MacBooks to Feature iPhone's Multi-Touch?

Gadgets Lover writes "According to CrunchGear's 'trusted source' that the upcoming MacBooks which are expected to be released around October will support the iPhone's multi-touch technology built into their touchpads. The feature will be built into the touchpads, allowing you to navigate through your notebook's files, applications, etc. the same way you can on the iPhone. (Yes, I know you can already scroll with them, that's nothing new. I'm talking about all the other finger gestures that can be done on the iPhone's screen) On June 20th, CrunchGear reported, "The upcoming MacBooks will be about half the thickness of current models (which would be quite the feat) and they'll be made from new plastics/materials"."

Comments

Not just the touchpad

[Chairboy]

Prediction: Within a year, all Apple products with displays will have multi-touch. Laptops, external monitors, iPods, the whole shebang. Sure, most people won't use it all in the beginning. The UIs we have today aren't set up for it, neither are our office spaces. But Apple will bet the farm and just make is a Standard Feature on the bet that while the demand doesn't exist NOW, it'll appear out of whole cloth once it's so ubiquitous.

They did it w/ USB. They did it with mice.

"Blah blah greasy fingerprints on monitors" Yeah, anyone with half a brain can think of 10 reasons why this is dumb. But it's the crazy guy in the back of the auditorium who's going to figure out how to get rich off of it, and in doing so will make the standard transition from 'crazy wacked out goofball' to 'eccentric visionary'.

Re:Not just the touchpad

[The Second Horseman]

The best part? It's a feature which is pretty unusable for anyone with a visual impairment. AWSOME! I'm going to be really happy when everyone copies the iPhone interface and suddenly the visually impaired have few/no options for a usable mobile phone. THANK YOU STEVE JOBS! After all, we wouldn't want those blind folks, or people who are farsighted even to be able to rely on any other sense when using a phone. I'm glad to see you bringing back Apple's initial OS X less-than-friendly period in a new device. By the way, you might want to read the following: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/section255.ht ml

Perhaps this will provide Sir Steve the incentive he needs to do the charity thing in a serious way - he could fund a cure for blindness! Then he could create the perfect UI without having to compromise his vision of the perfect UI.

What about the heat?

[JimDaGeek]

I have a late 2006 Macbook with the Core Due (should have waited for the Core 2, oh well) and a Core 2 Duo iMac. Love them both. The Macbook has a scroll feature I just can't live without. Use one finger on the mouse pad and it moves the cursor as normal. Use TWO fingers and you can scroll any windows content vertically/horizontally. Every time I have to use a regular old laptop, I really miss this nice feature. These new features should be pretty nice additions to the Macbook

With that said, they only thing that bugs me about the Macbook I have is how hot the bottom gets. I had to buy a laptop pad which is a pain to have to remember to bring with me. In constrast, my Core 2 iMac is always cool and very silent. Are the newer models of Macbooks cooler so you can comfortably keep them on your lap?

Re:Still a touchpad

[yabos]

You're the only one I've ever heard of that actually likes those things. If you don't press them hard enough the mouse pointer hardly moves. If you press it too hard it goes flying around the screen. They're a nightmare to use.

Re:ease of service, anyone?

[wolrahnaes]

Have you worked on a Macbook yet? The hard drive and RAM are trivial to get to. Pop the battery, unscrew one panel (three screws), and either flip a lever or pull on a strap.

Re:ease of service, anyone?

[maztuhblastah]

Have you used the new MacBooks? The hard drive and RAM can both be swapped in a total of 5 minutes. Remove the battery, undo two screws, and you have the HD. Pull out the lever, and you have the RAM. That's it.

Re:Stop it. Stop it. Just stop it.

[Goaway]

Slashdot is not for technology enthusiasts. It's for people who dream of the days when computers were the size of closets, and who want a phone that "just makes calls".

Bad logic

[PhoenixOne]

So, because some people can't use a technology, nobody should be able to?

Lots of people can't eat corn, maybe we should ban everything with corn in it too? And nuts. With the war, how many people are missing an arm? Best not make cars with stick-shifts...

I'm not saying ignore people with disabilities (many of my friends have serious disabilities), but you can't make the world one-size fits all. And, as much as blind people might not enjoy the new iPhone, deaf people may enjoy being able to send email, pictures, and videos from a pocket-sized device.

Re:ease of service, anyone?

[Lars T.]

With IBM/Lenovo and Dell laptops (and probably many others), the drive can be accessed with one or two screws and they slide out of the chassis, even on their smallest+thinnest models.

This is particularly useful when "recycling" a laptop that's being replaced. I get a new laptop every 2-3 years to get the latest features and performance stuff, and when I do, I pull the HDD out of the old laptop and set it aside, as a "just in case" if I discover some important data that I forgot.

Using Dell laptops at our company, this is a VERY painless process - it takes seconds to pull the old HDD, stick in the new one, and start loading Windows. Why wouldn't Apple do this? Because Macs had target disk mode for ages?