trackpad questions

[actorkid]

i'm completely aware that the MBP and macbook trackpads are completely different since the MBP now has a HARDWARE change, giving it "multi-touch" thus allowing advanced two finger/three finger gestures.

I'm wondering, however, why it wouldnt be possible for apple to upgrade the macbook trackpad with at least a couple of new gestures.

I know the technology on the macbook trackpad wouldnt be able to do things such as pinching/rotating.

but since the macbook trackpad can clearly distinguish between one and two contact points moving in a linear motion, why couldnt apple upgrade the trackpad to allow something like a two finger swipe for moving forward and backward between webpages. (up/down for scrolling, left/right for paging)

The three finger swipe found in the multi-touch trackpad is really the only gesture i would use, so a two finger swipe, rather than a three finger swipe would solve this problem.

so, in short: in theory shouldnt it be possible for apple to allow the macbook trackpad to perform a few more basic two finger, linear gestures without a hardware upgrade?

 

[Italchef]

I don't know really what the answer is to your question. Increasing the trackpad's gesture range, no matter how small, is still a hardware upgrade. The way I see it, from a marketing point of view, Apple needs to maintain a fairly hefty division between the consumer macbooks and the pro range. I do believe that they will give the macbooks the full range trackpad in the not-so-distant future, but I can't see this happening before a major revision to the macbook pros. I'm about to invest in a macbook myself, and while I'd love to have the same gesture range that the air and pros have, its not a big deal for me and in no way would make me delay my purchase. It's inherent when buying Apple products to question the timing of future revisions, but after a while one realizes that you just buy it and love it and never look back.

Mick