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I’ve been such a fan of laptop TrackPoints that I didn’t know you could have fun with the good ol’ trackpad, too. Since I got my Compaq Presario V2000 laptop, I’ve been looking for ways to get the most out of this sexy thing, leading me to look for tips, tricks and software I can use for the touchpad. I stumbled upon Synaptics’ website, and apparently, the engineers/developers over at the touchpad manufacturing company do have a sense of humor after all.

The Synaptics downloads page doesn’t only give you drivers and manuals for your touchpad, but some crazy apps you can use for fun:

DrumPad – Rock out with your Synaptics TouchPad by turning your TouchPad device into a virtual drum set with the DrumPad utility.

Sketch – This software application allows you to draw or write using the Synaptics TouchPad.

Theremin – Get musical accompaniment for your finger movement on your TouchPad with the Theremin utility.

TouchPadSays – Test your memory with a Synaptics update to the classic Simon Says game.

My favorite is the Theremin utility, which lets you create those eerie, Sci-Fi soundtrack-like sounds with a few touchpad gestures.

The original theremin is a capacitive sensing device that detects the presence of your hands and responds with an eerie whistling sound that many find aesthetically pleasing. This instrument has mainly been used for background music for old science fiction movies and TV series.

The Synaptics TouchPad is a capacitive sensing device that detects the presence of your fingers and, up until now, has not responded with an eerie whistling sound that many find aesthetically pleasing. This oversight has
finally been corrected.

The Drum pad is good, too, but I’m afraid I might be shortening my touchpad’s life span. And I’d probably be wasting too much time with these useless novelties (that’s unless I decide to create a SciFi movie sometime soon).