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Apple Magic Trackpad
Let your fingers do the working
Assault on batteries
All the gestures the MT supports have a nice, large canvas on which to paint. It's larger than any laptop pad and is of a size that, say, shifting the point from one side of the screen to the other, which doesn't require multiple strokes, doesn't feel cramped.
The only flaw here is Apple's use of Bluetooth technology. Yes, it saves having to lose a USB port to a dongle, but it's also less power-efficient than the proprietary wireless protocols developed by controller specialists like Logitech for this very reason.
Rake's progress
Apple says a pair of alkaline AAs will last "months". Reviewers can't wait that long, but I suspect you won't get more than one or two months out the bundled batteries. By comparison, my Magic Mouse batteries lasted just over a month, compared to a year for the same type of cells in a Logitech V550 Nano wireless notebook mouse. I'd expect the MT's battery to last longer than the Magic Mouse's - no tracking laser - but I doubt it'll match the Logitech.
This is, of course, why Apple is pushing rechargeable batteries so hard.
Verdict
It's not magic, of course, but the Magic Trackpad is a fine control device - for laptop users as well as those folk who prefer desktop machines - that's a genuine pleasure to use. ®
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