This $200 Accessory Gives Your iMac A Touchscreen

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zorro macsk

Apple has traditionally been opposed to putting a touchscreen on any of its products, leaving touch capabilities to only iOS powered devices. This hasn’t stopped the third party market though, as you can now buy an accessory that supposedly turns your iMac into a full, touch enabled computer.

The Zorro Macsk, a brand new product from TMDtouch, a Chinese based company, supposedly will allow you to add touch functionality to your 21.5-inch iMac within just 10 seconds. Instead of adding an extra layer atop the iMac’s glass, the Zorro Macsk uses infrared technology to sense touch input. This also enables the user to use input such as a stylus on the screen, since it’s not a capactive display.

The Zorro Macsk packaging.

The Kindle Touch, Amazon’s foray into the touchscreen market, uses infrared technology in the same way, in order to bring a touch experience to the Kindle’s E Ink display. The company touts the product as ready to use in 10 seconds, since the attachment requires no additional software to run. It simply plugs into the back of the iMac with a USB cable.

Once plugged in, you can use any of Apple’s built in multi-touch gestures with the Macsk. Gestures work in the same way you would expect them to on something like a Magic Trackpad.

The device is currently listed on Amazon at a price of $199 for a 21.5-inch model in a variety of colors, such as lime green, silver, white, black, pink, or blue. The device also comes with a protective film for the screen, as well as a stylus. Unfortunately, there is no 27-inch model available at this time, but I’ve heard from the company that the larger model has entered production.

You can view a video of the product in action here:

This looks like it could be a great product for demos, as well as in classrooms, if it performs as shown. As it stands though, this is a new, unproven foreign company with no Amazon feedback. As exciting as this product looks, be cautious ordering.

You can find more information about the product here.

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