One of the many, many things that Apple does right is trackpads. Not only is the trackpad hardware that Apple uses in the MacBook lineup the best in the world (seriously, I’ve never used a non-Apple trackpad that even came close), but the software backing it up is world-class.
A lot of that has to do with the library of consistent trackpad gestures Apple has built into OS X over the years. Compared to OS X, Windows feels downright schizophrenic when you’re using gestures. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. But it now appears that Microsoft is putting an end to the trackpad schizophrenia by borrowing Apple’s approach to gestures.
At the TechEd Europe event, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore said:
In the past touch pads on Windows have really been done very differently because OEMs do them. With Windows 10 we’re adding support for power users in a touch pad, where multiple finger gestures — which all of you power users learn — can make you really efficient.
Belfiore said that in Windows 10, a three-finger swipe down the trackpad will minimize all windows, a three-finger swipe up will bring them up, another three-finger swipe up will open Windows’s new Task View (which is a lot like Mission Control), and three finger swipes left and right will switch between apps.
These are almost identical to Apple’s own gestural trackpad language on the Mac. Even if Microsoft steals Apple’s best trackpad tricks, though, Windows trackpads will still probably suck. After all, it’s not just great software that makes the Mac trackpad such a joy to use. It’s fantastic hardware, and in that regard, Microsoft still has to defer to OEMs.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
29 responses to “Windows 10 is going to steal OS X’s trackpad gestures”
No way, first Microsoft should create same good touch pads as Apple has. good luck with this
Microsoft don’t manufacture laptops. Funny about that.
maybe they gonna start
They are, but nowadays they call them tablets.
The overall experience will totally suck. This is because of the many OEMs who make Windows PCs. They all have their own agenda, and not all of them build laptops with large track pads. Ever wonder why you see more Windows users attach a mouse to their laptops? It’s because of the hand cramps they would get if they used the crappy trackpads. Apple builds their trackpad surface out of glass. Will the other computer makers do that? Making the trackpad out of glass makes it far more smooth and easier to use. This is yet another example that Apple’s approach of building the whole product is better for the customer.
An Microsoft builds the whole screen in to a glass touchscreen.
One of the reasons I chose a MacBook Pro over a Windows laptop a couple years ago is that Windows laptops have horrible trackpads. With one, I had to dig my fingertips into it in order to get the pointer to move. Unless Windows laptop vendors can emulate the quality of Apple’s trackpads, the gestures they use won’t matter.
Microsoft has a cross license deal with apple for a long time… It’s just a matter of time before the useful features were “reused.”
http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/13/3239977/apple-and-microsoft-cross-license-agreement-includes-anti-cloning
It isn’t stealing if Microsoft pays the licensing fee to use it which I’m sure is the case as Apple pays Microsoft licensing fee for features it borrows.
It will require drivers and an a application. It will also tend to freeze when too many apps are open.
This isn’t iOS.
If you consider that stolen, then Apple stole the idea of the tablet, stole the idea of a touch-screen focused smartphone, and stole the OS due to being basically a modified Linux distribution.
Hell, Steve Jobs stole most of his ”genius” ideas from Woznak, and he marketed the sh*t out of them.
Hell, even your comment is stolen from a trillion others.
But I don’t have the indicency of asking people to pay me for it.
No one would buy what you’re selling anyway. You would be out of business in a weeks time.
Looks like someone stole your brain.
This is literally a ”lol your mom” tier response.
Good job iDiots.
You’re right! “Good job idiots.” Literally is a ”lol your mom” tier response!
Referring to a Apple’s trackpads as “world-class” seems very curious to me. It’s like it was written by some computer algorithm that didn’t truely understand the word and just picked a random adjective to insert. Seriously, Apple track pads are “world-class” as opposed to what? All the locally-owned, Mom and Pop trackpad companies?
I think you answered your own question. It is world class because Apple trackpad is that much better than “All the locally-owned, Mom and Pop trackpad companies.”
So what? It’s the same with the computer mouse – Apple first used a mouse on the Apple Lisa, now it is an essential component of any computer, Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.
The same thing is happening with the Trackpad. Yeah, Apple made it first but the time has come for other systems to use it.
Apple didn’t make the mouse first, they got that idea from Xerox Alto.
Just like tablets. Microsoft started making tablets and 9 years later Apple made a “revolutionary” invention…
>Steal
So Microsoft is doing what great artists do?
This is the most biased shit I’ve ever seen.
I’m happily using some of these features already on a PC by using the Logitech Touchpad 650. I suspect that they’ll update to match these specs completely once this comes out to the masses.
“steal”