Apple Patent Describes iPod UI "Pushed" to Other Devices

An Apple patent filed in May 2008 describes a way of pushing whatever UI Apple wants to non-Apple hardware, for consistency's sake. That non-Apple hardware could include car stereos or something like the Chumby One (which has iPod functionality, but with a lookalike UI). It's a nice idea for Apple, but could be tricky given the myriad different hardware that might want to take advantage. What if the hardware has a resistive touchscreen, or a shitty processor? Might it just be better to use a custom interface for iPod integration? Regardless, it's in Remainders because it's not really that unexpected or interesting in its implications. [MacRumors]

Philips Announces Very Pretty Pro LCD Line

Philips' new high-end LCD line looks pretty fantastic, with two important caveats. First, let's drool a little: The two models (40- and 46-inch) have a 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 1ms response time, 5 HDMI ports (not sure why you'd need that many, but whatever) and a 200Hz refresh rate, with a nice brushed-aluminum look. Now, the caveats. First, they're UK only, and second, they're prohibitively expensive at about $3,000 and $4,100, respectively. Still, drool-worthy. [Engadget]

NYTimes Columnist Proposes Boycott of "Pro-Communist China" Bing

NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has proposed a boycott of Microsoft's Bing search engine due to its supposed pro-Chinese-government censorship of search terms like "Dalai Lama" and "Tienanmen" when searched in simplified Chinese characters. In English and other non-Chinese languages, the results you'd expect from "Tienanmen" show up, but in Chinese, apparently it returns sanitized results (no massacre, in that case). Since I'm not really sure how to type simplified Chinese characters on an all-Amurrican MacBook Pro keyboard, I haven't tested it myself—but if true, it's a little underhanded on Microsoft's part, although certainly paling in comparison to, you know, the Chinese government. What's odd is that Google's Chinese search also returns censored results, but "to a much lesser extent," so I guess it's okay. Weird stuff. [TechFlash]

Ooma Adds New Handsets and International Plan

Internet phone company Ooma began shipping its new Telo handset as well as offering a very cheap international calling plan (500 minutes for $5 per month). Ooma, for those who don't know (I assume this includes everyone) varies from other VoIP services like Vonage by cutting out the monthly fees, instead packing them into a fairly expensive set-top box, at $250. So this international plan requiring a monthly fee is a big deal for them, but it winds up in Remainders because I honestly had not even heard of Ooma until this morning. Oops. [Electronista]

The 6400 has a standard Bluetooth range and looks exactly like a Bluetooth headset from Jabra, whereas the 9400 looks like a receptionist's headset that you can take around your house at up to a 450-foot range.

They both have dual-microphones for noise cancelation and both have the touchscreen to quickly switch between a cellphone, VoIP or landline connections. Both will be available later in the year for $200 each. [Slashgear]

Apple did two things simultaneously that are usually contradictory; they lowered the price of their entire MacBook Pro line while at the same time bumping up the specs. The 15-inch version now starts at $1699 and caps out at $2299, down from $1999 and $2499. What's even nicer is that the 13-inch MacBook—which previously didn't have a Firewire slot or a "nicer" screen—got absorbed into the MacBook Pro family and is now virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the Pro line.

Two other things changed on the build that make the Pros more appealing to regular consumers. The replaceable battery has been swapped for the same type of lithium-polymer internal battery previously found in the 17-inch MacBook Pro, which boosts battery life at the expense of not being able to be changed out in the field. This, for the large majority of people, is a good thing. The batteries last 1000 charge cycles, which at 200/cycles a year, would last you five years. Even if you go through one charge cycle every day, you'll still make it about three years before you need to take Apple up on the $129 replacement. (The $129 includes shipping, labor and disposal of the old battery.)

In our test, the 13-inch MacBook Pro got 3:31 of battery compared to the 3:46 of the 15-inch MacBook Pro. We used the same metrics as the previous MacBook Pro test—medium brightness, Wi-Fi on, keyboard backlight on low, H.264 movie—and got about an hour more on each machine. That's a pretty incredible jump just from a change (non-user replaceable battery) that most people won't notice.

