Multi-touch MacBooks Coming?

[tveric]

Crunchgear rumor:

http://crunchgear.com/2007/06/29/mul...ks-in-october/

If you're too lazy to click, here's the main rumor, from a "trusted source":

The iPhone’s multi-touch technology is theoretically supposed to roll out with all the new laptops, including those coming out in October. The feature will be built into the touchpads, allowing you to navigate through your notebook’s files, applications, etc. the same way you can on the iPhone.

[Mr. MacBook]

we wish...

[siurpeeman]

aren't touch pads already equipped with sensing multi-touch input? we use two fingers for scrolling and double-clicking; it's just a matter of a software update or a new os release (leopard?) that would give us iphone-like multi-touch functionality.

[tveric]

Directly from the article:

(Yes, I know you can already scroll with them, that’s nothing new. I’m talking about all the other finger gestures that can be done on the iPhone’s screen.)

[ScottDrummer]

so how does the iphones screen functionality differ from the current track pad available technology, surely its just a software enhancement, as mentioned you can already use two fingers, why wouldnt you be able to pitch?

[opticalserenity]

uh huh. The iPhone screen is way smaller than the macbook screen. a multi-touch macbook screen would be, well, a $3500 macbook.

[flopticalcube]

Wow! A trackpad that you can touch!?!?! What will they think of next!?!?!

Meh.

[Khyber]

They are talking about the pinching motion used to zoom in to pictures and stuff like that. Or that's what I think they are talking about.

[iBookG4user]

Originally Posted by opticalserenity

uh huh. The iPhone screen is way smaller than the macbook screen. a multi-touch macbook screen would be, well, a $3500 macbook.

You didn't even read it, did you? They were talking about the Trackpad.

I'm not sure that Apple would do this on the MacBook before the MacBook Pro though, the Pro/PowerBook had two fingered scrolling before the iBook/MacBook line did.

[tveric]

I'm not sure that they're not just using the term "MacBook" to refer to both MBs and MBPs. I remember how everyone seemed to think it was a horrible idea when they changed the names from "iBook" and "PowerBook", and one sense in which it seems the majority was right was the fact that the term "MacBook" seems to be used the way the word "Coke" is used in the deep South.... it can refer to Coke, but it's also used to refer to Sprite, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, etc...

"You want a coke?" "Sure." "What kind, Coke, Sprite, root beer?"

"You buying a macbook?" "Yeah." "Which one?" "MacBook Pro."

Of course, I could be wrong and they're referring to the ex-ibooks. But as you pointed out, that wouldn't make much sense.

Or, this is a rumor with little basis in fact. That seems to be just as likely to me.

[wako]

zooming in and out of pictures by scrolling up and down is already fine by me. I dont think pinching my touchpad will suddenly enhance my computing experience....


And if they ever did make a multi-touch macbook, I would feel terrible for the OCD people.

[Draythor]

Why not make the whole of the bottom portiaon into a multi touch
Then the base could change to reflect what program was being used. Far more useful surely. except for the drawback of not having a physical keyboard...

[tveric]

Originally Posted by wako

zooming in and out of pictures by scrolling up and down is already fine by me. I dont think pinching my touchpad will suddenly enhance my computing experience....


And if they ever did make a multi-touch macbook, I would feel terrible for the OCD people.

You could do a lot more than pinching the touchpad. Even better, imagine a touchpad that was a little mini-screen, like the screen of the iphone.... now THAT would be a rumor worth talking about

[iToaster]

The article... no way, that would be really really awkward to do. I can barely even comprehend what the original idea was. It's a capability that the current line could do, without the "trackpad display" but why would you need one of those anyway. The coolest thing I could see happening would be a multitouch keyboard that adapts to whatever keys you press and such... odds are NO WAY will this happen. It just seems like it would be weird... ya know.

[MacRumors]

CrunchGear believes multi-touch capable MacBooks will arrive in October. According to the site, the technology would piggyback off the technology currently found in the iPhone, however, the trackpad would act as the input device rather than the screen, presumably to keep costs down.

