Review: Apple Magic Trackpad

I've been using trackpads on my laptops for many years and used them on the desktop for awhile as well, so when my father started raving about the Apple Magic Trackpad, I thought I'd give it a try. I had read a few reviews of it and heard people talk about it on podcasts, so I thought I'd immediately like it. When I received it, I easily paired it to my MacBook Pro and tried to use it. As I had always been a mechanical click kind of person, I found the trackpad hard to use even though it had mechanical buttons in the front feet. I kept trying to use it for a few days and then simply put it away and forgot about it.

Last week we travelled to San Jose for Thanksgiving and stayed in a hotel (if you go some place for Thanksgiving, I highly recommend staying in a hotel instead of with the in-laws; much easier to have your own space for an extended stay). We put our son down pretty early and I didn't want to disturb him with the mechanical clicking of my MacBook Pro's trackpad, so I turned on tap to click. I spent several days learning how to use this feature and first, it was hard to use, but once I changed the double click settings to be slower, I got the hang of it. The hardest part was dragging as every time I was trying to drag, it would double click (hence changing the settings).

When we got back, I pulled out the Magic Trackpad and started to use it again. I had been using my Handshoe Mouse which I really like. My only complaint was all the dirt it picked up which made it feel gritty when I moved it. Within a few minutes, I understood what my dad had been saying about it. It works quite well once you turn on tap to click; if you use the mechanical click, it works poorly as dragging is almost impossible (at least for me). Now that I've been using the Magic Trackpad, I'm almost ready to put my mouse out to pasture. The only area that I seem to switch back to the mouse is when I use the iPhone Simulator and have to swipe up as it seems harder to do with a trackpad.

Pros

• Takes up very little room.
• Easy to pair with my Mac.
• Reasonable price.
• Very customizable (there is a free app called BetterTouch Tool that adds even more customizations).
• Large surface area (larger than my MacBook Pro's trackpad).

Cons

• Mechanical clicking works poorly.
• Tap to click/drag can take a little getting used to if you haven't used it before.
• Doesn't come with rechargeable batteries (when I replace the batteries, I'll use the Eneloop ones that I've had for a few years).
• Bluetooth is sometimes annoying if I take my MacBook Pro in the other room and the trackpad randomly connects/disconnects (other room is maybe 15 feet away).

Summary

It seems that Apple is moving in the direction of touch for everything and the Magic Trackpad is a natural extension. If you're tired of dragging a mouse around or cleaning a trackball, the Magic Trackpad is worth considering. The customizable gestures, including the pinch to zoom and swipes is the future of where Apple is going with input, in my opinion. The only real downside I see to the device is the learning curve, at least for me. If I hadn't forced myself to get used to the tap to click, I would have definitely said that this device was a waste of money. However, once I figured out that this was my problem, I'm happily using the trackpad and am using my MacBook Pro's internal trackpad more efficiently as well. I would not be surprised if Apple drops the mechanical click in the future.

You get what you pay for

When I sold ReceiptWallet (now Paperless), I no longer had a real need for a VPS (virtual private server) as all it hosted was this blog. So I decided to shop for something cheaper (I was paying about $40/month). I found one site and paid maybe $15/month, but after an extended outage and poor support, I switched to another provider, costing less than $11/month. I stuck with them for awhile after a number of outages and IP address changes. Last week, they changed my IP address again and not until I received an alert from the monitoring service I use, did I know they had done this. That was fine as I quickly changed my DNS, but then they had a few hour outage yesterday and the explanation was that they had a networking problem. Enough with the problems!

Well, I finally gave up and switched to another provider. This time, I decided to spend a few extra bucks ($20 per month) and go back to the provider I used in the ReceiptWallet days, VPSLink. While their service is a little more expensive and I don't get as much RAM, bandwidth or storage space (the only thing I miss is the RAM), I'm crossing my fingers that this is a lot more reliable. I'm either going to pay in money or time to keep this site running as well as my wife's site for her business.

Self employment, six months later

Six months ago, I left my job to become self employed, again. The last time I became self employed was seven and a half years ago, when I mutually agreed to leave that job due to lack of work and due to my boredom. This time was a bit different as I made the decision completely by myself to leave. Last time, I was quite nervous the first couple of months as I wasn't guaranteed steady income and didn't know if I'd have enough work. This time, I was nervous the 2 weeks before I left my job because I didn't have any work lined up, but luckily all the pieces came together and I landed an ongoing monthly contract.

In my last few posts about being self employed, I mentioned that I was enjoying my work. Things haven't really changed, except I've been put on tougher projects which are quite trying. However, they're pretty short term and I'll move onto a new project soon. I'm working with really good people and the work is challenging; when I'm not challenged, I kind of go crazy.

Not only has my work been going well, I'm now consistently running 3 or 4 times a week and have changed my diet. In June, I decided to give up red meat after getting quite sick twice from beef. My wife has been quite supportive of this and has been cooking mostly vegetarian meals for us. It takes a lot of work for her to come up with different ideas and prepare the meals. Before June, I would never have imagined liking vegetarian faire, but it's pretty good. My diet change and running have helped me lose 15 pounds. I wasn't overweight, but my weight had increased a little bit in the last few years, something I wanted to reverse.

As I've written about numerous times, I've also picked up a hobby, something that I never really had before.

So, the last six months have probably been the best six months I've had in a long time. I'm enjoying my work, eating well, have a lot less stress, and feel good about myself. The change to becoming self employed again has treated me well. Many factors have lead to this and I have a new outlook on life that took a drastic change for me to see.

Excellent customer service

As it is probably apparent, I'm a bit addicted to my new hobby and bought another helicopter. This time it was a Blade mSR. I flew it a few times and it flies pretty well. However, after those flights, I started seeing a problem where the helicopter looked like it was periodically losing power during flight.

I read a post where others have experienced the same problem. I contacted Horizon Hobby support describing the problem and referencing the post. They promptly replied, asked for pictures of the motor and a copy of my receipt. The day after I replied with the information, I had a new tail rotor and new main rotor in my hands at no cost and they didn't require me to send the parts back!

I was quite pleased with the service and definitely will keep me buying Horizon Hobby products. It makes perfect sense for a company to provide excellent customer service to keep you coming back for more. However, so many companies don't quite understand this. In this case, I paid just over $105 for the helicopter and they sent me about $20 in parts without having to send anything back and with no down time. For someone addicted to a hobby, they just help me feed my habit.