The other interesting swap is the removal of the ExpressCard slot in favor of an SD card slot. According to Apple, there was only a "single digit" amount of customers that used the ExpressCard, whereas tons of people have digital cameras or other devices that use SD. Again, for the vast majority of mainstream customers, this decision was a smart one. And if you really do need ExpressCard, you can still find it on the 17-inch MacBook Pro—which doesn't have an SD card slot.

Then we have the improved LED-backlit display, which has a 60% greater color gamut than previous version. What this means to you is that even the 13-inch MacBook Pro will have a quality display even though it's a few hundred dollars cheaper than the 15-inch. The previous 13-inch MacBook, as you saw in our review, had a screen that was obviously inferior to the Pros, and distorted very noticeably as you stepped away or viewed the screen at an angle. Not anymore. From our tests, the 13 and 15 MacBook Pros looked just about identical, and both had superior color performance compared to older machines we had around.

An even nicer picture is painted by the benchmarks. This is the first time the 15-inch has gone up over 3GHz (the CTO version), and the entire line has the ability to handle 8GB of RAM. We didn't test this 8GB configuration, but we're pretty eager to see how much faster it makes us in our daily work.

Both sets of scores are on par with the changes in specs on the new machines. Since the CPUs have been bumped up, the scores have risen to match. It also makes sense that the 2.53GHz 15-inch just about ties the 2.53GHz 13-inch from this year. The only weird drop is in the Integer section of Geekbench, where both machines this year have dropped. A change in Geekbench? A change in 10.5.7? We're not sure. But these are some good numbers nonetheless.

Although the removable latch has been exchanged for a screwed in panel, you can still get to the hard drive and RAM by removing ten screws and gently lifting off the back. The entire process should take you less than 10 minutes.

The 13-inch MacBook also has one fewer audio port, instead opting for a single audio port that supports digital in and out. If you need simultaneous in and out and don't want to go up to a 15-inch MacBook Pro, you can use a $29 USB audio adapter instead.

So is there anything bad to say about the new MacBook Pro line? No, not really. It's cheaper, faster, has more consumer-friendly features and now even has a 13-inch option for people who need slightly more portability. Those people who were waiting for the second-iteration version of a new hardware design (a pretty smart rule to follow with Apple products in general) before upgrading can safely do so now—and get a better deal in the process. [MacBook Pros]

It's cheaper, faster and has a nicer screen

SD card slot more useful than ExpressCard for vast majority of customers

MacBook Pro line now has a 13-inch option

Built-in battery means increased battery size, and that means about an hour longer battery life

It's possible that when the subsidized iPhone 3G dropped last year for $199, a new Apple was born. We just didn't see it clearly until today, with the announcement of the iPhone 3GS and new MacBook Pro line.

"Pro" used to be a real designation: A Pro machine was designed and built for working professionals. It had more power, better build quality and "top 10 percent" features for the users who needed it—or at least wanted to pay a lot more for it. Now, it's just a brand.

It's true that the unibody MacBooks were more like their brawnier "Pro" siblings than ever before—it was even the rationale behind our dual review. But there were still very real dividing lines between them: Most importantly, Pro machines had dedicated graphics cards. As of yesterday, that's not true. The $1700 15-inch Pro doesn't have one, and none of 13-inch newly designated Pro models have them either. Also, what kind of professional machine lacks a removable battery, anyway? (Swapping out batteries is how we got through the back-to-back Nintendo and Sony keynotes at E3 this year, though admittedly, the significantly improved battery life might be part of the answer.)

Don't get us wrong, we love that Apple brought many of the Pro hallmarks down to their consumer machines, like the aluminum chassis, and that now high-end Apple laptops are more affordable than ever. But now real pros probably won't even look at most of the Pro line.

The new products also don't show how special you are for paying the most to buy the best. The cheap models and the pricey ones are identical. Your crazy high-end 32GB iPhone 3GS looks just like that other guy's $99 iPhone 3G. Every unibody MacBook is now a Pro—whether you spend $1200 or twice as much. The old distinctions have been erased.

