At long last Apple has released a standalone trackpad that brings the MacBook Pro controller to your iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro but goes one better by almost doubling the size of the trackpad. As the Apple store notes-
Magic Trackpad gives you a whole new way to control what’s on your Mac desktop computer. When you perform gestures, you actually interact with what’s on your screen. You feel closer to your content, and moving around feels completely natural. Swiping through pages on screen is just like flipping through pages in a magazine, and inertial scrolling senses the momentum in your fingers as you move up and down a page.
It’s made with smooth, wear-resistant glass that feels great to the touch. And it’s nearly 80 percent larger than the built-in trackpad on the MacBook Pro, giving you plenty of room to perform gestures. Because the entire surface of Magic Trackpad is a button, you can click on objects just as you would using a traditional mouse. And Magic Trackpad sits at the same height and angle as the Apple Wireless Keyboard, so you can go from trackpad to keyboard in one seamless motion.
When Apple released the Magic Mouse I was a bit disappointed. While it was a step in the right direction it was just a step. At the time I wrote that what I really wanted was… exactly what Apple just released. I love the trackpad on my MacBook Pro and can’t wait to get my hands on one of these.
The Magic Trackpad is $69 and is shipping now.
Also notable is the release of the Apple Battery charger for $29.