I spent months either avoiding or struggling vainly to make use of OS X 10.7′s new navigation features with just a mouse. After hearing from friends and reading online that Lion’s various gestures and touch-based controls really shine on, for example, a MacBook Air, I decided to bite the bullet and get a Magic Trackpad. Still, I didn’t pay full retail.

Back in June, I opined that OS X Lion is a winner, but not necessarily cheap. Why? Because although the OS X upgrade only costs $29.99, many users (i.e. I have a 2007 iMac) would discover they also needed to buy Apple’s $69 Magic Trackpad — well, count me among converted.

Mea culpa: I didn’t pay $69 for my Magic Trackpad, but rather $57.99 at Amazon, plus $4.99 shipping.

So, what did I get for that? Two-finger scrolling, three-fingers + thumb to call up Launchpad, single-finger tap for left click and two-finger tap for right.

Reeder works very nicely with gestures, moving from story to story with four-finger (easier than it sounds) swipes up and down.

Turn on to Lion

Then there’s the three finger drag to select, a gesture that’s very natural. On the subject of which, I’m now using OS X Lion’s natural scrolling, though I haven’t turned the scroll bars back off — that’s just wrong.

Perhaps most telling of all is the fact that I’ve stopped whacking my input device. That is, with the mouse, you could hear button clicks down by the mailbox (at the end of the driveway) — now it’s just a gentle touch.

And, beyond that? Well, I’m still learning, but it’s all good.

Ready to Lionize your desktop Mac?

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