Combines a touchpad with a pressure-sensitive graphics-tablet style system - but is that what people want? http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2012/08/21/synaptics-forcepad/1
I predict this will be the last separate iteration of the [Skid]Pad, as virtual keyboard / control pads / touch-screens will become one. As an aside, the best laptop pointing device ever was the TouchStyk / TrackPoint. /nostalgia
Someone put an extra s in the link and its broken :`( My synaptics touchpad on what must be a 2008 era laptop can detect pressure. There is even a scrolling graph as part of the driver which goes up an down with pressure applied. Not revolutionary is certainly one way to put it.
My ThinkPad has a nipple-pointer, and it's fair to say that I'm a convert. Far more precise and accurate than a trackpad. I've even managed to convert my other half to nipple-pointers...
Do nipple pointers work better when it's cold? On a more serious note, I'm not entirely sure I know what the point of a pressure-sensitive touchpad is - after all, how many people use a touchpad for anything other than moving the mouse and left-clicking. It just sounds a bit gimmicky to me..?
nipple-pointer's need to be calibrated often tho, well thats my reasoning, based on 10yr old info ( which was the last time i researched this :-D )
Should have brought this out 5 years ago when laptops were the thing to have. Now touchscreen tablets are the thing to have.