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Answer» HP's new g6 budget notebook line is wholly unremarkable—almost. The econo-laptops have one thing going for them, but it's pretty stellar—a completely seamless, invisible trackpad. Our only question is, why is this awesome feature stuck in cheap-o land?
The trackpad on the g6 is entirely unseen. No lines, no varying texture, no gaudy glow—no nothing. Just a sheer, continuous plane of smooth plastic—and still highly responsive. The only mark on the otherwise pristine bar is a little dimpled touch sensor, considerately allowing you to switch the pad on or off (should you want to type out an essay without your arms nudging the pad, for instance). It's a deliciously designed feature, and a highly attractive one. The notebook itself is no beauty queen, but the uninterrupted form stands out wonderfully.
So why is the only HP computer getting this treatment the cheapest one on the lot? HP's new "premium" laptop models—the Pavilion dv6 and dv7—show off their trackpads, rather than sleekly concealing them. They're high contrast. They're bright. They pop. They scream, HELLO, I AM A TRACKPAD. HERE I AM Interface should never be in your face.
The g6's invisi-pad isn't perfect. It doesn't click or have the satisfying roominess of, say, a MacBook Pro's pad. But it's an attention to detail that other manufacturers (and HP itself!) should look to. And not just to stick in the bargain bin. - via Gizmodo
http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l600/alensu/3-15.jpg[/img]]I MIGHT HAVE HAD ONE OF THE PROTOTYPES. WAS FULLY INVISIBLE-
and I lost it. an invisible trackpad is no better then an invisible mouse. It's absolutely POINTLESS and it completely trades in function just so something looks pretty. I've had to deal with the invisible trackpad on a few laptops (ironically, HP laptops, and not a budget model, either), and it was extremely frustrating. Where does the touchpad start and end? As you yourself The gizmodo post you blatantly RIPPED off said, there are no visual or tactile indicators of where the touchpad is and is not. This is BAD, not good, design. Major input features should be completely obvious, you should not have to go hunting for it. Then again, I dislike laptop Touchpad's to begin with, I much prefered the TRACKPOINT myself. Particularly because I cannot accidentally click the or move the cursor around while typing causing myself to start typing at some other random location. In fact, typing this on my laptop now this has occured a total of 3 times, and I'm consciously trying NOT to come close to the touchpad. Of course, in my case I can actually see where the touchpad is so I can avoid it, something which would be impossible on these laptops with this "awesome feature" of an invisible touchpad. It's not a feature, it's a pain in the *censored*, like the gloss finishes they put on notebook screens. I want to see what is on the fecking SCREEN thank you, if I wanted to see myself I would go get a damned mirror, OK? ARE YOU LISTENING MANUFACTURERS? stop making your stuff do bloody glossy! To be fair this is another case of manufacturers thinking "well, if Apple does it, it must be right" No, it isn't. I will now tangentally discuss why a monitor should not be glossy:
What do we use a monitor for? seeing what the computer is doing and viewing the output the computer wants to show us. What do we not generally want to see when we look at the monitor? the bloody window that's directly behind you. So, it stands to reason "well, golly, I suppose we ought to place a covering that baffles specular reflections and diffuses light so that people aren't distracted or overwhelmed visually by the reflections" Now, there a re matte screens that follow this line of reasoning. But at some point apple decided that their "Make everything shiny and they will come" approach should only extend to the cases of almost every peripheral they make but also to the screens of those peripherals. It's like they had a machine that could transform an animal into a person, threw in a bird, and then hired them to design their product, resulting in a product that rates rather high on the shiny side of the shiny/matte scale.
Quote They scream, HELLO, I AM A TRACKPAD. HERE I AM Interface should never be in your face.
an Interface should ALWAYS be obvious. Otherwise, nobody would know there was anything there. if somebody who has no idea about laptops sees the textured square in front of the keyboard, they'll touch it. Then they will see the mouse pointer move on the screen. The smarter people doing this will instantly understand the connection. The dumber ones will think they just infected the laptop with a virus that moves the pointer. In the case of the "sleek" and "stylish" and "completely invisible" touchpad, they won't see the touchpad, so they won't touch it and they probably won't know about it at all until they read the manual, experiment, or start sensually massaging the laptop to try to exorcise the virus they accidentally gave it; that is exactly the opposite of intuitive.
taking the piss for a moment here, If interfaces aren't supposed to be in your face, we may as well remove the labels from keycaps, since those are totally in your face "hey I'm a keyboard with keys" Nope, that is clearly bad design. In fact, the keys are raised too, and give a clear tactile feedback when you press them. Nope, that won't do at all. They should be entirely seemless; in fact, the keyboard should just be a slab- for example:
It's perfect- well, maybe a BIT too thick. It's not entirely obvious that it's a keyboard, but *censored* it looks sleek, and if that's not what computers and their accessories are all about, well, then colour me amazed.
For those who may be interested, the Original Post is a copy paste from here:
http://m.gizmodo.com/5754813/every-trackpad-should-look-as-good-as-hps-invisible-wonders
The main problem on the PC side is that PC laptop and desktop accessory manufacturers are trying to make products that have a similar style to apples. Thing is, if somebody wants a macbook, they'll buy a macbook; additionally, and this particular "sleek touchpad" look is a case and point, they are trying so hard to be like Apple they are completely ignoring the fact that, generally speaking, the Apple products are usable first, and sleek and stylish second (although that's more a objective view, personally I think that is reversed but saying that would hardly help me coalesce a point); at the very LEAST, Apple doesn't sacrifice this much function for form.
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