An old cursor became the same I beam over any size text. It highlights what is or isn't tappable, even. The cursor telegraphs what's to come-what may or may not happen if you tap. This is in part because the cursor lives in the same virtual space as the interface in a way our finger never can. Watching them struggle was a revelation.Īnd yet somehow, the overall effect of using a trackpad with an iPad is more convincing than direct manipulation, less exhausting, and simply more fun. And we quickly realized the first thing we had to teach the students (often decades older than us) was how to use a mouse. In the ‘90s, while in high school, I taught a class with a friend called Internet 101. A trackpad or mouse moves a disembodied thing on a remote surface. Which is odd considering how much a trackpad abstracts. The trackpad is always closer at hand than the screen it sits on the same plane as the keyboard, further enhancing that sense of connection or perception between the OS and the user. These gestures now feel, I suppose you could say, closer. Done on a trackpad, they’re suddenly efficient and nearly instantaneous. But those multifingered swipes have always seemed giant and ungainly, simian, and a bit hokey at best when you have to lift an arm up to the screen. The iPad is gesture-dependent for multitasking and switching between applications.
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