Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Magic Trackpad
- Thread starter ccf
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I haven't found anything special about it when used with GarageBand. I will however say this, as a developer beta testing lion, the MagicTrackpad is the best investment I have ever made for my Mac (besides the RAM upgrade). Lion was designed for use with a trackpad and not a mouse. I would recommended getting the trackpad if you plan on upgrading to 10.7, regardless of the benefits or lack of them for GarageBand.
-Don
-Don
I appreciate the advice. Could you expound on why the trackpad is preferred over the mouse in Lion? Maybe some examples? Just curious.
As far as Garage Band, I assumed the trackpad would be better for playing virtual instruments like the piano. It seems the ergonomics of pressing "keys" would be much better with a trackpad as opposed to a mouse. Then again, I'm new to Garage Band & may not understand how virtual instruments work.
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
thats awesome - i sold my new, unused magic mouse and brought myself a trackpad, wireless bluetooth keyboard and the magic wand thingy to link the two
i absolutely love the trackpad, so much more versatile and functional than a mouse and i find navigating, drop + click a lot easier and more accurate than the mouse
ps love the 2/3/4 finger gestures
Sure no problem. One thing that I find really useful is the ease of access to launchpad with the trackpad. I find myself able to launch applications so much more quickly by just using the gesture to bring up my most used apps. It's quicker than having to through the finder, an app stack in the dock, or through spotlight. Think of LaunchPad as being exactly like the iPhone/iPad home screen. Sure you could map launchpad to a function key, but I find that to be very cumbersome.The gesture I find myself using the most right now is the four finger swipe left or right, which allows you to switch between your spaces. I almost never used spaces in leopard/snow leopard, but I find myself using spaces everyday now, because it is so intuitive to just swipe my hand and "pull" the next desktop over. From my understanding, the Magic Mouse only supports two finger gestures (full disclosure: I've never used a magic mouse, I had a Logitech MX Revolution before the trackpad and a bluetooth mighty mouse before that). Many of the gestures used in lion for launching expose, or spaces, etc. require three or four finger gestures, so when I was debating between the magic trackpad and the magic mouse, the trackpad was the no brainer.
As someone who is an avid photographer, I've found that manipulating images is amazingly easy with the trackpad, from zooming to rotating photos it's so much quicker than going and actually clicking a button or using a keyboard shortcut. While this doesn't specifically apply to you, I personally find it to be one of the biggest perks of the trackpad.
Finally, the fact that the trackpad is so large makes it extremely comfortable to use. It is probably twice the size of the trackpad on a macbook pro. So if you are at all worried about ergonomics, know that there should not be any issues with hand cramping due to having to scrunch your hand up to make gestures.
-Don