Multi-Touch trackpad feature

[tomster2300]

The Macbook Air is the first Apple laptop to have the new multi-touch trackpad gestures ability that the iphone uses, built right into it. But, shouldn't it simply be a software addition and not a hardware upgrade?

What I'm asking is, shouldn't it be a feature that all Macs could use through some kind of system update? Basically, I would like it for my Macbook.

Any ideas or knowledge on if Apple plans to do this. I can't find much except old articles from 2007 speculating on it coming to laptops when googling it.

[Force Flow]

multi-touch capabilities are a combination of hardware and software--not just software. So, if you have a single-touch trackpad, you won't be seeing an update.

Single-touch is relatively easy because only one point on a given surface needs to be tracked. With mulit-touch...it's a lot more complicated than that, which is why we haven't seen too many products with that capability, even though it's been in development since the 80s.

[tomster2300]

Well the touchpad on my Macbook allows for two finger touching - you have to put two fingers down for right-clicking, and you need two to scroll down a page.

Does that count?

[Force Flow]

If I recall correctly, doesn't the second finger thing only happen on the far right of the pad?

[speeddude2000]

no, it's two fingers anywhere.

the hardware for the macbook air and the new macbook pro w/ multi-touch is different.

there's a website offering a reward to anyone who can develop code for the single-touch to support multi-touch features, but for now, it's not available from the software side.

[Lespaul20]

If I recall correctly, doesn't the second finger thing only happen on the far right of the pad?

Like Speeddude said the macbooks already have multi-point touchpads. It's really nice to use and I'm surprised others don't have something similar.

I don't see why they couldn't allow for more gestures with only a software update.

[Force Flow]

Guess I'm thinking of a slightly older macbook pro