One thing that’s always bothered me about touchpads is that they can be accidentally pressed while typing. In the past, I’ve used a mouse with my notebooks and just disabled the touchpad; however, I am now making more use out of having the notebook actually be mobile (and Splashtop, which allows me to nearly instantly boot into a mini-Linux environment for quick use of the notebook, is extra useful), so I’m not even using my small mouse very much. I just don’t understand why something so trivial as “I’m typing on the keyboard, so I want the touchpad to be disabled” hasn’t been done yet (that I know of). If I’ve pressed a key in the last half second, ignore my wrist and/or palm that lightly tap the touchpad.
Now, who’s going to implement this and make millions? …Not it!
Interestingly, Apple kinda did that. The MacBook touchpad has no pressure-sensitive clicking. You have to use the button below it.
Of course, the new MacBooks have those fancy touchpads with a billion different gesture possibilities, so it might be possible to accidentally zoom in or change your desktop while typing.
I actually did disable the touch-click feature of the touchpad on my previous notebook, then I eventually disabled it completely and always just used my mini wireless mouse; however, I’m actually liking touching the touchpad to click on my new notebook. The touchpad is definitely a much higher quality that my past notebooks, so it’s quicker and easier than actually clicking.
Hmm, yeah, my palm would probably manage to do the gesture for shutting down the computer….
You hit this right on the head, Ian. This is one of the most annoying things about using a laptop for me. Windows minimize, emails send prematurely…you never know what you’re gonna get. I’d love to see someone do something about this.
Oh, and Pig Monkey, don’t mistake Apple’s lack of a particular feature, which happens to be pretty useful to some users, as creative design.