Rabia @ Oct 15th 2008 7:23AM]

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.

[Adam @ Oct 15th 2008 8:45AM]

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.

[Saad Rabia @ Oct 15th 2008 9:06AM]

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.

[happy_penguin @ Oct 15th 2008 11:13AM]

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.

[Tom Robertson @ Oct 15th 2008 5:39AM]

Right click is just hold 2 fingers down and press... It's not rocket science..

[Phil @ Oct 15th 2008 5:41AM]

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.

[Homeboy @ Oct 15th 2008 5:51AM]

Next up: Fisting!

[mushy @ Oct 15th 2008 7:45AM]

You get the fisting at checkout.

[pe3ko @ Oct 15th 2008 9:14AM]

mushy, u made me spew out cereal from my mouth. u bastard

[swingin' dick hero @ Oct 15th 2008 10:42AM]

Good thing you said it made you spew from your Mouth,
otherwise I would've been grossed out and spewed from wherever.

[toxicpiano @ Oct 15th 2008 5:54AM]

pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good

[Ethan @ Oct 15th 2008 5:57AM]

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.

[Xell @ Oct 15th 2008 6:01AM]

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...

[Nick Catalano @ Oct 15th 2008 6:16AM]

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

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Oct 15th 2008 7:25AM]

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.

[Evan @ Oct 15th 2008 9:24AM]

@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.

[Mick @ Oct 15th 2008 6:01AM]

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.

[aatnet @ Oct 15th 2008 6:02AM]

so Steve Jobs has four fingers

[THJ @ Oct 15th 2008 10:27AM]

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.

[ethana2 @ Oct 16th 2008 7:06PM]

The second they make a six finger gesture I'm going to show up at his house and give him the ol' Montoya Treatment.

[Jim P @ Oct 15th 2008 6:02AM]

The real question is, since the currect MBP have multi touch pads, will they support all these gestures with a software update?

[Kris @ Oct 15th 2008 7:42AM]

No. Apple doesn't back-port new functionality even though it's possible.