As this week's 'Take Two' update gives Apple TVs a much needed UI and feature makeover, Apple's commitment to improving some of its hardware with major software upgrades shows no sign of slowing down.
On Wednesday, Apple users got another tantalizing hint at what was possible through the magic of software updates. U.K. gadget site T3 published an article claiming that Apple will be spreading the multi-touch technology found on the MacBook Air to other MacBooks through software upgrades -- not full-fledged hardware refreshes. The post cited an "Apple spokesperson" as confirming this was possible, but the article was mysteriously removed from T3 a few hours after it was posted with no explanation. (See UPDATE below.)
According to Synaptics, a major developer of touchpad interfaces for mobile phones, notebooks and other peripherals, upgrading touchpad capabilities through software is technically feasible, but not just yet.
"There is firmware in the touchpad…and some silicon technology can be enhanced to recognize different multi-finger gestures," says Mark Vena, vice president of Synaptics' PC business unit.
However, the current generation of PC notebook trackpads won't be able to handle these new multi-gesture capabilities until they themselves are upgraded. Synaptics is working on doing just that and is concurrently developing new technologies that will eventually let customers simply download new driver to automatically to add multi-touch features to their notebooks.
"The firmware changes we're making definitely have the capability of supporting additional gestures," Vena confirmed. "Customers will be able to download a driver and that will add the additional gestures."
Apple's own multi-touch technology on the MacBook Air allows users the ability to pinch, swipe and rotate, similar to what they can do on the iPod Touch and iPhone. However, current MacBook and MacBook Pros only allow for two-finger scrolling on the trackpads. As Ars Technica notes, tracking two points in the same direction is relatively easy to do. Tracking two points moving in opposite directions, or in a circle, is a little trickier.
A recent iFixit teardown of the MacBook Air reveals that Broadcom supplies Apple with the controller chip used for its extra large trackpad. That chip happens to be the exact same one that is used in the iPhone and iPod touch. But for a software update to be feasible across the MacBook lineup, that chip would likely have to be present in the current versions MacBook and MacBook Pro.
According to analyst, Tim Bajarin, it is not. There's also the fact that current trackpads on MacBooks and MacBook Pros are much too small to allow for the kinds of multi-touch capabilities people want.
"The (MacBook Air) trackpad is almost three times larger," Bajarin notes. "That's how you can do the pinch and all the other movements."
That said, many analysts do expect Apple will eventually add new trackpads to its future generation of MacBooks. And as for Synaptics, the company is also planning to expand its gesture library in the coming year.
"We think the timing is right," said Vena. "When Apple does something, it tends to have a halo effect. Everybody already has a touchpad on their notebooks, and to expand its functionality is very appealing to users."
UPDATE: After taking down the original article, T3 posted an update on Thursday stating that Apple had retracted its statement about adding multi-touch features to the rest of its MacBook lineup via software updates. A new company statement reads:
This more or less confirms what Synaptics and analysts told us yesterday: That while such software updates will be possible in the future, they are not compatible with the current generation of trackpads found in MacBooks, MacBook Pros and most PC notebooks.
