MacBook Pro will carry glass trackpad!
Apple's new pro laptops will be packed with features and will indeed host a glass trackpad.
We've been banging on about this for months, and now our sources have been confirmed by another, this time over at Daring Fireball, where John Gruber writes, "And good news for those of you who’ve been bitching about Apple’s laptops having a single button: the single-button trackpad is gone. Which is to say there is no button at all....the MacBook Pro’s new trackpad is made of glass, and is a button itself.
Essentially it's a touch-sensitive user interface, a glass trackpad that acts as a physical button "with a click you can feel". This was detailed here and here in July.
The report hosts a host of additional information about what to expect when Apple puts its focus on laptops today - glossy screens for the MacBook Pro; the non-appearance of the 17-inch model (yet - is this in order to shift the line to LED screens at a later juncture?)..
As mentioned last night, Gruber also reckons there will be no $800 laptop - even though analysts reckon it would boost Apple's notebook sales by a huge amount... but even then perhaps its best to never say never.
oh - and one more thing, way down at the bottom of Gruber's report he confirms yet another thing we've been banging on about - "It can also drive the new $899 24-inch Apple LED Display that no one knows about, which is being introduced at the same event. ?"
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Comments (21)
Why make it a button - why not just the tap gesture?
because tapping is not haptic and therefore no fun.
Well, I might get used to clicking anywhere on the trackpad so much, that if I switch to anyone else's laptop I'll instinctually mash their lifeless trackpad, hoping for the same response that I get from the MacBook Pro...
And still noone mentions the new pics of the new MB pics with it´s long battery and removable front part of the bottom case. :)
They'd make it a left-right tilting button, featuring left and right click. If they feel innovative about this, they might add up and down, for Expose and Dashboard, basically like a multitouch click wheel.
But they probably have their heads up their ass, so it'll be just the one click. *sigh*
I don't see the need for the right-click button. On current versions I feel it is much easier to have the two-finger tap much more efficient as a right click. Plus, with the glass trackpad, and more especially the lack of regular button, makes all that much more sense.
It is much more natural to just use the index & middle finger that are already contacting the trackpad as an interface than to use other fingers.
As will my Windows friends, you fail to visualize the actual benefit from the current setup as well as the potential of the (hopefull) upcoming setup.
Have fun with your seemingly 6-button trackpad setup... maybe instead of extra buttons on your trackpad, you could visualize 'hot corners' on the glass trackpad, similar to what OS X already has setup up natively...
You should really think that through again...
If all the reports are true...prices will go up and CPU speed down.
Why?
Tilting button? So that if you're towards the right of the screen you can only right-click, and vice-versa? Not sure you've thought that one through...
i like that the track pad will be a button, i hate that option to make the track pad a tap thing, it's annoying when working with programs like photoshop or final cut.
i hate the glossy screen though, it's deceiving when doing color correction.. and why would they take the firewire off the macbook?? i WAS going to get one as a second computer but if i can't capture video with it then what's the point??
Am I just dense as a box of rocks (don't answer that) but haven't most trackpads, even since the early Windos days, supported tap and double-tap as mouse button clicks? If so, is the enhancement here in tapping with two fingers at one time being a right click?
the current(erm old as of 10 o clock today) macbooks support 2 fingered tap for right click already
The pad is a button, so you just apply more pressure to create a mouse down event. This is/would/will be huge, as the double-tap gesture is much less flexible, much less fun, and easily leads to mistakes.
I've been waiting for this day for about 2 month, waiting to see my new notebook...and it looks like it's going to be a dell. I really wanted to make the switch, but really come on! The entry level at 1299! and you know that will only have 2gb, maybe only 1! I can match that price point at dell with 4! Really Steve...all these people who wait an apple, but it's the economy stupid!
people continue to forget that OSX does not drain as much memory and processing power as vista. i'm sick of hearing the comparisons of 2 gigs vs. 4. in all honesty, 2 gigs with OSX is comparable and often times better than vista with 4. macs cost a lot because you get what you pay for. i've used a dell with vista, and that's exactly why i will be buying a macbook within the next week.
You can actually already do that with the current non-glass trackpads. I think that the enhancement is a button feel to a touch surface...which I don't really understand, but heck, if it works. It took me a while to get used to the two finger click on my MacBook, but it is so natural now, like some earlier commented, that I can't stand working on Windows PCs, or Macs without it.
I don't know if anyone thought of this, but if the idea of the glass trackpad was a turnoff, a simple 20 dollar mouse, or an apple mouse can solve that. In fact, I don't know anyone who has a laptop who doesn't use a mouse to use Photoshop or FinalCut Pro. Simple solution.
I have always thought that it would be a great idea to be able to drag and stuff by just pressing harder on a trackpad rather than trying to click twice, hold, drag, tap to let go. This thing sounds like its gonna be like the current trackpad but pressure sensitive too. sounds like it will be huge. looking forward to it.
So is it glass to provide tactile feedback - like some mobile phones are now doing?
Although this is speculation, is it not possible that Apple is slowly introducing full touch interfaces to their notebooks with the aim of eliminating the need of keyboards altogether?
Rumors/consumer fantasies of Nintendo DS style dual-screen Macbook Pros had been circulating quite a while ago, though some doubts were uttered regarding consumer acceptance, not having any haptic feedback while you type.
After the acquisition of fingerworks, macrumors once published one of Apples patents where they seemed to have been working on including such feedback in touchscreens.
RIM is now bringing out the Blackerry 'Storm' smartphone which is said to have touch feedback, and if the rumours are true, now Apple seems to have mastered it as well and is now letting customers get used to the change incrementally via the trackpad.
The logic here is quite simple: when Apple introduced their iPhone, they argued, why waste the space with a keyboard, when you don't need one. Same goes for notebooks. Just picture the Jeff Han's multitouch screen where you're keyboard is now....
I hope this in not only wishful thinking - but in a way it would make sense, don't you think?
There is nothing cheap about going below $1000 for a laptop. If you take a Mini and add a good screen and keyboard you can do it for less. Integrating all this into a single product could be done for $900 or less without sacrificing quality. For Apple, this is a chance to offer an irresistible laptop in the Wintel space. Buyers get a dual platform computer with ace software and the best OS built in. If they must have Windoze, well ... they can. This is a strategic opportunity for Apple. Crying shame if they pass it up.
i completely agree. i'm a college senior, and i couldn't tell you how many people want a mac so much, but they can't afford them. My friend just bought a $300 toshiba because that's all she could afford. Now, i'm not saying to sell MBs at $300, but an eight or nine hundred dollar offering would absolutely kill in stores... without doubt