The Apple thread

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:33 am 0

They've had multi-touch track pads for a while (MB Pro has them). It recognizes up to 2 fingers, which is nice for scrolling. You can't do gestures on it, though that could be fixed with software I'd imagine.

Probably the neatest touchpad I saw was on some older Toshiba laptops. It had a backlit LCD screen on it, and you could interact with it with your fingers. It was mostly "oh, that's cool!" more than really functional (it had a clock/calendar on it, among other things).

If Apple releases a tablet, it probably is going to have new writing-recognition software in it. The built-in stuff on Leopard is complete shit (using a Wacom). Tablet PC is where it's at for the moment.

corrosive · Post by **corrosive** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:58 am 0

Dave wrote:They've had multi-touch track pads for a while (MB Pro has them). It recognizes up to 2 fingers, which is nice for scrolling. You can't do gestures on it, though that could be fixed with software I'd imagine.

Some of the PowerBooks had these too, they even enabled the "hold-down two fingers on the touchpad for right-click" thing under Leopard. I rather suspect it's something other than true multi-touch though, but can't be bothered to go digging in the Darwin source for evidence (if there is any).

WiteWulf · Post by **WiteWulf** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:47 am 0

My 12" iBook has two-finger scrolling, too. It's nothing special and certainly not 'true' multi-touch.

Deckard · Post by **Deckard** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 10:48 am 0

I see the Times today has said there will be an ultra-portable from Mac next week

I can't imagine it will be cheap though

WiteWulf · Post by **WiteWulf** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 10:53 am 0

Whyever not? Apple are renowned for their excellent value for money, not to mention the high reliability of first-gen products.

tufty · Post by **tufty** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:30 pm 0

WiteWulf wrote:Whyever not? Apple are renowned for their excellent value for money, not to mention the high reliability of first-gen products.

Correct. I have a 1st-gen 1.42GHz Mac Mini right here which can attest to that. The only time it's been turned off since it arrived has been due to complete power outages and / or massive thunderstorms.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:40 pm 0

WiteWulf wrote:My 12" iBook has two-finger scrolling, too. It's nothing special and certainly not 'true' multi-touch.

Two finger scrolling is one of fave features on my Mac, as is the scroll ball on my mighty mouse. As soon as I boot into windows, or use a trad mouse with a mouse wheel I *hate* the fact that I can scroll a window up & down but have to use a grab bar to go left & right. 2 finger scrolling is just so...elegant!

Post by **RiK** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 6:20 pm 0

Gus wrote:
WiteWulf wrote:My 12" iBook has two-finger scrolling, too. It's nothing special and certainly not 'true' multi-touch.
Two finger scrolling is one of fave features on my Mac, as is the scroll ball on my mighty mouse. As soon as I boot into windows, or use a trad mouse with a mouse wheel I *hate* the fact that I can scroll a window up & down but have to use a grab bar to go left & right. 2 finger scrolling is just so...elegant!

In fairness though, all the MS mice and probably a good few others do sideways scrolling on the wheel as well these days. The last three mice I've had all did it by tilting the wheel left or right.

I've been a proper

since switching but I still use a microsoft keyboard and mouse as they are both excellent.

WiteWulf · Post by **WiteWulf** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:15 pm 0

Oooo...I never got on with those weird mice that have the tilting wheel. Having said that, I wouldn't give up my Trackball Explorer for anything.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:23 pm 0

Gus wrote:Two finger scrolling is one of fave features on my Mac, as is the scroll ball on my mighty mouse.

I really like it too, except for the fact that it gets dirty WAY too often, and requires a cleaning about once every 1-2 weeks.

I don't have dirty hands either - the design just sucks in this regard.

It's a lot nicer than the MS side-scrolling mice (cleaning issues aside), as those let you go up/down, left/right, and I assume maybe diagonal at 45 degree angles. The MM lets you go in any direction with the little ball, rather than in fixed angles, which works better when moving around large images.

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:32 pm 0

Gus wrote:Two finger scrolling is one of fave features on my Mac, as is the scroll ball on my mighty mouse. As soon as I boot into windows, or use a trad mouse with a mouse wheel I *hate* the fact that I can scroll a window up & down but have to use a grab bar to go left & right. 2 finger scrolling is just so...elegant!

The need for left right scrolling pretty much died as soon as I got a widescreen.

My Logitech mouse had side scrolling but I never used it. I think I'll have to mess with the lock button on the Logitech trackball. Might switch the trackball from move mode to scroll mode for all I know.

WiteWulf · Post by **WiteWulf** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:36 pm 0

Guru-Meditation wrote: The need for left right scrolling pretty much died as soon as I got a widescreen.

Agreed (kinda), I hardly ever need to scroll sideways these days and I consider it bad web design if a page needs to be scrolled on a modern monitor. I can't remember that last time I had to scroll horizontally on my 1280x1024 display at work and it's rare on my 12" iBook. What annoys me is people who post enormous digicam images and can't be bother to resize them first.

HGFB · Post by **HGFB** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:38 pm 0

What annoys me more are the masses of websites who insist on fixing the width of the display. All that means is that most of us get a tiny strip of site down the center of our screen.

WiteWulf · Post by **WiteWulf** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 10:56 am 0

The most annoying thing, tho, has to be sites that actually resize your browser window to 640x480 to show their shit layout.

Muphex · Post by **Muphex** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:27 pm 0

Dave wrote:
Gus wrote:Two finger scrolling is one of fave features on my Mac, as is the scroll ball on my mighty mouse.
I really like it too, except for the fact that it gets dirty WAY too often, and requires a cleaning about once every 1-2 weeks.

I don't have dirty hands either - the design just sucks in this regard.

It's a lot nicer than the MS side-scrolling mice (cleaning issues aside), as those let you go up/down, left/right, and I assume maybe diagonal at 45 degree angles. The MM lets you go in any direction with the little ball, rather than in fixed angles, which works better when moving around large images.

How exactly o you clean it short of ripping it apart my wheel gave up the ghost within about a month and hasn't worked since and taking it apart looks like a nightmare?

*edit* Touch of super servicol on a sock did the job.....great!