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Snow Leopard + Black/White Macbooks = No multi-touch

K

kalun

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2006
154
0
Well, I am very disappointed in apple for not enabling this feature, but according to Gizmodo JP Review, black and white macbook will not get 3/4 fingers gesture.

一部では、白と黒のポリカーボネイト製MacBookでマルチタッチが可能になる？　なんて噂がありましたが、マルチタッチ非対応の
「ソリッドステート方式スクロールトラックパッド」が使われているらしく、非対応です。
The above quote basically says "there were rumors about multi-touch capabilities on white and black macbooks, but it is non-compliant."

well, this really sucks.:(
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Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8900/4.6.1.199 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/301)

What about a mid 2008 whitebook
 
Nope, only the 2008+ Aluminum Macbooks, MB Pros and Airs have multi touch.

Plastic users are outta luck for now.
 
well my whitebook late 2007 model has a multi touch pad. i know this because every one has 2 finger scrolling. but under linux there is multi touch options as well and i could do up to 4 finger gestures under linux. so by everyone saying its not a software problem, it is just the software.
 
two-finger scrolling/right click isn't the same as multi-touch though...I think the two-finger scrolling just senses a potential (voltage) difference between two capacitances made with your fingers. You can't pinch (with 2 fingers) or swipe (with 3 or 4) because that needs to be able to track two separate movements.

Multi touch can track independent finger movements such as pinching, or dragging stuff on an iphone. Its different technology, so no, plastic macbooks cannot have multi-touch enabled by software.

edit: krypticos - have you actually done this in linux? What gestures were they?
 
yea i did them in linux i think it was ubuntu. i have ran and run different distros of linux testing and seeing how each run and how stable they are. but it was nothing super tough for the trackpad it was 3 finger scrolling and 4 finger swipe. that is what im wanting in the trackpad i dont care if it can pinch zoom and stuff i just want to be able to drag 4 fingers down the trackpad and have exposé run or swipe 4 fingers across and switch programs.
 
donbenjy said:
Multi touch can track independent finger movements such as pinching, or dragging stuff on an iphone. Its different technology, so no, plastic macbooks cannot have multi-touch enabled by software.
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Yes they can pinch & swipe work, I've tried it myself.
 
It's Software!

Why would some you even try to say its not a software thing considering this is what Apple says; "All Mac notebooks with Multi-Touch trackpads now support three- and four-finger gestures.". Now if it was hardware why would Apple say that. That is directly saying that there has been some firmware driver put into SL that allows the old macbook pro's before the unibody design to now have full multi touch. It is clearly a software or firmware soloution that Apple didn't want to give to the plastic Macbooks.
 
jgbhardy said:
That is directly saying that there has been some firmware driver put into SL that allows the old macbook pro's before the unibody design to now have full multi touch.
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Because they had the hardware to support them.

It is clearly a software or firmware soloution that Apple didn't want to give to the plastic Macbooks.
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No, as the plastic MacBooks DO NOT HAVE this hardware.
 
how about this my copy of snow leopard is setting at home im getting off work in 10 min in an hour or so ill post if it works or not. unless someone else can bet me to it first. why fight about it i have done multi finger gestures under linux ill check sl here soon.
 
uh no, because by "multi-touch trackpads" Apple is talking about the actual multi touch trackpads, NOT all trackpads (that have 2 finger scrolling). Macbook Pros since early 2008, and all macbook air's have what apple calls "multi-touch" trackpads. The early 2008 pros, and 1st gen airs had pinch and rotate, but not 3 and 4 finger swipes. This is certainly a software issue, and this is what Apple's talking about with multi-touch.

As far as the white macbooks are concerned, they aren't the same piece of technology, and I don't believe that they are capable of multi-touch in the same way. Yes you can use multiple fingers, but only in a very limited capacity. "Multi-touch" refers to being able to input multiple data streams in one go. The technology is the same as the iphone, meaning you could actually control multiple objects at once.
 
krypticos said:
how about this my copy of snow leopard is setting at home im getting off work in 10 min in an hour or so ill post if it works or not. unless someone else can bet me to it first. why fight about it i have done multi finger gestures under linux ill check sl here soon.
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I know won't work with snow leopard, I've already tried it. Only works with linux until somebody writes a driver.
 
Can anyone give any more info on the linux thing, because I know that the macbook trackpads are not the same technology as the unibodys and early 2008 pro's, so however they do it in linux, its not simply a driver...
 
From the Tech Specs for each notebook:

MacBook Pro:
"Multi-Touch trackpad for precise cursor control; supports two-finger scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three-finger swipe, four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap, and drag capabilities"

MacBook:
"Solid-state scrolling trackpad for precise cursor control; supports two-finger scrolling, tap, double-tap, and drag capabilities"

They are two different types of hardware.
 
I don't understand that link, because that's a driver for a synaptics touchpad not an Apple one.

What I'm saying is, that is not the same as Apple's "multi-touch." It would require completely different software. Taken from the dev's blog about the macbook trackpad:

"Technical Info: The touchpad can detect 3 points of contact, but with a little smart coding it will be able to detect 4 finger swipes :)"

That IS NOT a multi-touch trackpad then.
 
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