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Apple's 'Magic Trackpad' or 'Magic Slate' Revealed?
- Thread starter sammy2066
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By "Invented", I take it you mean conceived of the idea in your head? If that's the case, I invented this about 15 years ago when I first used a Wacom tablet. Always thought how cool it would be if I could lose the pen and just lay my hand flat on the surface and tap with a finger to click.
Millions of people think of ideas every day. Unfortunately, for us mere mortals, our ideas will never go any further than a discussion among friends.
As far as I'm concerned trackpads are a solution to get around not having a mouse...so needless to say this isn't exactly targeted at me. 
For those who do hate mice, great. I don't know that this would be a huge seller though - it's cool but will no doubt be $$$ at least on par with the Magic Mouse (and that's overpriced as is IMO...the bluetooth keyboard OTOH was worth every penny).
Now for something like the ATV that could be different. I just wouldn't use it for the conventional OSX/Win7.
For those who do hate mice, great. I don't know that this would be a huge seller though - it's cool but will no doubt be $$$ at least on par with the Magic Mouse (and that's overpriced as is IMO...the bluetooth keyboard OTOH was worth every penny).Now for something like the ATV that could be different. I just wouldn't use it for the conventional OSX/Win7.
I actually put my mouse under my keyboard, so that I can turn to use it, having this pad to the right would mean that I had three different rotational positions of my wrist for the right hand to input. Sounds good to me.
I was thinking how this would work if you have a Mac Mini connected to your TV, or a MacBook connected to the TV. For lots of things you don't need a keyboard very much. So you would want some OS changes; one change that shows on on-screen keyboard in MacOS X when keyboard entry is needed. Don't know how well multi-touch works if you have a separate display and touch area.
Don't be crazy, Apple spent all of this time and money but they are going to tell you not to buy it.
Yeah I just meant that I thought of it... Most people like us don't have the financial ability and legal know-how to patent an idea such as that at the moment of conception... but it looks like you beat me to by a long shot anyway...
On to my next invention: The diagonal cross-walk with hand rails
Doesn't look fine at all.Looks fine to me.
The ergonomic benefit of getting rid of the numerical keypad is that you have have the alphanumerical keys centered right in front of you. If you do this with an old-school keyboard you'll either have off-center keys or the numpad will be sticking out on the right.
The lady on the left will have plenty of mouse arm pain when she goes to bed...
That's why I'm going to place the 'magic pad' on the left. I'm a southpaw anyway, but not one of those who put the mouse on the left side.
whats so great about it? i don't really get it to be honest, its just a Wacom tablet but with an Apple icon. Oh wait Apple made it so it has to be crazy never thought of technology
same as the ipad... nothing new, boring and only interesting for fan-boys
Actually it's just simply a track pad for your desktop PC?
I don't see how you think it's suppose to be special at all. Based what we seen so far, it's not trying to be a wacom at all, but Apples new mouse, nothing more. I don't get how this is confusing so many people, I know its early in the morning in some places, but try to have a cup of coffee or two before posting.
I see a distinct lack of a button. I haven't used one of latest glass trackpads, so I can't vouch for the overall experience myself. But I think if I were using Photoshop, I'd feel better holding a button and moving my fingers lightly across the pad, than having to add extra pressure to keep the trackpad in a 'button-down' position constantly. Sounds like extra wrist strain and extra pressure on the device, causing accelerated wear - to me, anyway. As I say, I'm still in the Powerbook era!
You clearly don't understand how the glass trackpads work.
To do the operation you said, you hold down your thumb where the button is on normal trackpads, and move your fingers lightly across the surface.
why do you guys assume this would have to be between you and the keyboard?
I would imagine that it works like the trackpads, but bigger, and that they will still be able to do left and right clicks.
so, what I would imagine is that it would sit on the side of your keyboard and you would use it in place of your mouse. you're already dedicating a hand to that anyway.
and hey, your computer setup will never move then. all stationed.
not like that's a big thing or even anything, but cool to me sortof.
I would imagine that it works like the trackpads, but bigger, and that they will still be able to do left and right clicks.
so, what I would imagine is that it would sit on the side of your keyboard and you would use it in place of your mouse. you're already dedicating a hand to that anyway.
and hey, your computer setup will never move then. all stationed.
not like that's a big thing or even anything, but cool to me sortof.
This is quite a nice concept; i like the idea of restricting to using 1axis, but i only think it's useful in some situations, in others using other axes would make sense... for example, in the demo shown i think the idea of application windows displayed on a single linear horizontal stack is a good one, but i also think it would even more powerful if each application themselves were stacked in the y axis too; this would make for better logical separation of apps and is a better use of space. Nice to see these kind of concepts though, great food for thought....
