So Apple launched a bunch of brand new Macbooks and Macbook Pros early this morning (Singapore time). I’m not going to talk about them because I’m saving all that for this Saturday’s 65bits with the crew. However, I have to talk to all of you who have been complaining about Apple removing that button from the track pad. Seriously, before you start ranting, make sure you dig up the facts first!!

Note, this isn’t a “Woot! I love Apple!” post, it’s a “What are you guys talking about!?!” post.

The button is STILL THERE
First of all, there is a button. THE WHOLE TRACK PAD has become a button. And I’m not talking about the touch thing that you find in all of today’s laptops (i.e. if you tap on the track pad, it’s a click). I’m talking about a physical “push-and-the-track-pad-sinks-in” button. In fact, according to Engadget, if you’re used to pushing that button at the bottom of the track pad, it shouldn’t feel any different. It’s one of those “it’s there, you just don’t see it” things.

We actually don’t hate the all-clicking trackpad much at all. (If your thumb muscle memory makes you click at the bottom where the button used to be, it works and feels pretty much the same.)
- Engadget

In fact, now you have more!
Here’s a fact that many people missed out. There’s actually preferences that allow you to set “multiple buttons”. That means you can set regions on your track pad to be buttons, like the Mighty Mouse. In other words, you can set the bottom right of the track pad to be “right-click”, and when you click (as in really push that corner of the glass down) that region of the track pad, it will right click! So not only did they not remove any button, they added an extra one!

If you’re coming from a right-click world, you can right-click with two fingers or configure a right-click area on the trackpad.
- Apple.com

You can get multi-buttons via software, so if you’re a Windows user coming from Windows and you’d like that right-click button, no problem, just turn it on in Preference and you got it.
- Steve Jobs, Apple Keynote (21:36)

His Steveness only mentioned it once, and didn’t show it off. He should have, because this is a pretty useful feature! How do I know? Because everyone is complaining that it’s not available! This is better than having a right-click button!!

So what does all this mean?
This new glass track pad has the best of both worlds! It allows you to have any kind of button you want, including a PHYSICAL right-click button (c’mon, you have to admit it’s about time, right?), yet still increases the track-pad’s area by 37%! Only Apple can pull that off! So now can you stop complaining about the new track pad? I can’t believe I have to do all the work for you… Apple, you owe me one.

Catch Episode 93 of 65bits as the Tech65 crew talk about the new products that Apple launched, and why we weren’t excited enough to make a mid-week episode for it. Or better still! Join us this Saturday morning 10:30 am at Geek Terminal and tell us what you think!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 8:36 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.