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mr.fixit

macrumors newbie
Feb 19, 2008
2
0
That thumb and 2 finger set of gestures are ackward.

Trust me when I say that you really can't tell by looking at them. I'd be willing to bet that you would have a different opinion after using them. And if the configurability of the Touchstream keyboard is any indicator, you should be able to customize everything.
 

asdavis10

macrumors 6502
Feb 3, 2008
460
2,564
Bermuda
Advanced multi-touch sounds great for new laptop models. Unfortunately for those people waiting for the new MB's and MBP's, you're only going to see multi-touch capabilities of the MBA. These advanced capabilities aren't coming as soon as you think. Apple isn't going to cannibalize the sales of the MBA by putting one of its key selling features into other laptop models. So I'm even skeptical if the new MB's and MBP's have the same multi-touch as the MBA. That would mean at least a year before those models get it and then maybe another year before advanced multi-touch is seen. And besides, those images were just mock drawings. Those gestures have to be tested. Some look very awkward. But if advanced multi-touch isn't just a feature built into laptops then I think we're going to see an external (USB and wireless) multi-touch trackpad for the Mac desktops. Now that excites me more than new trackpads in laptops.
 

EagerDragon

macrumors 68020
Jun 27, 2006
2,098
0
MA, USA
Trust me when I say that you really can't tell by looking at them. I'd be willing to bet that you would have a different opinion after using them. And if the configurability of the Touchstream keyboard is any indicator, you should be able to customize everything.

If you look at the two gestures I speak about Thumb, Index, Middle fingers, there are arrows that describe the movement of each, maybe I am getting old, but after a few repetitions my wrist starts to ache and normaly I have no issues with my hands or wrists.

Like I said, I hope we can customize them.
 

Rogzilla

macrumors regular
Sep 11, 2007
192
6
now this is exciting. maybe that tablet mac is coming

Oh I am certain it is coming...but don't expect it soon.

These gestures are clearly designed for a trackpad and the functionality just wouldn't transition the same way to a tablet. Similar, sure but not the same.

This is deffinately a good sign in that it shows that Apple sees clearly the multitouch application for computing and are working to get that intergrated.
 

MrCrowbar

macrumors 68020
Jan 12, 2006
2,232
519
Wow, there are some quite elaborate ones on there. I thought Apple tried to keep everything simple interface wise. I mean, the one button mouse is still standard and you have to activate the right click. I actually like this approach. I mean I can use the trackpads whole surface, resting my last thumb joint on the button. Right-clicking works by tapping two fingers. Scrolling is with 2 fingers too. For web surfing, i prefer using the trackpad because 2D scrolling with a mouse is kinda awkward, even with the mighty mouse.

I for one welcome our new multi-touch overlords. That's one of those hardware features that makes you want to upgrade even your computer does everything you need it to do right now. :)
 

kuwisdelu

macrumors 65816
Jan 13, 2008
1,323
2
Wow, there are some quite elaborate ones on there. I thought Apple tried to keep everything simple interface wise. I mean, the one button mouse is still standard and you have to activate the right click. I actually like this approach. I mean I can use the trackpads whole surface, resting my last thumb joint on the button. Right-clicking works by tapping two fingers. Scrolling is with 2 fingers too. For web surfing, i prefer using the trackpad because 2D scrolling with a mouse is kinda awkward, even with the mighty mouse.

I for one welcome our new multi-touch overlords. That's one of those hardware features that makes you want to upgrade even your computer does everything you need it to do right now. :)

I'm sure it'll be an option, though, and can either be disabled or will need to be enabled. For anyone for whom it's too complicated, they don't even have to bother with it.

I'm excited, too. The MBA's multitouch already has me wanting that.
 

alllllie

macrumors newbie
Feb 19, 2008
2
0
So, this may have an obvious answer, but I'm not sure. Will you have to get a new updated model to have the multi-touch features or will there just be an operating system update that anyone with leopard will be able to use?

Because I'm probably ordering my Macbook Pro on Friday and I don't want to wait for a new update because I don't want a new keyboard, but I reallllly want the multi touch features.
 

kuwisdelu

macrumors 65816
Jan 13, 2008
1,323
2
So, this may have an obvious answer, but I'm not sure. Will you have to get a new updated model to have the multi-touch features or will there just be an operating system update that anyone with leopard will be able to use?

