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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

#201

Post by giancarlostoro »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #24

This thread is going to dissolve into a pile-up on the Touch Bar, so I wanna jump in front of this. Readers of this site are mostly “hackers,” however mutated or dumbed-down that term has become over the years, correct? Everyone here has their windows and spaces just so, a full complement of shortcuts and trackpad gestures, and if they're serious about the Macintosh tools like TextExpander. As standard as GUIs are, w…

I don't mind the touch bar, I don't get why they couldn't of kept the old keyboard which was more reliable and the Function Keys.

I'm writing this on a MBP purchased earlier this year that has nothing but room for both with it's oversized trackpad that is nothing but a waste of space to me. I get more out of a trackball personally, but even if I am exclusively using the trackpad, I don't need all this wasted space, it is even bigger than my phone.

I like physical keys, I can get used to them and never have to look down to use them. You cannot deliver the same experience with a touch-anything (at least not in 2019).

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#202

Post by eridius »

ravenstine wrote: post #23
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…

Why on earth do I need to tap twice to adjust the screen brightness? I couldn't find a way to just have two increase/decrease buttons. Why can't I adjust how long the touchbar stays active for? Why does it disappear at all? I can't imagine the touchbar would exist in its current form if Steve were alive.

You don't need to tap twice. Put your finger down on the button and just drag; yeah your finger isn't actually touching the visible slider that opened up, but it work anyway, and the slider will collapse itself again automatically a second after you let go.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#203

Post by Lowkeyloki »

saagarjha wrote: post #148
Lowkeyloki wrote: post #11

One step forward, two steps back. They're finally getting rid of the horrible butterfly keyboard in favor of a more traditional scissor switch, but they're gonna make damn sure you have a touch bar.

I'm pretty sure the keyboard mechanism has not changed in this revision.

No, not in this revision. I was speaking more generally.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#204

Post by lelf »

I honestly don’t understand how an infinitely and easy customisable high-resolution million-colour second display, supporting multi-touch gestures, could be called useless by the majority of commenters on the site called Hacker News.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#205

Post by scarface74 »

AJ007 wrote: post #154
basch wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am a developer. Ill bet you 99% of mac sales are NOT to developers. Despite them arguably wanting to court developers to write swift programs, their hardware sales team doesnt seem to care about developer prosumers.

Yeah but 99% of Apple hardware sales are dependent on Mac developers.

Developer go where their users are. If that weren’t the case, no one would develop for consoles.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#207

Post by ravenstine »

wlesieutre wrote: post #178
ravenstine wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I understand why some people like the slider, but as someone who can type without looking, I'm used to being able to navigate with my fingers up to the brightness and volume controls without having to pay close attention. Now I have to look down in order to hit the right area of the touchbar.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#208

Post by rimliu »

docker_up wrote: post #9

I will never ever buy a MacBook Pro if they don't get rid of the TouchBar. The sheer arrogance of Apple to think they know better than their customers infuriates me. I only use a 2018 MacBook Pro because work supplied it, and because my 2015 MacBook battery was dying and the only option the IT department gave me was to upgrade to the 2018 model. I may simply go back to Windows at home if that's the case, and will use…

You thinking that you know better than Apple is not arogant a bit, I guess.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#209

Post by cleong »

eridius wrote: post #198
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…

As a developer, the thing that excites me the most about the Touch Bar is the fact that there's a dedicated Xcode "pause" button on it when you're debugging an app in Xcode. If I were developing a macOS app that would finally be a great way of pausing in the middle of a mouse gesture or keyboard chord. But since I'm doing iOS development these days I don't actually end up using it, oh well.

That pause button is usually a function key in other keyboards.

Re: Apple kills the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro

#210

Post by ravenstine »

snowwrestler wrote: post #197
ravenstine wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Just put your finger on the icon and slide it one way or the other. You don't have to wait or tap more than once. Edit for clarity: when you do this, your finger is not actually "on" the slider handle itself. The slider shows up in its usual place, which is offset from where your finger is. But the sliding still adjusts it. It's a shame that this is not intuitive or discoverable. Its much more efficient but I had to…

I just tried what you said. That's slightly better, but it's overall a downgrade from having actual buttons. Thanks for the tip, though!
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