Apple’s latest gadget is the Magic Trackpad. I have to say, I’ve only known about it for less than an hour and I want it. I don’t need it by any stretch of the imagination, especially since my only computer at the moment is a MacBook Pro. But that’s not stopping me from wanting to buy it.
With this new peripheral, Apple is showing that they intend to continue moving all of their products towards having touch-based inputs. I love that idea, and it’s one step closer to gesture-based and the fabled Minority Report interface. But even if I did get one, I don’t know how much I would use it. I already have a trackpad and I don’t use it that often, I prefer using my Magic Mouse. I like having the ability to “touch” my data, but old habits die hard and I’m a little too used to using a mouse to give it up easily.
I don’t doubt that 3 years from now I’ll hardly ever use a mouse in favor of a touchpad, but I don’t see that shift happening immediately. And neither does Apple, hence why it’s a standalone peripheral and not built into their keyboards, at least just yet. Then again, in another 3 years, Apple will probably begin to do away with keyboards as we know them in favor of a dynamic touch-based input device like on the iPhone. It’ll be a tad more complicated, especially in getting the form factor right. But we’ve already seen patents covering this technology from Apple, so they’ve probably already come close to perfecting it, especially given how long they claim to test products before production.
The future of computing is coming, and I can’t wait.