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Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

engadget.com

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Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#271

Post by Marsymars »

notafraudster wrote: post #39

To me the bigger news here is killing the MacBook. It's a weird product -- crazy overpriced, and with a bunch of concessions in terms of the design, but I like that it's extremely light (33% lighter than a MacBook Air) and has no fan. I had hoped never to buy another laptop with a fan again. Yes, I know performance sucks, which is why I run most of my code on a server instead of locally on my computer. I think really…

> I think really the best other options without a fan are all Chromebooks.

I own both a 12" MacBook and a Pixelbook, and the Pixelbook is notably chunkier/heavier. (And every other comparable Chromebook is even worse.)

Next best fanless option is probably a Surface device.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#272

Post by neetdeth »

dmix wrote: post #184
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good point, and I did do exactly that in the pre-Touch Bar days as I had no use for most of the "media keys." What the Touch Bar gives me is context sensitivity, different suites of commands on a per-app basis. Evidently I'm just lacking the mental agility of remembering that F2 is "open responsive desktop mode" in Safari and "clean build cache" in Xcode. As for the arguments of touch-typists here, I'm a tou…

But why encourage people to look down when typing anything? Basically everyone learns to type without looking at some point which is the ideal zone you want users in (a one-to-one connection with the machine, eyes straight, hands down). Context switching the UI in a computer interface, often randomly depending on the app, while requiring the user to look down to use it is terrible UX. This whole technology screams ‘b…

Why label literally any button? Just number them all, and if a pilot can't remember that button F81 means "gear down" well that's user error.

Hitting a function button is not "typing" in any real sense anyway, use being so relatively infrequent. Can you really hit F8 consistently, without looking?

Maybe the doctrinaire solution would be to delete the function keys, if "thou shalt not look at keys" is the ultimate commandment. But that's incompatible with legacy needs.

Back in the pre-GUI days when use of the function keys was far more prevalent, software would sometimes ship with cardboard overlays to indicate which key did what action. The touchbar is bringing that old idea into the 21st century.

I would have preferred they scaled it back and include physical Esc and power keys on either side, but in other ways it presents a real improvement in computing UX which is too rare these days.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#273

Post by SkyMarshal »

lloeki wrote: post #61

I am a developer. The Touch Bar is useless to me. I remapped Caps lock to Esc expecting to be annoyed, but still hit Esc nonetheless because it works. And I deftly adjust volume using the Touch Bar slider using press-and-slide (not tap then pick-and-slide), relying on the += key for tactile positioning (but the position itself is largely muscle memory by now) I am also a musician. The Touch Bar is fantastic to adjust…

If you don't need to remap Esc, try remapping CTRL to CAPS. Helps a lot with dev work esp if you use mod keys frequently.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#274

Post by rhizome »

lloeki wrote: post #112
Kluny wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Touch Bar is useless to me. I don't get it, the rest of your comment is mostly positive?

"as a developer" ; and "useless" in the literal sense: it could be the Touch Bar or anything else, I could care less because I don't use that part of the keyboard. Even if it were annoying for the non-development functions I use it for when developing (volume control is not exactly "development", only auxiliary at best) I'd just remap them to actual keyboard shortcuts. But it's not. What's "annoying" is apps that cou…

The sentence "The Touch Bar is useless to me" is the only negative sentiment in the paragraph (if not the entire comment), and it's followed by a few positive examples.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#276

Post by eropple »

coldpie wrote: post #269
eropple wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Touch Bar is fantastic to adjust tuneables in GarageBand, without the gorilla arm or wobbly screen effect you get on touchscreens. I futzed around with the touch bar in Logic when I got one and wrote it off almost immediately. Logic Remote (which works with GarageBand, AFAIK) already exists and works with an iPad. Clear labels, clear text, manipulating multiple elements easily at once--it's a better solution th…

If you work at fixed locations most of the time, is getting real (i.e. external) keyboards an option?

My preferred external keyboard only has a PC layout. Having my fingers confused by having none of my shortcuts work is a bummer.

The real answer for me is going to be swapping for an X1 Yoga or an X1 Extreme, I think.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#277

Post by SkyMarshal »

eropple wrote: post #78
lloeki wrote: post #61

I am a developer. The Touch Bar is useless to me. I remapped Caps lock to Esc expecting to be annoyed, but still hit Esc nonetheless because it works. And I deftly adjust volume using the Touch Bar slider using press-and-slide (not tap then pick-and-slide), relying on the += key for tactile positioning (but the position itself is largely muscle memory by now) I am also a musician. The Touch Bar is fantastic to adjust…

> The Touch Bar is fantastic to adjust tuneables in GarageBand, without the gorilla arm or wobbly screen effect you get on touchscreens. I futzed around with the touch bar in Logic when I got one and wrote it off almost immediately. Logic Remote (which works with GarageBand, AFAIK) already exists and works with an iPad. Clear labels, clear text, manipulating multiple elements easily at once--it's a better solution th…

> Logic Remote (which works with GarageBand, AFAIK) already exists and works with an iPad. Clear labels, clear text, manipulating multiple elements easily at once--it's a better solution than what they tried to wedge in with the touch bar.

This suggests a fun and interesting way forward for Apple UI design - layered augments from additional devices. Let OS X be the core of the system, but enable big apps like Logic or Photoshop to have connected supplementary UI's in iPad or VR/AR that provide a high-quality interface to some specific functionality. Reduce alt-tabbing on the main screen.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#278

Post by [deleted] »

retrac98 wrote: post #10

99%+ 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…

[deleted]

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#279

Post by Marsymars »

nikivi wrote: post #66

I genuinely love my Touchbar. It's an extension of my macbook. I use it to show my active TODO, time and date, when I am on break and soon current calendar event running + Karabiner profile. https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/my-mac-os/tree/master/btt People who like to hate on it, didn't invest time in learning that you can program it to show what you want. And as for physical keys, with Karabiner, there is no need f…

> People who like to hate on it, didn't invest time in learning that you can program it to show what you want.

How much time investment is required? I inadvertently spent a month travelling with a Touchbar MacBook, and it only took me a few days to get it configured for all my uses, and it was fine. However, when I switched back to a non-Touchbar system, it felt like an immediate and significant upgrade in keyboard capability. (Plus the non-Touchbar systems are cheaper.)

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#280

Post by rnikander »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #174
rnikander wrote: post #152

I 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.

I have a 2012 MacBook Pro, and I upgraded the SSD by myself. Has something changed? I see articles online that suggest it's still pretty easy to unscrew the cover and plug in a new SSD.
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