A leveling of class distinctions in Apple products is going to sting people who valued the affectation of elitism that came with using Apple's top-of-the-line products. Even subtle differences—like the premium paid for the matte black MacBook over the otherwise identical shiny white one, were signals, beamed out to the others in the coffee shop, declaring who was "da boss." You know, the guys who wore the white earbuds with pride five years ago. Admittedly, sometimes those guys need a left hook to the kidneys (and sometimes, we are those guys). Maybe it's good to make the best technology accessible to everybody, with no indicators of who paid more for what.

Maybe Apple is trying to create good design that works for anyone and everyone. I can respect that. Still, the question remains: Does this make rich people look like poor people, or poor people look like rich people? The privileged must know.

Since I am none of these things, the spec page whirs just above my head. But the inclusion of a mini LCD screen for checking mail and selecting workflow macros is pretty great, as is just about every programmable custom function you could imagine. Mike, a Canadian CAD wizard, knows more than I, and he has a comprehensive review here. It's $500. [3DConnexion via Oh Gizmo, Design Engineering Review]

I ran across this scene today outside Park Avenue Audio on 29th and Park in Manhattan—a shop that caters to A/V junkies (I bought my Grado SR60s there), and it's a shipment fresh from Japan. The guys at Park Ave. say that it's becoming quite a battle to secure whatever Kuro inventory remains, but they've got a source that should keep them in Kuros for at least a little longer.

If you're just joining us, Pioneer's Kuros have been the King of All Plasmas for the last several years, with blacks blacker than the depths of cold space. Park Avenue is moving the final generation Elite Pro 111FD 50-inchers for $3,500 and the 60-inchers for $5,000, which is a bit of a markup from the best prices you could find online right now (from the few retailers that still have any stock), but not horrible for an audiophile-centric brick and mortar. Those prices are sure to go up as supply becomes scarcer, though, so if you want to save this dodo from extinction before you'll have to proffer some rare golden doubloons for the privilege, act fast.

There's a total of seven different "stations" that it cycles through, and only costs $130—not too horrible for a fancy keyboard. Seeing as regular ergo keyboards are proven to work at lessening the painful effects of typing too much, even if the motors don't work, you'll still have an ergo keyboard. [Everything USB via Engadget]

From a spokesperson at Apple:

It will likely be years before you need to replace it (1000 cycles at 200 cycles/year = 5 years). You can have the battery replaced at any Apple Store or Apple-authorized reseller. The replacement battery is priced at $179, which includes installation of the new battery and environmentally-responsible disposal of the old battery.

The non-removable MacBook Air battery costs $129 to replace, though the lifespan is not promised to be as great. [Apple]

The new Pro has the unibody aluminum build—and virtually everything else—in common with its smaller 15" brother. But now you won't have to put your fancy new notebook next to the cheaper 13" variant to see what you've paid for. There are precious few under-the-hood upgrades:

Available late this month, it's just under an inch thick, weighs in at 6.6 pounds, and is claimed to be the "thinnest and lightest" 17" notebook on the market.

The 1920x1200 screen has LED backlighting standard, with a 140x120 viewing angle, an impressive 700:1 contrast ratio and 60% greater color gamut than the last 17-inch display. There's also an optional anti-glare coating option for the screen that'll run you $50.Overall, the specs are mostly identical to the last MBP iteration, with the notable exception of the battery.

Apple says it's the longest lasting MacBook battery ever—it's a non-removable lithium polymer battery with "three times" the industry standard lifecycle, courtesy of "adaptive charging." How long does it last? 7 hours with discrete graphics, 8 hours with integrated graphics. That's 3 more hours than the previous-gen 17" MBP. And it'll cycle through that at least 1000 times with minimal wear.

The new MBP comes in just one base configuration: At $2799, you get the 2.66 ghz processor, 4gb ram, the dual-video card solution, a 320GB HDD and the Superdrive. It's available for pre-order now.

