Apple Magic Trackpad Released; Why? Your Guess Is As Good As Ours

If you’re on the ball, you already saw this this morning. If not, welcome to the internet! Let me be the first to introduce you to the Apple Magic Trackpad.

Look familiar? If you use a Macbook at all, you’ll note that this is its trackpad, blown up to match the scale and angle of a wireless Mac keyboard. The device connects via Bluetooth and allows for a gestured-up multitouch experience. And the best part is, quite possibly, that it retails for only $69.

But hang on a minute. Look, Apple, you guys are the kings of interaction design, so I don’t mean to get on your case, and I’m going to reserve final judgment of the product until I try it, but… well, consider that the notebook mouse industry is enormous, and has been booming for two decades. Almost everyone who owns a laptop owns a mouse for their laptop. Why? Because trackpads freaking blow. Don’t get me wrong – a Macbook’s trackpad is wonderful with all its gestures and stuff, but for moving a pointer for any duration longer than a couple minutes, a good old mouse has yet to be dethroned.

“Ty,” you say, “you trippin’!” And maybe I am. I could use this in conjunction with a keyboard and a mouse, for sure. But I dunno, guys, I don’t have a lot of room as it is on my keyboard tray, and I’m willing to bet neither do you. Everything about the Magic Trackpad seems to reek of superfluousness. But who knows – we could stroll down to Best Buy later and be converted by the test model.

Maybe.