Synaptics Making Buttonless, Clickable Trackpads

By Marcus Yam
published

It's one big button!

One of the major innovations in the latest generation of MacBooks is the large, ‘buttonless’ trackpad that clicks when pressed. The design now appears to be tried and true after Mac users have been swiping and clicking since October of 2008.

PC trackpad maker Synaptics is now set to bring the design to small notebooks and netbooks. At Computex this week Synaptics is now demonstrating its implementation of the technology, which it calls the ClickPad.

Supported gestures include two-finger scrolling, two-finger PinchZoom, two-finger pivot rotate, three-finger flick, and three-finger press. According to Synaptics, users can program applications to launch using three-finger press gestures.

The technology and software behind the ClickPad appears to differ from Apple’s trackpad in that the ones on the latest MacBooks are made of glass and support for four-finger gestures.

Synaptics is also announcing that its entire SGS 9.1-enabled TouchPad family and software driver has passed Microsoft’s Windows 7 Logo testing. Windows 7 also includes native support for multitouch. The ClickPad will available to OEMs for integration into notebook PC platforms beginning in 3Q09.

Oh, and in case you were still wondering, you can right-click by tapping down the ClickPad with two fingers instead of just one.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Kill@dor
    That's impressive. I hope it works as well as its presented...
    Reply
  • starryman
    They call that the iPhone don't they? Two much finger motions to remember for most people. If 80% of users don't even know how to copy/paste via ctrl c, x, v... good luck with this one.
    Reply
  • ckthecerealkiller
    you can right-click by tapping down the ClickPad with two fingers instead of just one

    That's called apple click on a mac :)
    Reply
  • TheMan1214
    starrymanThey call that the iPhone don't they? Two much finger motions to remember for most people. If 80% of users don't even know how to copy/paste via ctrl c, x, v... good luck with this one.
    Thats the thing starryman...look who apple appeals to for the most part.Comptuer novices.This is bringing the "ease" factor to people who use anything other than apple for their laptops
    Reply
  • pocketdrummer
    about damn time...
    Reply
  • tipoo
    Finally.


    So does Apple make thier trackpad in-house?
    Reply
  • socalboomer
    I find this unfortunate! I already have trouble typing on laptops with trackpads where my hand brushes against the pad and screws things up - I don't WANT a large one . . .

    So let's use the Apple market (less than 8%) as the indicator that people (the other 92%) want a large trackpad. . . that's a good business model.
    Reply
  • tipoo
    socalboomerI find this unfortunate! I already have trouble typing on laptops with trackpads where my hand brushes against the pad and screws things up - I don't WANT a large one . . . So let's use the Apple market (less than 8%) as the indicator that people (the other 92%) want a large trackpad. . . that's a good business model.

    Well I for one always HATE using laptops with too-small trackpads. That said, they could make it larger without removing the two buttons.
    Reply
  • frozenlead
    So they took a switch and placed it under a touchpad. Why do people see this as genius?
    Honestly, what pisses me off the most about Apple's notebooks is that you have to push the button (or the entire pad) down to click. One every PC notebook I've used since...ever...you just have to tap the pad, and it'll click for you. Or you can use the button. Whichever pleases you. Jobs didn't do away with the button, he just tried emulating the tap technology by moving a switch. How revolutionary.
    Reply
  • Hanin33
    socalboomerI find this unfortunate! I already have trouble typing on laptops with trackpads where my hand brushes against the pad and screws things up - I don't WANT a large one . . . So let's use the Apple market (less than 8%) as the indicator that people (the other 92%) want a large trackpad. . . that's a good business model.
    trackpads, are to me, the most annoying pointing devices ever developed... but maybe i'm the only one that hates wot it does to the feeling in your fingers after having used them for more than 20 minutes straight... i've gotten to the point where i won't even werk on a laptop that has one that can't be deactivated with an external switch because of the issue you touched on socalboomer...
    Reply