Another day, another envelope-pushing design from Apple intended to make us rethink the way we interact with our computers. Welcome to the Magic Trackpad.
In terms of radical design, there's only so much you can say about a flat board. And this is more out-of-the-laptop than out-of-the-box thinking. MacBook users will be instantly familiar with Apple's "new" input device 
But the real significance is that it really does lend some weight to the oft-predicted death of the mouse. Apple has, after all, since its early days been one of the computer pioneers of the graphical user interface that depend on the mouse. It has point-and-click baked into its computing DNA - even if not everyone found its one-button mouse intuitive to use.
The mouse's demise now looks all but assured. It's the inevitable result of twin forces. Firstly, mobile devices with their easy-to-use touchscreens have led the way, opening our eyes to possibilities of simpler interactions through the use of finger gestures.
The other big change is in the use of our computers. When all we wanted was a word processor, spreadsheet and more latterly a web browser, the point-and-click system was perfectly adequate.
Today, media editing is commonplace and an input device capable of interpreting a multitude of simple finger motions would seem to offer a quicker way of achieving the results we're after. Pinching to zoom is just so much easier that trying to locate the right viewing option with your cursor.
Eventually, it's likely that we'll do away with the trackpad altogether, and use screens or built-in cameras to track and interpret our gestures. Until then, it remains to be seen where scrunch-and-swipe gestures will take us.
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