Design

I Love Trackpads!

Somewhere, as I transitioned from being a proud desktop user with parts scattered around my room, to the being a dedicated laptop user, I forgot how to use a mouse. And today, I embrace the swiftness of the trackpad.

Is it a matter of preference and practice? Yes, but no.

Think about it. The distance it takes to move your hand from the QWERTY to the trackpad, usually below the spacebar, is much closer than the distance it takes to drop your hand on a mouse, reorientate your arm/wrist and fingers into place. And a trackpad’s control scheme uses a finger, which has a lot more dexterity than an arm/wrist you use when handling a mouse. Also, the future is multitouch trackpads. No other control scheme can match the potential of pinching/scrolling with multiple fingers, zooming, etc.

The touchpad is also a really natural movement, practiced by everyone since childhood days of drawing in the sand on the beach, or fingerpainting. The only more natural movement is to trace movement on an actual screen, but any screen we use in a non mobile environment is too big and vertical to do this easily on, for extended periods of time. Besides, the touchpad itself would work great with a secondary LCD display under it, making it essentially, a touchpad.

So, here’s to a future where the trackpad is everywhere. I look forward to it.

[SanwaNexus404, AdessoNexus404, Adesso2Nexus404, DinovoGiz, KeysonicKustomPC, SandbergTechhook, Adesso3Pcrush, MCEallproducts, McsaiteGeekalaert, TruFormProKeyboardco, ToshibaOverclockers, iKeyGadgetadvisor, iKey2Geekwithlaptop, FentexMiniGeekwithlaptop, EeeKeyboardDeviceDaily, LogitechHomeTheaterDialectical, special thanks to Quinton Ma for researching the models in this gallery.]

Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)

  • King Trash

    I’m not entirely convinced – the idea of using photoshop and illustrator, or gaming every day with a trackpad sounds terrible to me.

    While I’m a big fan of the trackpad, if I’m using my computer for extended periods of time I always change to a mouse simply because I find that it’s more accurate, faster, and ultimately more comfortable.

    • I couldn’t agree more

    • I have permanent injury to my wrists and can’t use a mouse.
      Can use a trackball on its side AND use my iphone as a trackpad with iTap which is awesome.

      Bring on ‘thought control’ I say!

    • Dousatsu

      Definitely. A trackpad is great if you’re doing a lot of word processing, where you need to move your right hand between the mouse and keyboard a lot, but if you’re using CS4 all day and barely take your hand off the mouse, then its just sub-par.

      Try using the pen tool in illustrator with a trackpad…its a nightmare! Not to mention brushing/burning/etc in photoshop. And I don’t think its a case of “having to get used to it”…I’ve been using a macbook pro for a fair few years and I still can’t stand shooping with the trackpad.

      Gaming is another obvious one, but I also find tracking in general is just annoying…I want to have the sensitivity low enough to make precise adjustments in CS, but high enough to track to the other side of the screen without it taking 10 strokes with my finger. You always have to make a compromise, whereas the mouse has a wider range due to the size of the mousepad and your precise hand movements.

  • Paul

    Can play Team fortress2 with a track pad. If you do, let me know and I will happily glue you back together…. in hell! TF2 players will know what I mean.

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