Because I'm probably ordering my Macbook Pro on Friday and I don't want to wait for a new update because I don't want a new keyboard, but I reallllly want the multi touch features.

Sadly, they require different hardware than the current MacBooks and MacBook Pros have. The MacBook Air incorporates the same hardware for multitouch that's in the iPhone and the iPod Touch, so it would probably be capable of these new gestures with a simple software update, but not the current MB's and MBP's. However, you will still find many people who refuse to admit this basic fact and expect Apple to release a software update to bring these new features to hardware that isn't capable of it (despite purely anecdotal evidence otherwise).
 

alllllie

macrumors newbie
Feb 19, 2008
2
0
Sadly, they require different hardware than the current MacBooks and MacBook Pros have. The MacBook Air incorporates the same hardware for multitouch that's in the iPhone and the iPod Touch, so it would probably be capable of these new gestures with a simple software update, but not the current MB's and MBP's. However, you will still find many people who refuse to admit this basic fact and expect Apple to release a software update to bring these new features to hardware that isn't capable of it (despite purely anecdotal evidence otherwise).

Even with the three finger backward/forward page swipe? We can already scroll right and left, this requires new software, too? I'm sorry I can't let it go, haha, I'm so disappointed.
 

Cloudmover

macrumors newbie
Feb 14, 2008
23
0
NYC
Stand-alone Multi-Touch trackpad

That way Mini, Mac Pro and owners of older Apple hardware are able to have this functionality.

Optional for when it's handy. Put it on the desk, do your thing. When you're done, back in the drawer.

GIMME!!!
Agreed!

I don't use a mouse because it causes Carpal tunnel syndrome-like symptoms in my wrist and fingers. A multi-touch trackpad would be ideal.

Can't wait for a wired version of this tech. Maybe a third party vendor like Wacom could offer it...
 

Stuart.Mackie

macrumors newbie
Jan 26, 2008
25
0
Canada
Yes, but on new MacBooks, and once the MBP and Air have had it for a while I imagine.

alright so i have the macbook that is out now, with the basic scrolling, no way the update could be on the current ones then?

when is the release date for the new macbooks, new features?
 

Orng

macrumors 6502
Jul 23, 2007
386
0
Maybe a dumb question but is their anyway possible that there could be an update for this on the MacBook.

I'd say the best you could hope for is some trackpad hardware on eBay and macBook disassembly instructions printed out from iFixit.com.

:)

edit: disclaimer. Please don't go buy a trackpad on eBay, I meant, down the road. When future multitouch MacBooks have been on the market long enough to generate spare parts that may or may not be on eBay!
 

asdavis10

macrumors 6502
Feb 3, 2008
460
2,564
Bermuda
alright so i have the macbook that is out now, with the basic scrolling, no way the update could be on the current ones then?

when is the release date for the new macbooks, new features?

No one knows when new MB's or MBP's will be released but I don't think the new models will have the MBA's multi-touch. It just wouldn't seem smart for Apple to include this feature so soon in other models. Apple wants to sell as many MBA's as possible and multi-touch has cause many people to buy them. The update is NOT software related. The new multi-touch capabilities require a hardware upgrade.
 

tirerim

macrumors regular
Aug 4, 2006
204
0
haha, i figured, so when is the expected release date for the new generation of MB's and MBP's?

New Features?

No one knows. If they did, the information would be on this site. There are a lot of rumors of MBPs being released 'soon', but that's it.
 

SiliconAddict

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2003
5,889
0
Chicago, IL
I hate to break this to Apple but I've been doing much of this in Vista on my tablet PC for weeks now. The flick gesture options in the Tablet PC allow all kinds of customization and there are third party apps that expand on it well beyond that into the realm of what was on the Palm years ago. Gesture control is nothing new, contrary to what the Steve's RDF would have you believe. :rolleyes: So many of these patents are going to get blown away in the coming years because of prior art, it won't even be funny. Someone will inevitably make a drinking game out of it. Granted at the speed the patent office moves it might be one drink every 2 years, but hey.
 

