One of the main features that Apple has advertised with their new Macbook Air and Macbook Pro notebooks is the increased capabilities of the trackpad included with the machines.

With the new trackpad applications like iPhoto and Safari received additional navigation capabilities based on gestures conducted on the trackpad.

Safari includes trackpad capabilities that allowed you to touch three fingers to your trackpad and swipe them to the left or right and the browser will move forward or back a page based on your gesture.

Additionally gestures provided ways to zoom in on the screen, rotate pictures or scroll around the page view. Unfortunately, these new gestures do not include commands for all applications. You couldn’t use the same trackpad features to navigate in Firefox that you used in Safari.

That is until Will Henderson released his beta software that he has titled “MultiClutch“.

Multiclutch

MultiClutch is a small program that installs a system preference window that allows you to tie keyboard shortcut commands to your trackpad gestures.

Connecting the gestures to commands within an application is quick and simple:

1. After you’ve downloaded and installed MultiClutch, navigate to the System Preferences on your Mac and click MultiClutch in the “Other” section.
2. Click the ‘+’ to add an application, select the application you’d like to add a gesture command to
3. Select the application in the MultiClutch menu and then click the ‘+’ below the Gesture/Key Command section
4. Select the gesture command you’d like to use and then click the keyboard shortcut and press the keys you’d like to be tied to the trackpad gesture. (To view the keyboard shortcuts for an application, open the app and select the menu items to see what keyboard shortcuts are tied to the various menu commands
5. Close the system preferences, open the application and test the new gesture.

Now with MultiClutch and the new Firefox 3 beta 5 I can add the trackpad gestures I use in Safari to move forward and backwards with the websites I’m viewing.

Note: Currently only applications built with Cocoa are supported. If the gestures are not working there is a high likelihood the application was built in Carbon. Firefox Users should note that the MultiClutch gestures were tested in Firefox 3 beta 5 and worked correctly. They did not work in Firefox 2.

Recently, Airport Security (TSA) announced on their blog that they’ve reviewed the Macbook Air and is now comfortable with seeing the Apple notebook come through security.

After reports of a few individuals missing flights because of security hassles with new new thin Notebook without a CD/DVD drive, TSA send out notification and descriptions of the Macbook Air to its personal so that such problems wouldn’t occur in the future.

Well, Last night I had a flight to catch and originally debated on whether or not to bring the Macbook Air with me. But I had plenty of time to get through security so I figured it couldn’t hurt to bring it along.

Like usual, the security line was long, but I was able to move through the security check and slid the Macbook Air through the x-ray imagery.

At first I thought I was in trouble and would have to deal with some long security questions about my computer as a TSA officer approached me while I reached for my bag. He grabbed the back in front of mine, looked at me and said “IS THIS YOURS!?!?”

I was greatful that the bag wasn’t mine. I explained it wasn’t and the real owner stepped forward. I grabbed my Macbook Air and put it into my briefcase. I had a smile on my face as the security officer started questioning the intentions of bag owner’s use of a flash light on an air plane.

While the TSA officers have been instructed to ignore the Macbook Air as a security check, they’re still worried about flashlights.

Now that Maciverse.com author Dan is the proud owner of a Macbook Air (MBA for short), he’s also been going without his favorite DVDs. We’ll overlook the fact that he also owns a large HDTV and pretend he would really prefer to watch his movies outside in the shade on a beautiful spring day. Not only does the MBA suffer from not having a DVD drive, it also doesn’t have a lot of space for a movie collection. But don’t let that stop your fun.

For about the same price (depending on the model) as the MBA Superdrive, you can buy a slingbox. This lovely little device connects to your normal Cable/DVD/DVR output and to your network and lets you watch whatever is playing over your network with its SlingPlayer software. Depending on the brand of DVD/DVR/Cable Box, you can even control it from your computer as if you were pointing the remote at it. It can even be connected to an Apple TV. However, it doesn’t have wireless networking capabilities and that might be a drawback if your wireless router is on the other side of the house (or on a different floor). Also, once your movie is over, you will have to get up from your shady spot, go to the DVD player and put in another DVD just as if you were watching in your living room. So it doesn’t give you any type of media library (unless you connect it to your DVR or Apple TV). But all in all, a Slingbox is a very simple way to keep watching on your super slim Macbook Air. We’ll have a few more recipes for turning Dan’s MBA into a movie machine in future articles.

