Apple’s MacBook Pro series is back in the media thanks to the comany’s announcement of the new “Touch Bar”. The Touch Bar uses retina display and multitouch technology to replace the MacBook Pro’s top row of static function keys.

Mac OS X only: MagicPrefs lets you create custom gestures (and override existing ones) to provide new multitouch functionality to your Apple input devices. It's like the great Multiclutch, which serves a similar purpose, but with added power and precision that gives you serious control over even the nuances of your gestures.

If you have a multitouch trackpad, you may be used to zooming in and out of web pages in your browser. Unfortunately, Firefox 4 disables them by default. Here's how to get them back.

Mac + iPad: iOS 4.3 was supposed to add really useful four-finger and five-finger multitouch gestures on the iPad, but unfortunately they weren't included in the official release — or more precisely, they're in the release, but you can't enable them without a little know-how.

When you jailbreak your iDevice you can change just about anything. One of the most notable adjustments comes from an often overlooked extension called Activator, which lets you set the functionality of your buttons and multitouch gestures to do whatever you like. Long-time jailbreaker David Graff thinks it's a must-have and explains how you can get it set up on your device.

Linux: We've shown you how to enable a few multitouch gestures in Linux, but if you'd like to enable even more, free download Touchegg will give you MacBook-calibre gestures on your Linux-based laptop.

Along with hardware upgrades to their Mac Pro, iMac and Cinema Display lines, Apple unveiled something entirely different for owners of their desktop computers: a fully functional, stand-alone "Magic Trackpad" that offers the same multi-finger control of the MacBook trackpad.

Windows: We recently detailed two ways of getting Mac-like multi-finger scrolling on a Windows laptop, involving little open-source apps and hacked drivers. Touchpad giant Synaptics actually offers its own app, Scrybe, that provides multi-finger scrolling, along with gesture-style application launching.

Mac only: No longer must Mac users move to the keyboard to open links in a new tab — free, open-source app MiddleClick sits in your menu bar and allows you to use three fingers to middle click on Apple's multitouch devices.

Once you've used the hand-helping, time-saving, two-finger scrolling and three-finger gestures on a MacBook, a standard Windows trackpad can feel kind of, well, dead. Here's how to get total finger control with a tiny app, or go further with a driver swap.

Mac OS X: Like its Windows 7 counterpart, the BumpTop desktop replacement arrives on OS X with all kinds of ways of manipulating and organising files, folders, images and applications. It also integrates with the Mac's own window-handling tools.

Mac only: Whether you're using Apple's new Magic Mouse or a multitouch-capable MacBook, you may be disappointed with the small number of gestures available. BetterTouchTool expands the stock multitouch features by adding gestures and letting you choose what they do.

BumpTop, the 3D desktop overlay we've drooled over since prototype, has added multitouch support for Windows 7 and hardware that supports it. It's a logical step, and it makes a neat actual-desktop-as-desktop metaphor seem truly real.

Our siblings-in-tech over at Gizmodo take a look at Windows 7's new multitouch capabilities, and from the look of things, it's on the right track.Granted, there's not a lot to see in this initial video, but the responsiveness looks good and the onscreen keyboard is quite fetching. We know that not all that many people actually own and use a touchscreen PC (in the video you're looking at an HP TouchSmart), but who knows—this kind of more advanced functionality may be just want the touchscreen needs to take off. Head over to the Gizmodo post for a more detailed look at how the multitouch features work.

Windows 7 Touch and Multitouch Video Walkthrough