The Mac trackpads are indeed 3d. They can sense two dimensions of touch like normal, plus how hard you're pushing them. It's really great - it lets you set how firm you like your click in software, and gives you an additional type of click.

Any good examples of the force click use? I use mine to look up definitions/Wikipedia in safari but beyond that I haven't found much use for it.

I wish I could make it open links in a new tab (like middle click on a mouse) instead of that annoying preview thing.

I use BetterTouchTool to customize trackpad behavior like this, adding gestures for opening in new tab, switching tabs, close window etc

If you click on that annoying preview after it comes up thing it'll open the link in a new tab :)

x,y, & pressure

A Google search would have saved you a lot of embarrassment before making a needless inflammatory remark.

3d touchpad takes a 2d device and adds a pressure channel, making it measure three dimensions x,y,z. So yes, 3d like a Kinect.

Sorry, I didn't intend it to be inflammatory, and I did do a Google search, finding Space Mice (which I'm familiar with) advertised, a Microchip special-purpose touch pad IC/dev kit, and various other seemingly unrelated systems. I have a Leap Motion input device to play with, and wondered if it was related to the more familiar Kinect. No offense meant!