Multi-Touch Trackpad Planned for New Apple MacBook

While most of the geek community is gearing up for CES next week, there is also a very significant population who have their attention turned toward MacWorld in San Francisco. Apple’s event always creates quite the stir and this year should be no exception, because a new family of laptops is planned. And they may incorporate a multi-touch trackpad.

Multi-touch seems to be Apple’s hottest commodity these days, thanks largely to the rising popularity of the Apple iPhone. A multi-touch trackpad wouldn’t quite be as ground-breaking as the second coming of the Newton, but it’s pretty darn close. We also hear that the Mac sub-notebook will be lacking an internal optical drive, opting instead for an external optical drive. This will shave significant bulk and weight off the supposed Eee PC killer.

Knowing the guys in Cupertino, we won’t be hearing any sort of confirmation or denial of these rumors until Steve Jobs takes the stage for his keynote address on January 15th. We’re all on pins and needles in the meantime.