This is roughly in keeping with the same pattern Apple set in 2006 with the original MacBook Pro, which debuted with a 15-inch screen and saw the two-inch upgrade just a few months later. [Macworld 2009 Coverage]

Apple Introduces 17-inch MacBook Pro With Revolutionary New Built-in Battery That Delivers Eight Hours of Use & 1,000 Recharges

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple(R) today unveiled the new 17-inch MacBook(R) Pro featuring a durable and beautiful precision aluminum unibody enclosure, and a revolutionary new built-in battery that delivers up to eight hours of use and up to 1,000 recharges for more than three times the lifespan of conventional notebook batteries. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro has a high resolution LED-backlit display and the same large glass Multi-Touch(TM) trackpad introduced with the new MacBook family in October. In addition, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes state of the art NVIDIA graphics and the latest generation Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors. As part of the industry's greenest notebook family, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro is made of highly recyclable materials, meets stringent energy efficiency standards and is made without many of the harmful toxins found in other computers.
"We've developed new battery technology that is better for the user and better for the environment," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Apple's advanced chemistry and innovative technology deliver up to eight hours of use on a full charge cycle and up to 1,000 recharges."

Apple uses advanced chemistry, intelligent monitoring of the system and battery, and Adaptive Charging technology to create a revolutionary new notebook battery that delivers up to eight hours of wireless productivity on a single charge and up to 1,000 recharges without adding thickness, weight or cost to the MacBook Pro's incredible design.* The longer battery lifespan equals fewer depleted batteries and less waste, which is better for the environment.

The new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes an ultra-thin, widescreen glossy 1920 x 1200 display with 78 percent more pixels than the 15-inch MacBook Pro and a 60 percent greater color gamut that delivers desktop-quality color in a notebook. The LED-backlit display has brilliant instant-on performance, uses up to 30 percent less energy and eliminates the mercury found in industry standard fluorescent tube backlights.

Measuring just 0.98-inches thin and weighing 6.6 pounds, the 17-inch MacBook Pro is the world's thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook. The 17-inch MacBook Pro is the most powerful Mac(R) notebook yet with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors available up to 2.93 GHz, up to 8GB DDR3 main memory and a graphics architecture that allows users to switch between the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor for better battery life and the powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics processor for higher performance. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes a 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive standard with a 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive and 128GB and 256GB solid state drives as options. As with the rest of the new MacBook family, the 17-inch MacBook Pro includes a next generation, industry-standard Mini DisplayPort to connect with the new Apple LED Cinema Display featuring a 24-inch LED-backlit widescreen display with a built-in iSight(R) video camera, mic and speakers.

The new 17-inch MacBook Pro joins the aluminum unibody MacBook family in setting new standards for environmentally friendly notebooks with every model achieving EPEAT Gold status.** Each MacBook unibody enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. The new MacBook family meets stringent Energy Star 4.0 requirements, contains no brominated flame retardants and uses internal cables and components that are PVC-free. The battery in the new 17-inch MacBook Pro provides additional environmental benefit because its extended lifespan means fewer depleted batteries resulting in less waste. Depleted batteries can be replaced for $179 which includes installation and disposal of your old battery in an environmentally responsible manner.

Pricing & Availability
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro will be shipping at the end of January and will be available through the Apple Store(R) (http://www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $2,799 (US), and includes:

— 17-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1920 x 1200, glossy display;
— 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
— 1066 MHz front-side bus;
— 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM;
— NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
— NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics with 512MB GDDR3 video
memory;
— 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion
Sensor;
— a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R
DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
— Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
— built-in AirPort Extreme(R) 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth
2.1+EDR;
— Gigabit Ethernet port;
— built-in iSight video camera;
— three USB 2.0 ports;
— one FireWire(R) 800 port (FireWire 400 compatible);
— ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
— one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both
optical digital and analog;
— glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard;
— built-in, 95WHr lithium polymer battery; and
— 85 Watt MagSafe(R) Power Adapter.

Build-to-order options for the 17-inch MacBook Pro include a 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8GB 1066 MHz DDR 3 memory, 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive, a 128GB or 256GB solid state drive, anti-glare display for $50 (US), Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, Apple Remote, Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter and the AppleCare Protection Plan.