MattInOz

macrumors 68030
Jan 19, 2006
2,760
0
Sydney
i thought tablets were going to be the next big thing, but i guess there still a ways off to becoming the norm.


Why So?

I would have thought these gestures make a lot of sense on a tablet indeed and fix one of the big the short comings of a tablet that is if your still doing everything by stabbing out shortcuts and at menus then you might as well have a keyboard. If you might as well have a keyboard it's a crippled laptop not a tablet.

With gestures on the screen you do things to items the way you would on a paste board. Look at at cut and paste it's like you scooped up an item then dropped in down, then after you dropped it the same 3 finger gestures allow you to resize and nudge into position.

This is begging for a tablet.
Now the only time you need a keyboard is to write text.
That said it would still rock on a laptop or desk top.
 

MattInOz

macrumors 68030
Jan 19, 2006
2,760
0
Sydney
heh, no need to roll your eyes. And it wouldn't be an oxymoron, even if you were right, lol.

I watched the Keynote. Jobs criticized the stylus as a stupid thing to carry around and use with a tiny device like a PDA/"smart" phone. That's an extremely far cry from using a touch pad with a stylus like a Wacom pad. For one, it's not portable. For another, it's not tiny and awkward, it's nice and big.

Didn't he also criticize having to pull out the style to do basic stuff like click a button.
So he hasn't ruled out using a stylus to do things like drawing and writing.
In that regards His Steveness hasn't really expressed an opinion either way.

I would think he thinks it makes sense.
 

shadowfax

macrumors 603
Sep 6, 2002
5,849
0
Houston, TX
I hate to break this to Apple but I've been doing much of this in Vista on my tablet PC for weeks now. The flick gesture options in the Tablet PC allow all kinds of customization and there are third party apps that expand on it well beyond that into the realm of what was on the Palm years ago. Gesture control is nothing new, contrary to what the Steve's RDF would have you believe. :rolleyes: So many of these patents are going to get blown away in the coming years because of prior art, it won't even be funny. Someone will inevitably make a drinking game out of it. Granted at the speed the patent office moves it might be one drink every 2 years, but hey.
So, you are telling me that your tablet supports multitouch gestures? If multitouch gestures are under the copyright blanket of tablet gestures, then I'd say there's really no argument for copyrighting gestures at all, because it's natural action that is performed every day at airports, when you wave at people, etc. I think this might have a leg to stand on. You talk about your tablet like it's on the level of the iPhone, and I can tell you that's not the case.
 

SiliconAddict

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2003
5,889
0
Chicago, IL
So, you are telling me that your tablet supports multitouch gestures? If multitouch gestures are under the copyright blanket of tablet gestures, then I'd say there's really no argument for copyrighting gestures at all, because it's natural action that is performed every day at airports, when you wave at people, etc. I think this might have a leg to stand on. You talk about your tablet like it's on the level of the iPhone, and I can tell you that's not the case.

You didn't READ my post did you? I said much. The screen is touch IS sensitive. and what is being shown in that patent isn't totally about multitouch....or did you not read the patent either?

Oh and
http://www.4shared.com/file/38363955/f537d854/whatever.html

The FPS in the capture is horrid and it doesn't show you my finger being used....The point is that Apple isn't doing anything new, and hardly anything revolutionary. And while I'm not sure if my tablet can register a multitouch I know for a damn fact that Lenovo's Thinkpad Tablet can. As I've harped on people before. Vista has the undercarriage to support a very nice touch GUI. Someone simply needs to build 3rd party apps to use it. We already are seeing such things as I said before in apps that recognize gestures to do specific actions. More then anything its apple who is starting to play catch up. dropping a larger touchpad in your device and allowing you to stretch pictures does NOT a revolution make.
 

BrianFD3S

macrumors member
Feb 19, 2008
71
0
Ireland
What's the likelihood of ever being able to use an iPhone or iPod Touch linked via USB , WiFi or Bluetooth as a MultiTouch pad on previous Macs? This could be a 'cheaper' solution for people that want to have MultiTouch on their MBP etc but don't want to fork out for an entirely new computer.
 
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