This is driving me nuts...

[wankey]

The multitouch on my macbook pro early 08 edition is DRIVING ME NUTS to the point where I actually smacked the mbp (probably not a good idea).

What happens is this, my hands are pretty big and they tend to sit on the macbook when I'm typing. However, Apple's ingenius designers decide to include a miniscule <0.25mm height gap between the trackpad and the surrounding aluminum so often the bottom right part of my palm *slightly* touches (heck even the slightest touch) the track pad. This makes the trackpad go HAYWIRE.

Often times as I'm browsing websites or typing on forums text would randomly increase in size or pages will slowly go upwards or downwards...

This is beyond annoyance now.

Is there anything to increase the height differential between the trackpad and the aluminum around it?

Another annoyance about OS X is why can't I set the sensitivity of the trackpad? The trackpad seems to work on a *instant touch* sensitivity, is it due to the capacitive sensor now? (Compared to resistive sensors of age old laptops where you could set sensitivities)

Anyways... whew... I feel better.

Is there anyway to remove the zoom feature in Safari (Where it zooms the text... absolutely worthless feature if you ask me since OS X has zoom itself. Firefox does it better so is god damned slow... can't get what you want I guess)

 

[kolax]

How do you position your hands when typing? I'd say I have medium hands and I never touch the trackpad. I agree the zoom feature is pretty annoying. I wish it was possible to turn it off.

The sensitivity though - go to "trackpad" in System Preferences, adjust it there.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

I dont think you even have to touch the trackpad. You just need to get really close as it works on electrical pulses (i think).

 

[drichards]

Yep yep, electrical pulses. That's why there's those stupid old iphone gloves that needed batteries.

 

[wankey]

Yep yep, electrical pulses. That's why there's those stupid old iphone gloves that needed batteries.

What's that

 

[drichards]

Your trackpad, it reads electrical data from your hands... as opposed to your generic pc trackpad, which reads heat.

 

[wankey]

Your trackpad, it reads electrical data from your hands... as opposed to your generic pc trackpad, which reads heat.

sorry i meant:

That's why there's those stupid old iphone gloves that needed batteries.

Whats the iphone gloves

 

[drichards]

Like these but crappier, they were out last winter and needed batteries.

 

[MowingDevil]

Your annoyance is actually due to poor typing techinique. I find I have the same problem when I get lazy w/ my hand positioning and it scrolls on me. Try tilting your wrists away from the trackpad a bit in both directions and it will help....or try lifting your wrists up so perhaps your arms are touching the edge but your thumbs/hands are not dragging. Worth a shot.

I feel your pain w/ the zooming in Safari. Anyone know what the 'command' for this is? Sometimes I have no idea what I did, some odd gesture that zooms randomly...pain in the butt.

 

[kolax]

I feel your pain w/ the zooming in Safari. Anyone know what the 'command' for this is? Sometimes I have no idea what I did, some odd gesture that zooms randomly...pain in the butt.

CMD+ is the command.

However, pinching on the trackpad will also cause Safari's font size to change.

 

[MowingDevil]

CMD+ is the command.

However, pinching on the trackpad will also cause Safari's font size to change.

Ya I knew the key command but it was the trackpad that I didn't get. Trust me I'm not pinching either; must be just some fluke that the trackpad interprets as a pinch gesture by accident.

 

[kolax]

Ya I knew the key command but it was the trackpad that I didn't get. Trust me I'm not pinching either; must be just some fluke that the trackpad interprets as a pinch gesture by accident.

Yeah - if you rest your thumb on the trackpad where the clicker "is" and move the cursor, it depends where your thumb is. If it is out of the lower region, then the trackpad will interpret any movement from your thumb (even slight) as a pinch.

Try keep it as low as possible - the trackpad knows to ignore any thumb movement in the lower region.

 

[MowingDevil]

Yeah - if you rest your thumb on the trackpad where the clicker "is" and move the cursor, it depends where your thumb is. If it is out of the lower region, then the trackpad will interpret any movement from your thumb (even slight) as a pinch.

Try keep it as low as possible - the trackpad knows to ignore any thumb movement in the lower region.

Ya thats what I must be doing...I'm always leaving my thumb down to click w/ as if there's a button there...bad habits for the new trackpad I suppose.

 

[motulist]

Have you tried changing the trackpad settings in the system preferences? I don't have a multitouch trackpad, so I can't say what options are there, but on traditional trackpads the system preferences includes settings like a check box for "ignore accidental trackpad input" and things like that.

 

[kolax]

Have you tried changing the trackpad settings in the system preferences? I don't have a multitouch trackpad, so I can't say what options are there, but on traditional trackpads the system preferences includes settings like a check box for "ignore accidental trackpad input" and things like that.

Not on the new ones - it can't ignore accidental trackpad input because of all the multi-touch gestures. How would you know what to ignore..

 

[motulist]

Not on the new ones - it can't ignore accidental trackpad input because of all the multi-touch gestures. How would you know what to ignore..

Apple does all kinds of that type of magic, maybe they just need more time to develop this new technology to figure out which inputs are accidental and which are not. For instance, in the OP's situation it seems like any single point input (the corner of his palm) that's coming in from a very far edge of the trackpad near the keyboard and then not moving significantly should be disregarded. No one starts off any intentional (non-moving) trackpad gesture at the edge of a trackpad. And I imagine that with a gigantic trackpad that will be even more true, no one is starting a trackpad input from all the way off near the far edge on their gigantic trackpad unless you're doing a gesture where you're gonna be doing a significant slide pulling toward another area of the trackpad.