I have never had a system software change the way I use a computer this much, ever. It's melding touch tech (phones and pads) with the desktop. Best thing is, the old way is still there too. I know a lot of people's main computer is a laptop and you're already divorced yourself from the mouse, but this is getting closer to Minority Report type interfacing.
The touch pad notices 1-4 fingers. Some things I've seen in the last hour:
• 2 fingers scroll anything
• 2 fingers in Safari left to right scrolls webpage history
• 4 fingers up shows you all the windows you have open (Mission Control)
• 4 fingers down in an Text Edit shows you icons of the last 10 docs you opened
• photos rotate, zoom with pinch etc just like touch tech (yes in Photoshop!!!)
• the infamous mac right click (control w/ mouse click) is now just two finger down on the pad!
I've tried to take screen shots of these effects but whatever animation mode it's in wants to complete before I can screen shot it. : (
Mac Mail is visually very different. Takes some getting used to. It's a three column approach and is better in full screen. Messages appear to the right instead of below the list of you mails.
My tool bar at the bottom of the screen may become obsolete with "Launch Pad" that just fills the screen with super-sized icons and allows you to scroll sideways through app icons like searching for a phone or tablet app.
It's just too cool and my hand has already grown accustomed to the whole pad thing. Must be a new theory in scrolling because my mouse rollerball has reversed polarity.
Growing Pains:
I use and buy a lot of software. Most of my cheapo audio software died. All of my pre-intel Microsoft Office Suite died. Other than that, the expensive 3d program I got just for exporting organic shapes to Second Life died. Mindmanager, which warned it wouldn't work, does work. I opened an old file. There might be other issues I'm not seeing.
