Multi-touch Trackpad for older MacBook Pro?

I was wondering if anyone knows if Apple will make the new multi-touch trackpad available for purchase and if they do, if it will be compatible with older versions of the MBP?

iPhil,
Welcome to Apple Discussions!

The Terms of Use which you just signed forbid speculation. Please read them on the right.
They also say this is a user to user forum. Thus there is no logical reason for you to believe any user here may know more than an Apple employee about the inner workings of Apple.

Apple has made no announcement about trackpads for older Macs.

If you want multitouch at this point in time, you will have to buy a newer Mac. You can always sell your older Mac to those not interested in the technology.

Message was edited by: a brody

Since multitouch would require both drivers that understand which points of the trackpad were sensed, and a trackpad that can convey signals in that fashion, you'd have to have a method of connecting a newer trackpad to an older machine. Whether or not the new chips found in the MacBook/MacBook Pro, iPod Touch, and iPhone have something on the logicboard that is not found in older Macs is something that is unknown. I suppose someone could make it possible to take contents of a newer Mac and put it in an older shell, but then you'd have to make sure the layout doesn't have any cooling problems either. There is a site:

http://www.modyourmac.com/

Which discusses how to create what basically are Frankenmacs of various degrees.

Of course all of these are all at your own risk.

Is it worth it? I suppose it matters how much money you are willing to risk going down the tubes.

Various tear-downs of the new MBPs and the MacBook Air have shown a special processor chip for the multi-touch mousepad. Without this processor, which is hardwired to the logic board, the multi-touch would not work. So, a one word answer to the OP: No.

No loss. I have one of those trackpads. It's basically useless for that stuff. Sorry to burst your bubble. Great machine otherwise!!!

a. wrote: +"Thus there is no logical reason for you to believe any user here may know more than an Apple employee about the inner workings of Apple.+"

Oh, I don't know about that, a.brody! Maybe iPhil has picked up the vibe that sometimes you can get better answers from the forums than you sometimes get from a store! Certainly seems to be the case on occasion to me! Personally I can think of many "logical" reasons why one might surmise such a thing!

Mind you, faced with such an uncompromising welcome citing the "terms and conditions" he may not stick around long enough to find out , I fear. 😟

Welcome, iPhil. This really can be a friendly place and useful source of information of many different kinds. Please don't be put off by the occasional bit of excessive officious zeal!

Cheers

Rod

From Apple's Dictionary: "speculate |ˈspekyəˌlāt|
verb [ intrans. ]
1 form a theory or conjecture about a subject without firm evidence"

If someone posts a new problem here (like the ELP issue), and people with no clear understanding as to the cause of said problem suggest a possible cause and/or solution, without knowing wholly the answer ...is that not speculation?

i mean ..it makes sense when applied towards future product lines, Steve Jobs' underwear color, etc. But to ask the possibility if a piece of hardware would be compatible with a version of current product lines? Inappropriate, really? What about the endless questions for RAM and hard drive compatibility?

Seems a bit excessive whipping out the TOS hammer on such an innocent question.

There is a distinct difference between:

1. Will Apple offer a solution to XYZ problem?

No one knows, as Apple does not normally release its beta programs to the general public to test. It would require speculation to answer that problem.
Those who do know are normally under non-disclosure agreement and can't disclose here. These questions have in the past generated locked threads and sometimes deleted threads. The problem faced here is that if anyone answers in the affirmative and Apple does not, it will create an atmosphere for people to rant that Apple is not doing what is expected of them.

2. Can someone offer me help understanding how to solve XYZ problem?

I don't think trying to find answers to XYZ problem in #2 constitute speculation. When someone says, can you try X, or can you try Y. Z may solve the problem though I can't say for certain if it will in your instance. I also don't think it is problematic to state that this problem does not exist in XYZ environment to eliminate the possibilities of what are the causes.

But since I don't work for Apple and we can't really speculate on their policy (another terms of use no-no), I will only state what has happened, not what will happen.

Glad to see you are still here, iPhil! 😉

Looks like you received an answer to your actual question, too, though it wasn't the one you wanted to hear.

I've often wondered how "programmable" the existing pad is, though. For quite some time before Apple introduced some of the same features a third party operator provided software called "sidetrack" that let you use the trackpad for horizontal and vertical scrolling etc even on powerbooks and ibooks. It is still available, and adds a couple of options for the MB's not available through the regular OS, though it can't currently manage "pinching" etc.

Still might be worth checking out and keeping an eye on, in case they manage to extend its capabilities a bit further.- http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/sidetrack/

Cheers

Rod

Um…my guess is black. To match the turtleneck.