Apple posts Magic Trackpad drivers for Windows
Only Boot Campers need apply
Windows users keen to make use of Apple's Magic Trackpad, announced yesterday, can now do so - possibly.
Apple has posted 64-bit and 32-bit Windows drivers for the gadget. Aimed at Mac users who have also installed Windows on their hard drives courtesy of Apple's Boot Camp dual-boot system, the drivers' .exe self-installer alas doesn't work on more conventional Windows Vista and 7 set-ups.
The installer patches drivers already installed during Boot Camp set-up.
Hopefully, it won't be long before an enterprising coder extracts the useful files. We'd suggest Apple saves them the bother and ensures the download works on any Windows install.
You can get the 64-bit drivers here. The 32-bit versions are available separately, here.
Apple also posted drivers for Mac OS X, allowing the Magic Trackpad to work with multi-touch trackpad-equipped notebooks. ®
COMMENTS
Why should they bother?
Plenty of other manufacturers of gadgets only supply Wintel drivers, so why should Apple feel the need to provide anything except MacOS drivers?
Because of the money
Once a manufacturer makes a Wintel driver it'll work on 95% of all Windows pc's. Therefore because of market share, manufacturer's of windows gadgets do not always feel the commercial need to write drivers for the Mac environment. Given that Apple is a minority computer maker.
However, as others have said, if Apple were to produce drivers for Wintel systems, they would sell a lot more magic trackpads. They are not being forced to write a Wintel driver, it just makes commercial sense.
Due to bluetooth?
This looks to be a Blue-tooth peripheral - and Bluetooth support is by no means universal in Windows PCs.
Apple would find themselves integrating with myriad shitty Bluetooth drivers and hardware (with associated bugs), not to mention having a difficult 'is this compatible?' issue to handle in store.
Supporting Bootcamp only, they don't have any of these variables.
The apple ITrack
"Goes where you go, works all day, virus free"
*small print*
(warning may suffer from virus's and will shutdown when it gets to hot. goto www.applefails.com and read up on how to hold it correctly!"
Sorry i just had to... i really just cant stand apple at the moment haha.
Not that I want one of these
But why would Apple limit its use to Mac hardware only? That's nuts.
