Apple's new MacBook has a completely redesigned trackpad
Not surprisingly, the main attraction of today's Apple event is the company's new smartwatch. But there's more, a lot more leading up to that announcement. As part of its new MacBook unveiling, Apple has revealed a newly designed trackpad, dubbed Force Touch. The redesigned trackpad comes with what Apple is calling a Taptic Engine, which produces tactile feedback that lets you "feel" what's happening on the screen, rather than just see it. It's "not a diving board," Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller said on stage about the trackpad, which is now pressure-sensitive and no longer hinged (as was the case on previous MacBooks).
Force Touch comes with a gesture-based feature called Force Click; in OS X Yosemite, for example, you can use that to press hard on an address in the Mail app and quickly get that location pulled up on Maps. Apple says Force Touch can also be used with Safari, Wikipedia entries and to view file previews in Finder. Better yet, given that everyone's touch is different, you can adjust the trackpad's sensitivity to determine how much pressure it requires to be triggered. And you can click anywhere within the canvas of the trackpad, with Apple noting that clicks are notably quieter.
Apple already makes the best trackpad in the business, so we're definitely looking forward to trying the Force Touch on that superslim new MacBook.
