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Comment by _fat_santa | Hacker News Reader

I find it funny that Apple never really hit the mark with a mouse but knocked it out of the park with their trackpads. Like many commenters here, I never liked Apple's mice, from the old ones in G4's to the new Magic Mouse.

The Magic Trackpad though? That thing is truly magical in my opinion. I've been using the Magic Trackpad 2 since it first came out and I think it's one of the best pieces of hardware Apple has ever released, right up there with Airpods.

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Apple’s mice are atrocious, but the Magic Trackpad 2 is my favourite pointing device, bar none. It’s gestures are by far the fastest way to navigate the multitasking environment in MacOS. Keybinding with traditional mice, such as the MX Master should ostensibly provide the same experience, but in practice it’s way slower and more disjointed than using the trackpad. I just cannot navigate MacOS with a mouse, as quickly as I can with a trackpad.

The trackpad is so good that I even know people that use the trackpad alongside their MX Master, for pinch/zoom, scrolling and multitasking.

Is there some trick to that thing? Whenever I use a trackpad all day, I get horrible finger pain. The only other activity that's as hard on my fingers as heavy trackpad use is playing Guitar Hero on a high difficulty setting (presumably playing a real instrument would be as bad, but I don't know how to)

Are you clicking with the pointing finger? Every time I see someone do that (which is common), it looks incredibly awkward — especially a click and drag.

Fingers for pointing and gestures, thumb for clicking. Use arm or fingers rather than wrist. I usually point with my middle finger, occasionally index, scroll with my middle and ring fingers.

ah, yeah, I think I'm just using it generally completely un-ergonomically

I can somehow get away with it on my mouse since I'm resting my arm and not curling my fingers or moving my wrist much, but the trackpad pushes things too far

I'm not sure how people can handle holding up their arms all day to do things properly ergonomically though

Hey, BTW, I don't know much about how things work on HackerNews, but this completely innocuous comment you made showed as "dead" with a "vouch" button. I clicked the "vouch" button and then your comment lit up.. I think your account is in some sort of punishment state

This is a great way to work

I’m in total agreement! The Pro Mouse and Apple Mouse were probably my favorite Apple-branded mice (the nipple on the Mighty Mouse still makes me shudder), and the gestures in the Magic Mouse were a nice introduction to what could exist, but the Magic Trackpad and especially the Magic Trackpad 2 are just perfection.

Thinking back, whether it is from a laptop or a Magic Trackpad, my primary pointing device has been an Apple Trackpad since 2007, save the four or five months that I used the Magic Mouse that came with the iMac I bought in November 2009 before the Magic Trackpad came out. I’m not a gamer, which makes a big difference, and I have great affection for Logitech's MX series of mice, but regardless of what system or OS I’m on, I just prefer using an Apple trackpad.

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