The iGesture pad may be returning soon!

[kablooie]

Engadget reports that a new Apple product has appeared in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's online database, and while it is not possible to positively identify the product from the filings published on the FCC's site, it does in fact appear to be the "Magic Trackpad" or "Magic Slate" device that has been the subject of rumors since last year and appeared in photos just last month.

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/07/19/app ... ed-by-fcc/


It is bluetooth which means it may be able to be used with Windows and Linux as well as Macs.

[Sausage]

A friend also just passed this to me. This is very good news. To be a cautiously pessimistic... can bluetooth signals be locked to a device or encrypted so that it will only work with Mac hardware?

Or is that against bluetooth by nature?

I'll be watching this one with a lot of interest.

[David.P]

Hehe, it took Apple only seven years to re-create something that kind of reminds of the iGesture Pad

Probably it will take another ten years until the new "Magic Trackpad" will get anywhere nearly as powerful as our iGesture Pads have been for almost a decade

Cheers David.P

[David.P]

Nice-looking pad, however ridicoulously primitive when compared to the unlimited gesture power of the iGesture Pad....

Cheers David.P

[kablooie]

There is a third party application, BetterTouchTool that adds a whole slew of customizations to the laptop trackpad and it'd going to be updated for the Magic Trackpad soon. It adds all the gestures that the iGesture pad had.

http://blog.boastr.net/

I'm sure someone will write drivers for PC's before long.

[Sausage]

"The largest Multi-Touch trackpad ever."

Sweet! Finally... but erhhh, seems smaller than the igesture. But Apple wouldn't lie / spin. Surely.

Anyway, I'll be purchasing regardless.

[David.P]

BetterTouchTool [...] adds all the gestures that the iGesture pad had.

Is this TRUE!??

This could become a life-saver for me in the case my stock of iGesture pads runs out after like 30 years time!

I hope there is no latency with this bluetooth stuff however. I can't absolutely have more latency than about 12 microseconds on any input device

Cheers David.P

[kablooie]

Well, I just got one and it's great!
Feels just like the old Fingerworks pad except my fingers glide a little easier on the Glass surface.
Apples default gestures are limited but I'm using the alpha version of BetterTouchTool that adds a full compliment of gestures and customizations and it's working great. I've got all my old Fingerworks gestures back.
The inertial scrolling, like the iPhone, is a nice added touch too.

I read that it works on a PC but only has single-touch and click functions since there aren't any specific drivers for it yet.
Maybe someone can modify the source for the old Fingerworks Multitouch Utilities to recognize the new pad.

So I'd say that it's really back. -- Finally!

[jmadison]

I'm curious.

You mentioned the drawbacks of it on a "PC". But, I wonder what about running Linux on a Apple Hardware? Would it work then? Or, what about running Windows on Apple Hardware?

Finally, what about virtualizing Linux or Windows under a Virtual machine within MacOS. I wonder if that would work.

I'm sure nobody knows the answers to this yet, but these are the things that come up right away in my mind.

(Typing this on my burgundy Touchstream LP)

[kablooie]

Apple supplies drivers for Windows running on a Mac with Bootcamp. I read that it doesn't work on Windows running on a PC.
I haven't heard about Linux yet.

[David.P]

Jitouch

Mac only though.

[jmadison]

That does look interesting.

One thing that I've wondered about ever since I started learning to use my TouchStream is the "commonality" of gestures.

If you compare the touchscreen computers, the iGesture Pad, the Mac laptops, the iPhone, Blackberry... whatever, they all have some sort of touch interface where gestures mean something. Each device has its own method of "click", "open", "scroll", "minimize", and "close".

I welcome the advent of multi-touch interfaces on all sorts of devices, but I do hope that while the technology is still new, people will agree on certain gestures, so that they can be made common and easy to use no matter which device one is using. I think a common set of gestures (at least for the most basic of things like click and scroll) will make it much easier for the general public to begin to adopt touch interfaces.