The new track pad on the Macbook air adds many of the touch gestures that many of you have become accustom to on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

In addition to adding these features, the track pad is larger than those you’ll find on the Macbook or Macbook Pro.

While many of the examples that apple displays in their videos focus on how to use the new gestures with photos or some files, the gestures are great with Safari.

Increase Font Size in Safari

To increase the size of the font on any web page that you’re looking at simply place your two fingers on the trackpad in a pinch position and separate your fingers across the track pad. Repeat this if you want the text to be even larger.

Do the opposite of this (Pinch your fingers in) on the track pad to reduce the size of the text on any website.

Navigate Forward and Backwards

The gesture that I find myself using most often is the swiping my fingers left or right to advance back and forth on the pages that I’ve visited in Safari.

Swipe three fingers to the left to move back a page and with three fingers to your right to move forward.

NOTE: All of these gestures currently only work on the track pad on the Macbook Air

We’ve discussed in previous articles about how we wanted a little more from AppleTV and mentioned how to create a more powerful media center. One item that adds some additional enjoyment to your media center is the Nintendo Wii.

We also mentioned ways to sync up your wiimote to your Mac and use it as a mouse. If you combine these two ideas and add in an HDTV you get one impressive media center that you can control with point and click technology. Lets face it, although bigger, the wiimote is just a lot more impressive than the mac remotes.

PREPARING THE MAC FOR YOUR HDTV

While the Macmini is the cheapest Mac you can buy to sync up to your HDTV, any Apple notebook would work great for this situation. I personally hooked up my Macbook Air to my HDTV using the microDV to VGA converter that came with it.

You may need to find a converter from the miniDV or microDV video out from your Mac to what ever video inputs your HDTV receives. I know many will HDTVs have either a VGA in or a DV connector. The Macbook Air comes with converters for both.

After you connect your computer to the TV with the cable and correct converters, just tune your television into that video input and power up your mac.

SETUP YOUR WII

While you don’t have to actually connect your Wii to your TV, be sure to place the IR Sensor bar is above your TV and connected to your Nintendo Wii. The next steps include connected your Wii to your Mac.

To do this you’ll need to download Darwiinremote. Its a free application still in beta that allows you to use your bluetooth technology on your Mac to connect the wiiremote to the computer. After downloading the file to your Mac connected to your HDTV, launch darwiinremote and follow these steps:

1. Be sure that Bluetooth on your Mac is turned on and in discovery mode.
2. Click the Find Wiimote button
3. The system will prompt you to click the 1 & 2 buttons on your wiimote, click them simultaneously.
4. Darwiinremote should find your Wiimote and sync it to your mac.
5. Click the IR Sensor Button
6. Power up your Wii so that the IR bar receives power.
7. Select Mouse Mode On on Darwiinremote
8. Minimize Darwiinremote

USING YOUR MacWiiTV MEDIA CENTER

You should now be able to point your wiimote around the HDTV and the pointer on your Mac will follow your movements. Click the home button to pull up front row and start accessing your media content. Download movies to rent through iTunes or stick in a DVD and enjoy it on your HDTV.

You can customize the various button functions on your wiimote through the preferences on darwiinremote to differen’t mouse clicks, or keyboard shortcuts.

BROWSE THE WEB & MORE

One great advantage of your MacWiiTV is that you can still enjoy all the functionality that you get from a normal Mac computer in addition to custom mouse controls using the Wiimote. If you want to browse the web you can pull up Safari and use a bluetooth keyboard to help navigate to different websites or pull up the onscreen keyboard.

SHOW THE ON SCREEN KEYBOARD ON YOUR MAC

1. Click the apple icon on the menu bar
2. Select System Preferences
3. Select International
4. Click The Input Menu Tab
5. Select Keyboard Viewer
6. Click the Flag on the Menu Bar
7. Click Show Keyboard viewer
8. Click the maximize button to increase the size of the keyboard.

CONCLUSION

The addition of the Wiimote to your new home media center adds some unique ways to interact with your television without the need for a mouse and keyboard. Additionally it allows you to take full advantage of your Mac media center and still use the complete features of OS X while sitting on your couch.

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