Users pour forth MacBook trackpad woes
Failing to click
An official Apple forum has become a sounding board for numerous complaints that the MacBook’s new multi-touch glass-covered trackpad isn't behaving itself.
Apple's MacBook trackpad: freezing after 50 clicks?
Owners of shiny new metal MacBooks grumble that the trackpad freezes after roughly 50 clicks and that it suddenly comes back to life after a further 5-10 unrecognised clicks. The trackpad, unveiled last month, doesn’t have the customary mouse buttons because the whole panel is itself a button.
Apple hasn’t made any official announcement about the problem yet, so it’s still unclear if the trackpad issue is a fault in the hardware, the software, or both.
However, that hasn’t stopped one owner from speculating that “what needs to be tweaked is the recognition of a pinch, so that both fingers have to be in motion to be considered pinching”.
According to another user’s post, the problem can be fixed by moving the trackpad's tracking speed setting - found under the Trackpad section of Mac OS X's System Preferences - up a notch.
If the problem is software related then a firmware update should, hopefully, fix the problem. If it's a hardware issue, it could prove costly for Apple which is hoping to sell plenty of the metal Macs in the run-up to Christmas.
Apple MacBook Reviews
Late 2008 MacBook Pro
Late 2008 aluminium MacBook
COMMENTS
Update
Well seems Apple is releasing a software update to fix the problem. So much for your rant about hardware quality Webster Sulky.
@AC: re How long
Apple have already publically acknowledged the problem, why would they now go and pretend it doesn't exist?
two problems
It's fairly clear there is a real issue which Apple will have to fix, but it's overlaid on user habits of leaving extra digits (especially thumb) lightly resting on the trackpad, adding one more finger to every gesture, often changing their meaning.
I have no problems with mine, apart from when I go back to an older trackpad and have to unlearn my new multitouch, buttonless habits.
How long?
Article: "An official Apple forum has become a sounding board for numerous complaints that the MacBook’s new multi-touch glass-covered trackpad isn't behaving itself."
How long before Apple delete those complaints from their forum?
Anyone taking bets on this?
@AC
I don't think you should buy extended warranty on everything you buy but to not do so on something as expensive as an MBP is plain stupidity, particularly as it's a portable device and therefore far more susceptible to damage than a desktop machine.
