I just realized the other day that with the recent addition on my Apple Magic Trackpad, I now have 3 separate ways to control the cursor on my desktop.
Seems a little excessive doesn’t it?
Well not really! Let me tell you why I use all three: My Apple Magic Mouse, Apple Magic Trackpad and my Wacom Intuos 4 Pen and Tablet.
The Wacom Pen and Tablet
This device is one of greatest innovations for graphic designers. Being able to hold a pen and draw as you would on a sheet a paper but while using Photoshop is a great advantage. Making micro adjustments and fine retouching is a hundred times easier with a very precise pen point. Not only that but the tablet also has a really nifty scroll wheel which makes it quick and easy to zoom in and out while photo editing. For video editing, I even use this scroll wheel for scrolling back and forth on my video timeline.
The Apple Trackpad
Since getting my first iPhone and then iPad, I have absolutely loved using a touch screen. The Trackpad brings that dexterity to the Mac. Being able to swipe through web pages, rotate photos, zoom in and out easily is pretty cool. The only downside with the Trackpad is the click can be fairly slow and dragging files across the screen can be hard to get used to That’s where the good old mouse comes in!
The Apple Magic Mouse
Finally the good old mouse, great for most everyday uses. This is probably the one device I could do without at this point (except of course for the few tasks I find difficult with the Trackpad). But it’s pretty useful nonetheless.
In the end, I think each device has it’s pros and cons (except the pen and tablet, it’s 100% awesome!) but they each serve their purpose and make me much more productive and efficient!
Rober Baldwin.