On Aug 15, 2011, at 7:26 PM, Geoffrey Heard wrote:

> Track pad gestures? Big feature of Lion?
> 
> Gawd -- haven't you looked in your System Preferences in OS X.6.x?
> 
> Or are their more of the stupid things?

Several. And all quite useful on a laptop. Takes no time at all to learn them and the mouse becomes rather 20th century after that.


> (c) I'd much rather use a practical mouse -- my $15 optical two button+wheel USB-with-retractable-tail mini-mouse. Spot on performance, so light I can move it with a finger tip, accurate, immediate response.
> 
	I still use a mouse for some detail work in video editing in iMovie, but otherwise the trackpad on my unibody MacBook and Apple's trackpad for my iMac work quite well. 

> 
> Oh, and it fits the hand, not like that Apple crap (there you go, Brian). Apple have never actually had a good mouse.  :)

	Funny, but I always felt that way about Logitech mice. Bulky and ugly.

> 
> Did I mention that the regional shopping mall near me startled me last Friday with signs announcing: "Apple Store Open in Fashion Bridge, Level 2".
> 
> There you go -- that's what we're talking about. Apple, a fashion accessory! Apple has already been promoting the new Macs as "games ready".
> 
Fashionable, yes, but very useful at productivity. 
It's coming up on the beginning of the Fall semester and, though I'm supposedly retired, I'm doing adjunct teaching for three different area colleges. That makes for a variety of e-mail (including Exchange accounts), syllabi, and online course software to tend to. 
With my MacBook and Lion, with the upgraded Spaces in Mission Control, as well as the gestures, it's all quite manageable. Mission Control (a three or four finger swipe up, depending on one's preference) allows me to move quickly among Mail, NWP, Pages, or whatever that I have open. 

In fact, as my three-year-old iMac ages, I'm planning on making my 16-month-old white unibody MacBook (4 gig RAM, 320 gig HD) become my stay-at-home workhorse and, when the adjunct checks begin rolling in, investing in an 11 inch MacBook Air as my go-everywhere Mac. 

Oh, and NWP upgrade for Lion works very nicely.  On the MacBook I run it full-screen which gives it its own Space to run in and makes best use of the screen real estate. 


> The mighty little computer -- the tool for the rest of us -- is no more.

Depends on who "the rest of us" applies to. For people who want a computer to get work done, Mac still "gets out of the way," as opposed to Windows and new users find it a relief after years of fighting with their PCs.

Anyhow, Lion and the gestures suit me fine. They've taken a great deal of stress out of starting a new school year.  Now, if only I could stop my colleagues who've been away all Summer from sending cheery messages like, "Are you excited about the new school year?" and other perky stuff, I'd be happy.  It's still much too hot for perky.

Gary