*A properly maintained Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro battery is designed to retain 80 percent or more of its original capacity during a lifespan of up to 1,000 recharge cycles. Battery life and charge cycles vary by use and settings. For more information visit
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/17inch-battery.

**EPEAT is an independent organization that helps customers compare the environmental performance of notebooks and desktops. Products meeting all of the 23 required criteria and at least 75 percent of the optional criteria are recognized as EPEAT Gold products. The EPEAT program was conceived by the US EPA and is based on IEEE 1680 standard for Environmental Assessment of Personal Computer Products. For more information visit http://www.epeat.net.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

(C) 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, MacBook, Multi-Touch, iSight, Apple Store, AirPort Extreme, FireWire and MagSafe are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

It turns out that this is probably a leak of an official RIM project, called BlackBerry Application Suite. CrackBerry dug up a year-and-a-half-old presser from the company describing its intentions:

[RIM plans to] expand its support for Windows Mobile®-based devices with a new software application suite that will enable devices from third-party manufacturers to benefit from the popular BlackBerry® software applications and services.

Well, considering that the pictures and video resemble the aforementioned concept, and that the programs were sighted running on a phone supported by AT&T, RIM's partner in the initiative, it looks like the BlackBerry Application Suite might be coming to fruition.

If carried out correctly, the appeal could be great; the BlackBerry OS core apps offer a substantially more user-friendly experience than Windows Mobile's, which haven't managed to curry much loyalty in nearly a decade of existence and revision. The suite also appears to offer an alternative home screen, which resembles the Storm's.

The success of this will come down to two factors: price and code. If the apps are free and native, then it'd be hard to justify not leaving WinMo's humdrum messaging, browsing and organizational apps behind. If the suite is either paid, exclusively bundled with select handsets or virtualized, it might be a non-starter. This leak is as vague as it is early, so expect a good deal more information to surface before too long. Warning: comically lazy gadget video below. [BerryReview via CrackBerry]

So a quick recap on the original issue and the back and forth between Nvidia and the Inquirer: Nvidia admitted back in July "significant quantities" of notebooks are defective, built and packaged with "weak" materials that are leading to them to overheat and fail at a "higher-than-normal" rate, but declined to state which cards specifically.

The Inquirer said every single G84 and G86 card was affected, and a GPU apocalypse was coming, and indeed, more and more models from different manufacturers came to light with the problem. The previous-gen MacBook Pro was actually the last one revealed to be smitten by the plague, like the final Cylon or something, since Nvidia was reportedly less-than-honest about the problem to Apple. Nvidia continued to reiterate most chips are just peachy.

Nvidia says that its current chips don't use the weak materials, which produce what are called "bad bumps." Obviously, the Inquirer thought they were lying, so they took a new MacBook Pro to a lab, cracked it open, sliced apart the G96 GPU and checked it out under a scanning electron microscope with an X-ray microanalysis system.

The result? The Inq says the same old bad bumps, which were composed mostly of lead, are there in the GeForce 9600 vs. the new, good eutectic bumps that are in the GeForce 9400M (the MacBook and MacBook Pro's chipset/integrated graphics). Or more straight up, "The 9600 is unquestionably using 'bad bumps', directly contradicting the statements from Nvidia...It suggests that there are 15-inch Macbook Pros being sold with 'bad bumps', the same materials that brought down so many HP, Dell and Apple parts, both laptop and desktop."

Naturally, I asked Nvidia for their reaction to Charlie's Inq piece, and a spokesperson reiterated that the GeForce 9600 GT graphics cards in the MacBook Pros "don't have bad bumps at all." He said that, "yes, they're lead bumps" but "hundreds of millions of chips have lead bumps." And it's "a different material set [from the faulty one], one they transferred to earlier" that's used in the 9400, 9600 and 9800.

Of course, the Inquirer's whole point is that Nvidia is lying. So, who to believe? Well, here's what we know for sure. When I talked to Nvidia about the original run of faulty chips, and why we saw it some systems and not others, they told me it was largely a thermal issue, which, in combination with the weak materials, would cause the kiss-of-death cracking—so you'd see it in systems that ran hot, in other words, like some notebooks or slimline desktops with poor circulation. (Which is why the "fix" for the problem were firmware updates that cranked the card's fans sooner.)

