A future version of the MacBook Pro could have a considerably larger trackpad, one that occupies the entire surface below the keyboard.
Apple’s trackpads in its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lineup are already quite large examples of the built-in peripheral, with the generous space used to provide users with more precision and usable area to move the cursor around.
While it seems that the trackpad is already big enough for many users, Apple may be thinking bigger, into allowing a larger space to be used as a trackpad than is currently offered.
This could be handy from a usability standpoint, as a centrally-aligned trackpad may require users to move their hands a bit far from where they are usually positioned for typing. A bigger trackpad could help shorten the distance, and in turn speed up a user’s processing of a task.
In the patent granted to Apple by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday titled “Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for handling user input gestures on an extended trackpad of an electronic device,” Apple suggests that the trackpad could go beyond the existing visible boundary, and into other areas of the MacBook enclosure.
Read more at AppleInsider.com