Apple got the grain of the glass just right. Using an old plastic trackpad sucks. Either the grain is too course and you rub your finger raw or the grain is too fine. Then your finger sticks to the trackpad.
Most laptop users I've observed only use the trackpad when there is no alternative. If they have 5 minutes to put the laptop down on a desk (or any flat surface) they'll break out a mouse.
I think IBM had a good idea with the trackpoint nub but most users (unless they were really ardent Thinkpad users) couldn't get the hang of it and went back to the crummy pad or USB mouse.
Gestures are really nice. Switching spaces with swipes is very nice. Also having Mission Control for an overview makes things a lot easier.
What I miss when having to deal with Windows, is to, spread my work like I do on OS X. Also, I miss being able to scroll in Windows currently not selected (of any application kind). So I can code in an IDE and scroll through a PDF (only mouse over it) without having to leave the focus of the IDE.
The touchpad makes scrolling easy with the two finger swipe.
Apple multi-touch pads are less fun when your one year old child swipes his hand over it, changing god knows what and you having no idea how to get everything back.
Re:The Asus MacBook Air, sort of
by mike_esspe on Thursday November 10, 2011 @02:43AM
(#3219336)
I never used a mouse for the last 10 years. Reading the rant from the article made me wonder, what breakthrough Apple did, that after using their technology you can't use normal touchpad.
Do you remember what touch pads were like even 10 years ago? Fiddly things that made you carry a mouse around with you? Mice feel so primitive to me now.