We further know that the 9600 GT cards in the MacBook Pro are currently having problems that appear to be heat-related, causing them to lock up and launch into the "black screen of death." Also, Nvidia pointed out that there aren't a whole lot of labs properly equipped to do the kind of analysis the Inquirer commissioned—you can't just walk down to your local Discovery Channel store—though they left it at that.

And that's about as definitive as we can get, for now. Two things bother us: We would've liked a slice and dice of one of the previous-gen bad chips to directly compare to the new, supposedly bad one. And Nvidia's subtle implication that the people with labs equipped to perform this kind of analysis have a vested interest in the outcome also has the magical effect of shielding them from the results.

You can believe Nvidia. You can believe the Inquirer. I just know that given the thermal problems that already clearly exist, I really hope the Inquirer is wrong. If you know something about this you wanna share, email me.

"Sprint expects to slightly delay launch of the Touch Pro by HTC to ensure we have adequate inventory in all channels before making the device commercially available. Customers can expect the device to become available in select national retailers by the end of the month and then in all Sprint sales channels including online at www.sprint.com and Sprint Stores by early November."

Two weeks isn't so bad, as long as it stays that way. [Cnet]

The MacBook Pro refresh feels exactly what you'd imagine it to feel like from the images in our liveblog. The screen is bright and goes almost right up against the edge of the display portion of the top. The keyboard is similar to the MacBook Air and has the now-standard Apple separation between keys. Trackpad action is super smooth (the friction coefficient is lower than the trackpads that came before), which gives you much slicker feel when gesturing. For those of you that are afraid that your mouse button has been killed in favor of just a "touch" click, don't worry—the entire trackpad is a clicker. You can even assign part of the pad to right click. The whole thing works just about as well as the old button.

Also improved are the pads on the bottom of the body, which are now more like raised mounds than nubs. The hard drive/battery case comes off easily and you can actually get to both these things easily for hard drive replacement. The power button is smaller (nice), the hinge is strong enough to hold up the laptop backwards (also nice), and the vents in the back seem to be slightly smaller and more "blended" into the body. The body is thinner than it was, but it's nothing super dramatic.

Everything about the Pro is solid, and although we didn't forcefully try to bend it in half (too many witnesses), we gently felt how much more solid it is than current models, and it felt good. The rounded cover and edges add a more MacBook Air feel to the line, which is a welcome change to the more razor-sharp edges of previous models.

The glossy screen is what it is, and is bright, fast to light up and a bit too reflective if you position it with the sun behind you (no matte option anymore). Quick verdict is that it's definitely a step up in most ways over your current MacBook Pro.

One of the biggest new features in the new MacBooks that Apple just unveiled is the glass trackpad, one that ditches the button in favor of turning the entire trackpad into a button. It also works with a bunch of new gestures, using up to four fingers to make doing things like switching between applications and flipping through a photo slideshow easier. It's pretty cool, but definitely not as cool as the concepts we've seen with a screen underneath, making the whole trackpad-is-the-buttons much more logical. Where's the screen, Apple?

Anyhow, this new trackpad has 39% more of a surface area than the old ones. As for the new gestures, some of them will include things like a two finger gesture to pinch and rotate for zooming and panning, a three finger gesture for swiping between photos or a four finger gesture for expose and app switching. Of course, all of this could have been done with the old plastic trackpads, making me wonder what, exactly, is the benefit of a glass trackpad with no screen underneath. I personally prefer the feel of my plastic trackpad to the screen of my iPhone for dragging my finger around on, as there's less resistance and fingerprint-gunkery on plastic.

From the press release:

The new smooth glass Multi-Touch trackpad on the MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro gives users almost 40 percent more tracking area than before, making it even easier to use Multi-Touch gestures like pinch, rotate and swipe. New gestures allow users to activate Exposé® or switch between applications at the touch of a fingertip. The entire trackpad surface is also a button, allowing users to both track and click virtually anywhere on the trackpad. Users can easily enable multiple virtual buttons in software, such as right-clicking.

[Live.Gizmodo.com]