[David.P]

I welcome the advent of multi-touch interfaces on all sorts of devices, but I do hope that while the technology is still new, people will agree on certain gestures, so that they can be made common and easy to use no matter which device one is using. I think a common set of gestures (at least for the most basic of things like click and scroll) will make it much easier for the general public to begin to adopt touch interfaces.

Yep that's right! We surely don't want a babylonic gesture confusion in the end.

Here's my proposal for THE most ergonomic basic pointing and clicking gesture in the world: "Five-Finger-Pointing, and Clicking by Lifting the Respective Finger™"

This feature will EXTINGUISH mouse RSI if implemented

Cheers David.P

[kablooie]

Here's my proposal for THE most ergonomic basic pointing and clicking gesture in the world: "Five-Finger-Pointing, and Clicking by Lifting the Respective Finger™"

The feature you suggest is available on Apple's trackpad with the third party application BetterTouchTool. The gesture is called TipTap.

[David.P]

Thanks but I can't see any similarity between the TipTap gesture and my above suggestion.

Cheers David.P

[jsavidge]

Well, I just got one and it's great!
Apples default gestures are limited but I'm using the alpha version of BetterTouchTool that adds a full compliment of gestures and customizations and it's working great. I've got all my old Fingerworks gestures back.

I bought a Magic Trackpad, but even with BetterTouchTool installed it is still missing some gestures that I consider essential before I move away from my iGesture or iGesture Numpad.

I want 1 finger scrolling and 2 finger pointing. Apple has them backwards compared to Fingerworks, and I haven’t found any way to swap them, even with BetterTouchTool installed.

I also use a 5 finger pinch-in to activate Apple’s “Zoom the Screen” feature, and a 5 finger pinch-out to return the screen to normal zoom. BetterTouchTool has a 5 finger swipe-up, and 5 finger swipe-down that I’ve experimented with, but it works differently than the Fingerworks version. When I do a 5 finger pinch-in or out on the iGesture pad, the mouse cursor remains stationary. When I do the 5 finger swipe-up or down with the Magic Trackpad and BetterTouchTool, the mouse moves the distance that I “swiped” and then does the zoom-in or out. That make precise work with the zomming harder.

I could reconfigure the 2 finger pinches on the Magic Trackpad to do that like Apple configures it, but I am a heavy user of the pinch-Cut and Paste gestures on my iGesture pads.

BetterTouchTool does let me reconfigure the 2 finger pinches but I haven’t found a way to do the other gestures I want. (Even with some of the other gesture enhancing software out there.)

Based on what I’ve seem with my research, I’m guessing that several of these problems are not limitations of BetterTouchTool, but are instead limitations of what Apple provides in its software.

So I'd say that it's really back. -- Finally!

Until I can do the gestures that I’ve described above, then I’ll stay where I am as long as I can. [My iGesture pads are beginning act flaky from time to time. ]

James T. Savidge, [jsavidge@texas.net], Sunday, August 8, 2010

[nomaded]

We bought a Magic Trackpad for the iMac and I am very happy with it, matched with BetterTouchTool, of course. The biggest advantage is that I can configure it to match my MacBook Pro's touchpad. Sure, the large variety of gestures found in the old iGesture and TouchStream devices aren't available, but some of them are. Well, enough gestures are available for me to be happy with it.

I don't ever expect to see anything as flexible or complicated as the iGesture or TouchStream devices ever again. The "unwashed masses" don't want it nor do they think they need it. Yes, I lament at what once was, but it's time to move on, use what is here now, and be ready to change and adapt to what's coming in the future.

[David.P]

Here's my proposal for THE most ergonomic basic pointing and clicking gesture in the world:
"Five-Finger-Pointing, and Clicking by Lifting the Respective Finger™"

This feature will EXTINGUISH mouse RSI if implemented

Cheers David.P

Wait a minute....

OK guys.

Suddenly me thinks that this

five-finger-pointing, and clicking by LIFTING fingers

...can be done with the existing Fingerworks hard- and software

...using Autohotkey.

I'll keep you informed...

Cheers David.P