I guess at least they've added a touchbar to the lowest end model instead of just removing that model from the lineup which is what I initially thought they'd do.
Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro
171–180 of 397 posts
Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro
#172My laptop is connected to an external monitor and keyboard more than 90% of the time. I use the function keys on the external keyboard.
Is the touchbar useful? Is it good? Who cares, it is not getting used. Given Apple's butterfly keyboard issues using the laptop keyboard as your primary keyboard isn't really an option anyway. For the limited amount of time I use the laptop keyboard the touchbar certainly isn't worth it.
If Apple sold a decent external keyboard, not the fucking aluminum chiclet keyboard, with a touchbar I would certainly be willing to consider the touchbar on whatever merits it has, but as a tiny touch enabled 3rd screen above an infrequently used keyboard it is irrelevant. I, like many people, thought that the Optimus OLED keyboard with programmable dynamic keycaps was neat. I'd be willing to give a touchbar external keyboard a fair shake.
Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro
#173Geez. Give me back a physical ESC button. I've had to remap the caps lock so that I'm not fumbling around to trigger escape. If this was one of Jony Ives' designs, don't let the door hit you on the way out, mofo.
Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro
#174I can go to BestBuy and get a 1TB SSD for $140. Is there any reason to pay $200 more for the MacBook Pros with bigger SSDs, rather that buying the drive separately?
You won't be able to put that SSD you buy in the laptop.
Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
Touchbar has been used effectively by Zoom. Only app that I use and love using touchbar with right now.
Probably don't want to advertise using Zoom right now LOL
I didn't know what this refers to. Apparently Zoom has a vulnerability where someone can send you a web link and if you click on it, it will start the camera immediately, allowing them to see you.
Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
I blame this mostly on Apple's human interface guidelines: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline... Scroll down to "Design Considerations": "Use the Touch Bar as an extension of the keyboard and trackpad, not as a display." But what I really want is for the touch bar to be a display and input device for things normally elsewhere: time, date, maybe CPU usage, etc. This to me is not a hardware pr…
Doesn't Apple itself use it as a terrible little mini-display in some multimedia apps, like Logic, to show a ridiculous multi-track "view" on the damn touchbar itself? Like several individual tracks all squished together? And they talk about "human interface" ?
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Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm in agreement with your eloquent response. The touch bar is an unacceptable gimmick for me, a solution in search of a non-existent problem (my physical escape key is doing just fine). I'm also not going to buy Bluetooth headphones, just because they decided to drop support for standard headphone jacks. The right to repair and extend my personal computer is another. It's common human decency, which apparently is no…
I really don't see the problem with any of this stuff. I like physical escape keys, I really don't want expensive Bluetooth headphones, and I like having a headphone jack on my phone. I also like being able to repair and upgrade my equipment. So what do I do? I don't buy Apple stuff. Then I read discussions like this one and chuckle at all the people griping about all these things, and then continuing to buy and use…
Part of the thing you'll see on forums like this towards apple is the fact that there is a disproportionate number of developers who for one reason or another need to use MacOS professionally, such as developing iOS apps. A lot of us use Macs because we have to in order to target Apple platforms with our products.
They may not have a monopoly, but they do control ~40-50% of the smartphone market in the West and force developers to use MacOS to target their phones. In other markets like pro media production, they absolutely have a monopoly on machines.
A lot of us are frustrated by the fact that with each generation, Apple has made an inferior product that costs more money at every tier of their Mac catalog. Even if we're not paying for the machines, we have to go through the rigamarole of repair delays and thermal throttling under load even on the "pro" machines.
Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
FYI you can press and drag on the brightness/volume buttons to make adjustments immediately, no need for a second touch
I'm not complaining about the drag. I'm complaining that I have to tap once to open the slider and then drag it. Whereas it was easier just to have two buttons, one for increment, and one for decrement, that I could just tap or hold down.
Right - you don't have to let go and then grab the slider after it opens. You can just press and hold then slide left or right to move the slider immediately.
I guess there's a still tradeoff: this way you need to move your finger around, but you can immediately skip to exactly the level you want. With holding a button down you have to time it to get to the right spot instead.
Personally I like the slider better but that's just my opinion.
Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro
#17999%+ of my usage of the touchbar is pressing escape, adjusting screen brightness, speaker volume, or accessing music controls. All of these worked flawlessly when I had physical keys, but now it's hard to know what I'm pressing without looking, and sometimes the controls become unresponsive to touches or drags. I'm a programmer/business owner, so perhaps it's useful for other sorts of creative professionals, but it f…
Part of an innovative spirit is trying things, and letting them breathe even under criticism. But then killing them if they don't work out. You need to adjust to feedback.
Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am a touch typist. I never look down at the keyboard, ever. The only time the Touch Bar is involved is when I accidentally switch tabs because the Touch Bar buttons trip even while you're pressing the 2 or 3 key on the keyboard, and then I'm lost in a different tab than the one I was working on in the first place. Is there a preset that never shows anything on the touch bar, ever , except for the Escape key and the…
System Preferences > Keyboard > Customize Touch Bar (at bottom). Drag off buttons you don't want, drag on buttons you do. Not 5 seconds, but probably less than a minute.
This works for "global" buttons but VSCode, Firefox, etc. put their junk on their anyway. I want all of it gone. Some applications so conveniently let you turn them off (VSCode is one of them, now that I've looked)--it's absolutely ridiculous that I have to do it for every application and I want it all to GTFO, globally. How does one do that?
EDIT: So I found it - if, in the Keyboard preferences pane, you pick "Expanded Control Strip" instead of "App Controls", apps can't awfulify the touch bar. I now have haptically null touch points that do what I expect a Mac's top row to do, which is worse than having keys that do what I expect a Mac's top row to do, but it isn't as bad as it was at the start of the day.