Reviews for Magic Trackpad

This device should have a USB connection. The Bluetooth connection is horribly unreliable, goes on and off even with full batteries. But even if it were 100% stable, the design would still make no sense. Why have to replace batteries all the time when the USB-connected keyboard is right next to the thing, with an empty USB socket pointing right at it?

Apple, make one of these with USB and I will buy it! But offer ANY Bluetooth devices any more. I don't want them. I hate buying or charging batteries. Extra work for me that I do not need and wasteful, too.

33 of 40 people found this useful

this thing just did not fit the bill for me. i have been completely satisfied with every apple product I have ever bought until this one. I thought it would fix the quirkiness of Lion if I had a multitouch trackpad... but once I started using it I found it was just a patch. 2.1ghz core 2 duo with 4gb of memory and an ssd... figured this would fit in just fine. ended up being real awkward even after adjusting all the settings I could think of.

turns out windows 7 and a scroll wheel mouse have bought my computing experience back from the dead.

no hate here. just my two cents. too long using the same ui. just felt so stale. trackpad set the whole thing off.

29 of 39 people found this useful

I had the magic track pad for maybe 2 or 3 months before out of the blue, it stopped selecting things, then selected things while my hands were no where near it, 1-touch click stopped working, then 1-click stopped working, then it started moving things I didn't want to other places, and THEN it started freezing my comp whenever I turned the trackpad on.

I know, studied and practiced all the trackpad finger moves, so I know my fingers didn't somehow slip in the wrong direction. This drove me bananas for 2 weeks since I was convinced there had to be a way to fix it---after all, it's an apple product, righ?!

I tried everything (not in the order listed):
Restart comp
Repaired my mac mini's permissions in Recovery mode
Turned off bluetooth, turned on bluetooth
unpair and then pair
new batteries
cleaned trackpad with glass cleaner
cleaned trackpad with rubbing alcohol
blew air on the trackpad to get dust out the edges with an air compressor
left it in a hot room to dry out (maybe the humidity in my office made it wonky, Idk)
left it alone 3 days to rest

But after all that, it was STILL acting very bizarre!

I'm finally taking it back to the store for a genius appt. Hopefully they give me store credit.

18 of 21 people found this useful

I find it awkward in comparison to a mouse for selecting and moving text or when playing a game, first person shooter or strategy games, selecting and firing or selecting units. If it wasn't for gestures in the latest OS, I wouldn't recommend the track pad over a mouse.

11 of 15 people found this useful

This is by far the best control interface I have ever used and I wish I could give it 5 stars... forget that I'd give it 6 stars but sadly it's not wired.
Most people's issue with wireless is battery life, I'm concerned about health etc... Nothing I own is wireless because of this and I am a master of hiding wires. lol.
I mean it could connect and plug directly into the side of the wired keyboard... the usb extending out of the trackpad could literally be 1/2 cm long and it would connect directly into the wired keyboard!

20 of 43 people found this useful

It's a sobering moment to discover you're one of the undead, for
that's what happened to me when I started using this thing. I mean,
I must be a zombie - at least that's what my trackpad must think of me. Why else
would it not respond to my touch? My girlfriend has no problems with her
delicate fingers using it to zip through the pages, but I, apparently having no
pulse and, therefore, a cold touch can't get the friggin thing to work - not
unless I press down really hard. I'm using Snow Leopard, so I had to download and install a free third party software called MagicPrefs to get at least some of the fancy gesturing features to work. And even then I only get at best sporadic functionality - that is, when it finally and stubbornly decides to work for me. I'd been advised by an Apple rep to upgrade my OS to Lion. However, after not only hearing a cautionary tone in his voice about doing it but also reading so many negative reviews reminiscent of horror stories associated with Windows upgrades, I'm deciding to hold off, for now. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some flesh to eat and rotting to do.

13 of 24 people found this useful

Bought this Trackpad when I upgraded to Lion OS.
Have used it for almost one month and still am learning. Many features/gestures have no use in my line of work/home use.
I've owned an iPhone and Macbook Air and had no problems with the touch gestures. Enjoyed the app on my iPhone that made it a 'touchpad'. But, this works differently.
This Trackpad has a generous surface area, which is part of the problem. Easy to have accidental touches (even to the edges of the trackpad) with dire consequences, and many gestures are frustrating.
Sometimes my pinky and/or ring finger will touch the pad while I'm scrolling and send me to another webpage or interpret the gesture as a 'swipe', or some other gesture and close the page all together.
Seems like 'up' is down, and 'down' is up. With my previous mouse or trackball and the 'window blind' controls on webpages, you'd pull 'down' to make the page scroll up, 'up' to make the page go scroll down. With this Trackpad, the gestures are as if you're touching the page, itself. Odd, since the pad is horizontal and the screen is vertical. And now, on many sites and in most dialogue boxes, with this Trackpad (and Lion update?) those 'window blind' controls on the edge of the website or dialogue box are gone!
Also, double clicks aren't always recognized, or sometimes are overly sensitive, regardless of the setting. I find it difficult to block/select a section of text or photo to highlight for editing or to copy and paste.
I regret this purchase. My $12 Blutooth mouse was cheaper, much simpler to operate and move, and not counter intuitive.

25 of 32 people found this useful

Its a great piece of technology and I am really excited to see where this goes in future incarnations.
However I find it much slower and more restrictive than a regular mouse, sometimes confuses click with right click and is quite inconsistent.
I ordered one with my new Imac but will be going back to a regular mouse.
If you want to work with speed and productivity I would not recommend it.

44 of 51 people found this useful

I've been designing with Macs for over 15 years now (print, web, multimedia, etc). I got this thinking it would be faster..NOPE! The gestures required to do advanced layout/editing (PSD, INDD, IA) are just not reliable or fast. It will take you a lot of time to get used to it. I gave up after 1 week and went back to my wireless gesture mouse. I think it's fine for a newbie Mac person using iPhoto or another amateur piece of editing software that has no advanced editing capabilities. For some things (like placing a cursor exactly where you need it on a page quickly) a mouse can't be beat. The trackpad now sits in my closet. I do give it merit for its form, nothing for function.

33 of 43 people found this useful

Buggy. It will randomly click in different parts of the screen, potentially undoing selections you have made. Of course this will only be a problem when you need to select/deselect many items via clicking, but that will also be the time it will be most irritating.

17 of 20 people found this useful