I’ve been considering getting a trackpad for my iMac. Am I tired of the mouse? Not necessarily. However, I’m Gadget Gal and I want the latest and greatest! First thing I did in researching this was simply to ask on Facebook: “who has the trackpad?” And I immediately got a handful of responses. Most were favorable to the new trackpad. And most noted that it did take some getting used to.

Next I researched by simply googling “trackpad vs. mouse” I decided head into some forums. I like forums because they’re real “conversations” discussed by real people. They are not articles that are hashed out in some tech talk that I can’t understand. On one forum, a girl who will be purchasing her first iMac wants to know what the difference is. And I like how the more experienced “techies” will answer questions.

Upon reading debates and discussions on one versus the other, I learned a few things. One thing stood out to me: if people had been working with mice in the past, they tended to stick with the Magic Mouse. If people had worked with trackpads (for example, the built in trackpads on laptops), they favored the trackpads. That makes sense to me. People stick with what they know! However, I am finding it useful to know that if you choose to try out the new trackpad, you can still use your Magic Mouse all the same.

I researched Lion a bit more. As it turns out, many of the new features of Lion are specifically made to work better with the trackpad. Mostly, the multi-touch features. It seems that moving our mice around the mousepad might become a thing of the past. The ‘new’ keyword I find is “gesturing”. When you use a trackpad, depending upon the function, you gesture with your fingers…no, not the middle-finger gesture, rather swiping, pinching, using one, two, or three fingers to complete functions and tasks. The apple support page has a very long article on how to learn your way around the new trackpad, by the way. It’s really well-written, and an article I might have to keep handy, once I make the decision to switch!

And the last thing I need to keep in mind is my family! My husband is technologically challenged. And for that reason I need to keep things simple for him. And my daughter, who has special needs, also needs the consistency of using a mouse. I think if I tried to teach her how to use a trackpad, that might put her over the edge!

In the end, the question is this: do I want to dish out $69 for this gadget? I’m leaning towards YES!