TrackPad Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Apple awarded glass-on-metal trackpad design patent

by Steven Sande (Jan 15th, 2013)

The next time you sit down at an aluminum unibody MacBook and glide your finger atop the trackpad, you can take pride in knowing that the design of that trackpad has been issued a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Design patent D674382 was published today under the rather mundane ...

Apple granted 22 patents including trackpads, iPhone circuit boards and more

by Chris Rawson (Jan 18th, 2012)

Every once in a while Apple gets granted a big chunk of patents all at once, and this is one of those times. In addition to an Apple TV patent we've described in its own post, Apple's been granted over 20 other patents ranging from advanced trackpads to iPhone circuit board designs and ...

Magic Numpad turns your Magic Trackpad into a number pad

by Matt Tinsley (Aug 31st, 2011)

So you love your sleek, compact Apple wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad, right? Who doesn't? There's not a wire or cable in sight and you're workspace couldn't be more clutter free, functional and oh so pleasing to the eye. Until, that is, that dreadful day comes when you need to do some ...

Customizing a Magic Trackpad using BetterTouchTool

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jan 19th, 2011)

We took a look at BetterTouchTool last year and covered its usage with a Magic Mouse and a MacBook trackpad. As you would expect, this versatile utility can also be used to customize the functionality of the Magic Trackpad. The app features over 50 multi-touch gestures including taps, clicks and ...

Become a creative multitasker with IOGraph

by Michael Grothaus (Jan 5th, 2011)

Ever feel like spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations weren't your true calling? Do you yearn to have a more creative side but can't find the time with all your office commitments? I've got just the thing for you. IOGraph is a fun little app for Mac OS X and Windows that turns all the starts, ...

Mac 101: Adjusting your mouse and trackpad speed

by Michael Jones (Dec 6th, 2010)

More Mac 101, our series of tips and tricks for novice Mac users. If you've ever used the trackpad on a PC laptop connected to an external monitor and noticed how many times you have to swipe your finger across the pad to get the mouse cursor from one screen to the other, the end result can be ...

New Apple patents for iPhone, wide trackpad, Final Cut Pro, and Apple Mail

by Mike Schramm (Nov 17th, 2010)

Patently Apple's got a whole slew of new patent applications from Cupertino today. First up are the actual product designs of the original iPhone and the second-gen iPod shuffle. Apple's moved on from both of these designs to newer and better things, but they're putting the patents in anyway, just ...

"Magic Slate" to be unveiled today at WWDC?

by Michael Grothaus (Jun 7th, 2010)

Engadget has some photos of the supposed Multi-Touch trackpad peripheral Steve Jobs is going to unveil today at WWDC. There's some debate on what its name will be, but "Magic Slate" popped up back in December, and then "Magic Trackpad" showed up in an Apple trademark filing in February. The ...

Inertial scrolling should be possible on all multi-touch trackpads

by Chris Rawson (Apr 24th, 2010)

A new feature called "inertial scrolling" has been introduced in the latest MacBook Pros. This feature changes the way that scrolling functions in OS X, making it behave more like the iPhone. Traditionally, when you use two-finger scrolling in OS X, scrolling stops dead as soon as your fingers stop ...

Apple files for 'Magic Trackpad' trademark

by Mel Martin (Feb 26th, 2010)

Apple sure likes that word 'magic' lately. We already have the Magic Mouse, and soon we may have a 'Magic Trackpad'. That's the word from the Patently Apple website that keeps an eye on these sometimes mysterious Apple filings. Apple wants to have the rights to 'Magic Trackpad', and wants to make ...

Inklet turns your trackpad into a Wacom-style tablet

by Mike Schramm (Jan 12th, 2010)

Now here's a fascinating app -- Inklet is a new Mac app by Ten One Design that purports to turn your Macbook's trackpad into a tablet-style input. The program uses the multitouch trackpad interface to sense where and when you're touching the pad, and then translates that into "drawing" marks just ...

BetterTouchTool makes multi-touch infinitely more useful, for free

by Brett Terpstra (Jan 5th, 2010)

We recently covered a utility called MagicPrefs that adds a hatful of new and configurable multi-touch gestures to your Magic Mouse. Well, there's another free utility called BetterTouchTool that works with both trackpads and Magic Mice, providing a huge number of gestures and infinite possibilities ...

Mac 101: AllThingsD delivers a video guide for Mac novices

by Joachim Bean (Dec 24th, 2009)

If one of your loved ones has just switched to the Mac, or just got a Mac for the holidays, they might want some tips on how to get around and do the things they're used to doing in Windows. Katherine Boehret from AllThingsD has just posted a video and some tips showing many useful tips for ...

New Macs, something else tomorrow?

by Mike Schramm (Oct 19th, 2009)

Engadget is the latest to report a rumor that's been circulating for months: tomorrow may be the day that we finally see those new Macs we've been waiting on. John Gruber claims we're going to see new MacBooks and iMacs (which we'll rate as "expected"), updated Mac minis (wouldn't be a huge ...

Beta Beat: Firefox 3 betas add support for multitouch

by Cory Bohon (Dec 11th, 2008)

Do you own one of those fanciful new MacBooks? You know, the ones with the cool multitouch trackpads? Do you envy Safari users that can take advantage of multi-finger scrolling, pinching and squeezing in their web browsing? If so, you might be a perfect candidate for the new Firefox 3.1b2 beta. ...