After this month's Macbook announcement I joked that the metal hinge and all aluminum chassis was its best feature. Of course, at most, the hinge is its second best feature. Earlier this week I stopped into BestBuy and made a beeline to play with the new Force Touch Trackpad in the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Initially, I wasn't sure whether BestBuy had updated their display-unit to one sporting the new trackpad. They did. As just about every tech journalist has stated, the Force Touch trackpad completely fools your brain into thinking that you are clicking a standard MacBook Trackpad. That fact alone is remarkable. However, it is even more impressive as you tinker with the tech a bit more; you quickly come to realize that this technology, in this implementation, is nothing like you have ever experienced before.
User precision during one of Apple's new trackpad interactions, say to trigger 'Look up', will give you glimpse of just how powerfully (and thoroughly) the haptic or "Taptic" system has been molded into Mac OS X. Increase pressure ever so slightly, and watch 'Look Up' slowly open based on your direct interaction with the trackpad in real time. The coolest part of that interaction is the confirmation click. That is, after what seems like an initial press or click of the trackpad, and after you apply more pressure without removing your finger or letting-up from the Trackpad, you will experience what seems like a second click. It is as if you clicked and then broke through a barrier to attain a second click, or a 'click-through'. This is remarkable for a number of reasons. I'll just highlight the obvious one here. Namely, since it is all technological trickery and you aren't in fact clicking anything, these 'click-throughs' can be infinite. As such, the possibilities of this one kind of interaction with the new trackpad seems limitless. I can't wait to see what the developer community does with this in apps and in games.
As usual, apologies for the quality of the video included here. I am no MKBHD.
