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Two-Finger Scrolling For Older Mac Laptops
Michael Stroeck writes "Want that nifty scrolling on your portable but have an older one? No problem, Daniel Becker has written a free alternative driver for older PowerBooks and iBooks that works like a charm. It is based on Apple's AppleADBMouse-209.0.10 driver from Mac OS 10.3.7 that is available as part of the publicly released Darwin source code. As such, the driver is covered by the APSL (Apple Public Source License)."
I wonder, has anyone used this function in conjunction with the new drivers?
It can crash some systems hard.
I have an aluminum powerbook which according to the web site is supported. I am running Macos X 10.3.8.
I followed the instructions for installing the XY based driver temporarily. Immediately upon loading the new driver the system dims the screen and instructs the user to do a hard power down and restart the machine.
I will investigate further. For now, be very careful, and those for whom it does work should post explicit information on their software+hardware configuration so as not to mislead others.
I came from a Windows laptop that you could scroll using the touchpad. You'd either have your finger on the right edge of the pad (for verticle) or on the bottom edge (for horizontal). That was a VERY nifty feature that I loved and used all the time.
So then I got the Mac. Before Apple announced that feature I was planning to use SideTrack so I could get the scrolling, but when Apple announced it I decided to give their way a try. Here is my review: IT ROCKS!
It is SO easy to do and works flawlessly. You don't need to know where your finger is on the pad. It doesn't matter how far apart the two fingers are, it works great. I've found myself using my index and ring fingers for it (just seems comfortable). It scrolls so easily and naturally it took absolutly no time to get used it. It's a fantastic feature.
My only complaint: on my Windows laptop I could drag to scroll and then lift my finger and it would keep scrolling. I would like that functionality too, but it's no big deal.
So in short, if you've got an Apple laptop I suggest you try this if it does work (I haven't tested it, but I have no doubts as this is a hardware feature not a software feature, I think), I bet you'll love it.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
"Absolutely, it all boils down to money. And part of higher returns is having returning customers. Customers are more likely to return if they have positive image of a company. Which brings me back to my original claim. If indeed the trackpads are identical or within a certain threshold of similarity (which it appears that they are) then it would be a pre-designed crippling of functionality for the same software (OS X 10.3 in this case) to function differently based upon hardware differences other than the trackpad. In my opinion, this is a sleazy thing to do and all I have claimed is that it will be a factor in my choosing to return to Apple for my future computing needs.
The new trackpads are connected via USB rather than ADB, so the scrolling functionality of the new trackpads is coded in the AppleUSBMouse.kext driver, not AppleADBMouse.kext like the "W-Enhanced" hack. The scroll trackpads are manufactured by Apple themselves rather than a third party company (Synaptics) like the W-Enhanced ADB trackpads on previous PowerBooks and iBooks.
To me it seems reasonable to assume two things based on these facts; That the trackpads probably don't use the same protocols to communicate with the computer, and that the hardware is different enough for Apple to piss off the supplier of iPod scroll wheels by ordering fewer trackpads from them.