Today is the official launch of Apple’s annual World Wide Developer Conference, where the company usually showcases it’s next-generation hardware and traditionally releases the next iPhone and its operating system. This year, people are expecting something else. Apple is usually pretty sly about pre-releasing teaser data through various outlets to get the buzz going and it seems that this year is no different.
Speculation on various websites is that Apple will be introducing a “Magic Trackpad.” This device will be an alternative (or complementary) input to the Magic Mouse that will allow for iPhone/iPad-like finger gestures to be used on the Mac.
Engadget broke the story early this morning and several others jumped on board with claimed photographs and other data on the pad. Apple Insider showed several photographs of the device (including that above), all coming from Engadget, but the real, verifiable information this time comes from 9to5Mac which has a YouTube video showcasing the “10 Finger Multi-touch User Interface” as patented by Apple:
What we’re seeing in this video is a possibility not for a trackpad, but for a full keyboard replacement as well as a total change on how the GUI would be seen on screen. While this may not be exactly what Apple has planned, it is a nice window into the possible future of user interfaces.
Very interesting.
