iPod touch as a trackpad

Was in the Apple store in the Westfield shopping centre today and asked one of the geniuses about hanging a MacBook-style trackpad on an iMac.

No can do, but there's an app in the iTunes store (RemotePad) that lets you use an iPod touch (or iPhone) as a wireless trackpad...

Not a cheap way of doing it if, like me, you've currently got neither but I like the idea

Anyone got any experience (direct or vicarious) of it?

Air Mouse works well.... gives 3d mouse or trackpad for iphone or ipod touch was about £3.49 when I bought it... also gives a keyboard. too..

Hadn't seen that one, thanks.

I have iTap. £2.39 in iTunes App Store.

It works fine, though I haven't used it much.

In reply to a post by AlanH:

though I haven't used it much.

Thanks Alan.

No criticism of anybody intended, but the general lack of enthusiasm is making me think that spending £160+ on an iPod touch for this facility would not be one of my better ideas

The touch, like the iPhone, is a multi-purpose tool. I think it would be crazy to buy it simply to use as a trackpad, just as it would be excessive to buy a Mac just to use as a typewriter. You need to work out whether you can get £160 worth of total value out of it. Mine is a family-friendly web browser, a mini media centre attached to the TV, a diary, notepad, games console, contacts list, email reader ...

I guess, when you are sitting at your Mac, the touch's other uses are not so important and it *could* be turned into a trackpad, but I'm so used to reaching for my mouse that I would have to unlearn that behaviour in order to take advantage of iTap. Maybe I'll try harder, and see how I get on.

In reply to a post by AlanH:

I'm so used to reaching for my mouse that I would have to unlearn that behaviour in order to take advantage of iTap.

Fair enough... even though I'm sitting at the iMac more than the MacBook, I find the trackpad so easy to use that my fingers reach for it instinctively

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by AlanH:

though I haven't used it much.

Thanks Alan.

No criticism of anybody intended, but the general lack of enthusiasm is making me think that spending £160+ on an iPod touch for this facility would not be one of my better ideas

I've used WiFiRemote during presentations on my iPod Touch, but think you've answered your own question.

If you've got an iPhone or iPod Touch and use it for other stuff (I use mail, calendar, wikipedia and some other surfing - as well as listening to music & watching films!) then adding the mouse/trackpad/touchpad for a few quid makes sense. But it's not worth getting if that's the sole aim.

Having said that, I think the iPod touch is one of the most useful things I've ever bought and if my phone usage was a bit higher I'd happily switch to an iPhone.

The touch, like the iPhone, is a multi-purpose tool. I think it would be crazy to buy it simply to use as a trackpad, just as it would be excessive to buy a Mac just to use as a typewriter. You need to work out whether you can get £160 worth of total value out of it. Mine is a family-friendly web browser, a mini media centre attached to the TV, a diary, notepad, games console, contacts list, email reader ...

My Touch is used the same way

The remote trackpad aspect seems to me to be a waste of time unless you like gimmicks. Don't you need to be in front of the computer display anyway to see what's going on and thus have the full sized keyboard or trackpad in front of you?

The "Remote Tap" app looks like a sensible approach, giving you a remote display of your Mac and its GUI, Handy if you don't want to be sitting in front of the Mac, and need to finish a job off remotely but then the Touch or iPhone in its generic state does some of what the computer does as well.
"Remote Tap" also has "WakeOnLan" built in (It's made by the same people) as well as other goodies.

Think I might have talked myself into buying it, but no way would I buy a Touch or phone for trackpad use.

In reply to a post by StarNamer:

Having said that, I think the iPod touch is one of the most useful things I've ever bought and if my phone usage was a bit higher I'd happily switch to an iPhone.

I bought my first mobile phone for emergency use after my first heart attack- in case I needed to call an ambulance from the middle of nowhere. It's use hasn't greatly increased since, so I won't be bothering with an iPhone

iPod touch... bit of a catch 22. If I had one it's possible I'd find it as indispensable as many do, but I've never really felt the need for any form of "personal organiser" since the days of the Psion... thought needed.