Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hacker News News Feed for the Mac Touch Bar

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 153 posts

Re: Hacker News News Feed for the Mac Touch Bar

#131

Post by erikbye »

brandonmenc wrote: post #12
hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #2

Anyone who has the new model w/ Touch Bar can comment on the usefulness of it, now that it's been out for a while? Do you ever used it / still use it daily?

I got a MBP this last refresh. I'm a programmer. Touch Bar is a nice incremental advance. Not having a physical ESC key is not as bothersome as I expected. In fact, I don't notice it at all. Disclaimer: I don't use vi. I like the media control modes, and am looking forward to content creation apps (ex: Ableton) making use of it. I'd be sad if it were taken away, but it wouldn't prevent me from getting work done. It's…

Who the hell uses Esc for Vi(m)? On modern keyboards Esc is too far from home row. Ctrl-[ is much better.

Re: Hacker News News Feed for the Mac Touch Bar

#132

Post by neotek »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #2

Anyone who has the new model w/ Touch Bar can comment on the usefulness of it, now that it's been out for a while? Do you ever used it / still use it daily?

I've been using a 15" tMBP for around 8 months now and although I don't miss the function keys one bit, I'm yet to have an experience with the Touch Bar that makes me go "oh, now I get it."

Changing the volume and brightness by pressing and holding the relevant icon and sliding is nice, but that's literally all I've ever really had to use the Touch Bar for.

I'm not looking at the keyboard while I type and therefore am never going to see or use the auto-suggest dictionary thing it does when you're filling in text fields, nor am I ever inclined to use emoji, so that Touch Bar feature is essentially invisible to me.

Apps which integrate the Touch Bar in some way are only ever replicating functionality that already exists in the app itself, and so there's no real impetus to use the Touch Bar if you're already familiar with that app.

I feel like there's something missing here, that the Touch Bar's killer feature just hasn't been presented to me yet. I don't have a suggestion for what that killer feature might be, but I expect that as time goes by and the Touch Bar becomes more prevalent, developers will start thinking about unique and innovative ways to incorporate it.

Re: Hacker News News Feed for the Mac Touch Bar

#133

Post by neotek »

wambotron wrote: post #40
hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #2

Anyone who has the new model w/ Touch Bar can comment on the usefulness of it, now that it's been out for a while? Do you ever used it / still use it daily?

I have one for work and absolutely hate it. No tactile feedback at all, so it's easy to mis-hit a key. I also echo the guy who said he accidentally hits Siri now because of it. It happened to me A LOT until I realized you can change what shows on it by default. Now I keep mine with expanded controls at all time. It's still annoying because I have to look down to be able to press the right key. I prefer having physica…

I felt the same way about the new butterfly keys for the first 15 minutes or so, but very quickly got a feel for them and now I prefer them to the keys on my mid-2012 MBP.

I quite like the click sound they make too, it's mechanical and satisfying, although it's a little loud for quiet situations like libraries etc.

Re: Hacker News News Feed for the Mac Touch Bar

#134

Post by kondro »

tsieling wrote: post #94
notadoc wrote: post #9

Interesting proof of concept, but the Touch Bar is still nothing I want any part of. Apple needs to make the Touch Bar a build-to-order option so that the rest of us can get a hardware Escape key and function keys back again.

Non-touchbar are the first models offered on the MacBook pro page.

Show me the 15" non-Touch Bar® MacBook Pro with dedicated graphics card.

Re: Hacker News News Feed for the Mac Touch Bar

#135

Post by doktrin »

joombaga wrote: post #53
ZeroCool2u wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a developer and one of my work laptops is a MBP 13 inch w/ touchbar. I wasn't a huge Apple fan to begin with, but I used one of the last gen 17 inch MBP's for work, for about 2 years and liked it mostly because of the excellent hardware, specifically the keyboard and trackpad. The new keyboard is absolutely terrible though. Genuinely the second worst keyboard I've ever used. The new switches have caused dramatica…

Are you sure it's the switches? Did you move from a 17 inch to a 13 inch? I'd think that would contribute more to your troubles. Is the layout/key density significantly different?

I went from 15' MBP (2008) to 15' rMBP (2012) to the current gen 15' MBP. I've used the new keyboard for about 3 months, and can unequivocally say it's the worst I've ever used. I now carry an external keyboard with me everywhere I go.

edit : downvotes won't change my opinion

Re: Hacker News News Feed for the Mac Touch Bar

#136

Post by mmjaa »

oulu2006 wrote: post #120
ufukbay wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I replaced Siri with the Sleep button since the keyboard shortcut to lock/sleep your MBP doesn't work anymore. :) (If anyone is interested: Finder > View (press Option key) > Customize Control Strip)

Wow! I've had this laptop also for about 6 months and never knew you could do that!

To me, this is a GUI anti-pattern. Why do we have to go to Finder to customise the Touchbar? I looked for this option in System Preferences for days before I stumbled across this .. and then to have to hold down the magic Option key.

Honestly, these sorts of anti-patterns are what makes me think Apple has seriously lost the plot.

Re: Hacker News News Feed for the Mac Touch Bar

#137

Post by nikanj »

I'm on the market for a new laptop. Not a fan of the touchbar, and Surface only goes to 512gb.

And turns out those two are the only professional-ish laptops you can actually see in stores. At least here in Vancouver, the only things stocked at Best Buy etc are Mega Gigatron Gaming Ultra XXXL-sized laptops, underpowered $299 laptops for your mom, and super svelte Macbook Air copies.

I know for a fact there's product lines such as the Dell XPS , the HP Elitebook, i7 ultrabooks from Toshiba, Samsung etc, but nobody wants to sell them.

Well, except Amazon, but buying a laptop from the internet feels as wrong as buying shoes from the internet. What if the ergonomics are all wrong for me?

Re: Hacker News News Feed for the Mac Touch Bar

#138

Post by marcosscriven »

mthoms wrote: post #68
marcosscriven wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately it's not quite where it was though. It's about one key's width in from the left. Presumably for the sheer sake of symmetry with the touch sensor the other end.

The touchable area is actually bigger than it appears. It does in fact extend much farther left. Try it. This is probably for aesthetics as you mention.

I've read that a couple of times, but it's only a little bit. About half way between the far edge and the edge of the touchbar display.

Re: Hacker News News Feed for the Mac Touch Bar

#139

Post by intoverflow2 »

mFixman wrote: post #129
marcosscriven wrote: post #46

If they wanted the top row to be flexible, I would have prefered individual keys with an eink-style surface that could change, but would look completely normal otherwise.

You can have sliders in the touchbar that you can't have with e-ink keys. The bar would be perfect for adjusting volume and brightness if Apple decided to remove the awful indicator pop-up in the monitor.

Do the sliders actually work better than the keys?

Currently I can adjust my volume with my eyes closed in bed at night when listening to a podcast because it's the second key from the top right of the keyboard.

Re: Hacker News News Feed for the Mac Touch Bar

#140

Post by mFixman »

intoverflow2 wrote: post #139
mFixman wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have sliders in the touchbar that you can't have with e-ink keys. The bar would be perfect for adjusting volume and brightness if Apple decided to remove the awful indicator pop-up in the monitor.

Do the sliders actually work better than the keys? Currently I can adjust my volume with my eyes closed in bed at night when listening to a podcast because it's the second key from the top right of the keyboard.

Yup. Not only you can do it with your eyes closed, you can also easily go all the way up or down quickly, and it's more granular than button controls.

I generally despise button controls for things that could be continuous. I hated it when they replaced the volume control in many car radios (http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/radio-volume-picture-id1...).

Post reply on HN