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Posts with tag gestures

Mac 101: Right-click on a laptop

Oh, the one-button mouse. You either love it or you hate it. Veteran Mac users adore the elegance and simplicity; switchers bemoan the loss of a second (or third) mouse button. Of course, the problem is easily fixed by either holding down the Control button or -- wait for it -- buying a two-button mouse.

On a laptop, you've got another option. MacSupport points out this simple method of using a "two-finger tap" in place of a right click. To set things up, follow these steps.

In the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane, select "Trackpad Gestures" under the Trackpad section. From there, select "Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click" and you're all set. Now, tapping the trackpad with two fingers will execute a right click.

Photoshop and trackpad gestures

I'm not a trackpad fan, but I will admit that gestures are cool. Ivan at Creative Bits has identified the gestures available in Photoshop, including
  • Alt (Option) key + double finger track to zoom and out within a document
  • Hold the Apple (Cmd) key to zoom the whole screen
There's more, of course, and you can read the full list here. We recently wrote about some fun you can have using trackpad gestures to zoom and pan images in a Quick Look window.

Ivan also wishes for user-defined gestures, something that only seems logical for Apple to implement.

What's on your "Gestures Wish List?"

Gus Mueller makes FlyGesture free



Gus Mueller of Flying Meat software, maker of popular apps like VoodooPad and FlySketch, has decided to reduce FlyGesture's price to free. For those who haven't seen it: FlyGesture enables your Mac with the power to open files, run Automator apps/AppleScripts, type text and more - all with the gesture of your mouse over FlyGesture's guide layer that you can toggle like Exposé and Dashboard.

For anyone who made a FlyGesture purchase within the last 60 days, Mueller has issued a refund.

Gestures in the wild

Maybe the tech of CSI isn't so ridiculous after all. With the rumors of an Apple tablet and "gestures" in mind, check out this video. It's a demo of what appears to be a gesture and touch-based UI that is impressive to say the least. Don't miss the manipulation of photos (they appear to be spread out on a table, and the user easily enlarges the photo he's interested it) and the navigation of the map of Boston. This is really cool stuff. Incidentally, the software that is used to manipulate the flat rabbit and cactus characters can be found here.

So, who wants an Apple tablet that does this? I do.

Note: The server originally linked has been brought to its knees. Scroll down a bit in the comments of this Digg post and you'll find a mirror.

More Apple tablet rumors



Here's the rumor that won't go away. Unites States Patent Application #20060026536 (which features the signature of Jonathan Ive) concerns "...Methods and systems for processing touch inputs are disclosed. The invention in one respect includes reading data from a multipoint sensing device such as a multipoint touch screen..." Is an Apple tablet in the works (yes, I'm bringing that up again)? Hrmph! even has a very nice round-up of images related to using "gestures" with a touchscreen-based user interface. Note the iPod-like scroll wheel in Fig. 27D.

Seriously, though, who would you trust to deliver a tablet PC that's both beautiful and useful? Mr. Ive and Apple, that's who. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this one.

[Via Engadget]

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