Crunchgear has not been a particularly reliable source of Apple rumors. Their previous claim believed that OLED MacBooks were coming in May/June.

[dartzorichalcos]

Apple is probably going to transition to multi-touch enterily.
The multi-touch MacBooks sound cool and will really be worth the wait.

[tveric]

I bet a mouse seemed weird in 1984, when all PCs had was a keyboard.

[(L)]

The trackpad is a touch device to begin with, when you think about it. Multi-touch in a trackpad would mean having one more way to zoom pictures, for example... it'll still be primarily point and click action. Seems a very subtle change, using a new technology. Hmm, improbable, me thinks.

No, it'd have to be touch screen to actually be anything neat.

[miketcool]

Man, if they are getting at some sort of Macbook (any version) with a trackpad screen to be touched that changes with program, they are too late. Nintendo already did this in a Gameboy (one of the versions). I thought it used a stylus though. At any rate, a laptop computer that allows input similar like a phone has got to be the next big thing in 1992. I swear, will this piece of techno wizardry also browse the world wide web via magic, without a wired modem?

Multitouch trackpad, what a brilliant guess!

[(L)]

Originally Posted by tveric

You could do a lot more than pinching the touchpad. Even better, imagine a touchpad that was a little mini-screen, like the screen of the iphone.... now THAT would be a rumor worth talking about

Neat idea, but the finished product would look messed up. So you'd turn on the mini-screen when? And whereas input areas have to be big enough on iPhones for finger use, a mini-screen would have elements that are... well... miniscule.

Imagine your Macs' screens as suddenly magically having multi-touch technology. Great. Problem is, all your GUI stuff has to be changed to be natural for fingers. Try hitting the menu bar items. Or the scroll bar. Resize the windows. It'd be a pain, and besides, you could use the keyboard and mouse anyway. For apps designed to use multi-touch, clicking on multiple items or doing stuff with both hands would be neat - but your Mac would still have a keyboard and mouse/trackpad, so it won't be so radical.

Multi-touch tablets would be very interesting... and probably more expensive than MacBooks by a fair bit.

[DTphonehome]

So couldn't this just be done in software? What's the big deal? Current trackpads can detect two touches, this is just a way to use two touches in a new manner using software.

[queshy]

what i want to know is how this relates to the iPhone!

[deanshamrock]

Originally Posted by queshy

what i want to know is how this relates to the iPhone!

Multi-touch is used with iPhone, iPhone runs Leopard, Leopard is to ship in October, new hardware at time of Leopard release...

Does that help?

[Rocketman]

Not.

This is a rumor extrapolated from existing observables, while ignoring current even more obvious trends.

iPhone is a platform. The Apple Tablet Nano (ATN) platform. Now, months after I said so, Apple has said so.

iPhone is the Nano. The next form factor will be a "not nano" (ATNN). It will have TWO screens at least one of which is multi-touch and may even have a larger screen than 3.5" diagonal. Probably about 4.9".

The desktop form factor is here to stay. But portable computers which have experienced rapid adoption recently, due to the shortness of their adoption time, could be easily replaced with handheld form factors with the same or greater capabilities.

I predict it. I posted it to macrumors.com today (again). Scoop.

Rocketman

NOT subject to Apple NDA.

[Clix Pix]

What about the next big thing being an ultraportable touch-screen tablet or MBP? Thing is, with touch-screen technology, while it's great when using a small hand-holdable device, when you're talking about a screen which ideally should be at arms' length for purposes of good ergonomics and ease on the eyes, that is a different story. Right now, for instance, I'm typing on a keyboard and looking at my ACD at some distance....while if this ACD screen were touch-sensitive I COULD stick a finger out and poke at the screen to change something, that really would not be very comfortable or feasible. Sure, using my iPhone with touch-screen technology is easy, fun and very feasible. A desktop machine/ACD, even a laptop machine? Something else again!

I guess we will all see in the next few months what Apple has up its sleeve, but I quite agree that now they've broken through with the touch-screen technology in the iPhone, other goodies aren't going to be far behind....