Communications of the ACM
Apple, Trackpads, and the Long Death of the Mouse
Another day, another envelope-pushing design from Apple intended to make us rethink the way we interact with our computers. Welcome to the Magic Trackpad.
In terms of radical design, there's only so much you can say about a flat board. And this is more out-of-the-laptop than out-of-the-box thinking. MacBook users will be instantly familiar with Apple's "new" input device.
But the real significance is that it really does lend some weight to the oft-predicted death of the mouse. Apple has, after all, since its early days been one of the computer pioneers of the graphical user interface that depend on the mouse. It has point-and-click baked into its computing DNA—even if not everyone found its one-button mouse intuitive to use.
The mouse's demise now looks all but assured. It's the inevitable result of twin forces...
From New Scientist
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