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Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

anishathalye.com

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Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#211
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why though? What compels you to even want that?

My iPad is mounted next to my Macs. I use it as a media player, checking deliveries, personal messages when I'm on my work laptop, and such. All of that is done via touch. When I need to flip over to my Mac to do the same thing, I have to use a 40 year old interface (a mouse). It's not hard. I don't think we need to make everything touch-size on Mac. Small icons & buttons are perfectly fine in a production environmen…

> I have to use a 40 year old interface (a mouse)

…yeah, and?

Should we just drop mouse’s and keyboards now because they’re “old interfaces”?

C’mon, please. I’m not sure how old you are but you sound like you grew up with an iPad in your hand.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#212
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a reason why the MacBook hasn't been replaced by an iPad with a keyboard and trackpad attached to it. Very different use case.

You're right. Those are completely separate millions of dollars to be made. Best not let them overlap at all, even if some of us intuitively touch our laptop screens to scroll a window now and then, especially when carrying it around.

They overlap plenty where it makes sense. There was a time where Mac users were worried that Apple was going to merge MacOS and IpadOS. Nobody wants that.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a reason why the MacBook hasn't been replaced by an iPad with a keyboard and trackpad attached to it. Very different use case.

What is that reason? Clearly Apple can put desktop chips in the iPad, their desktop apps already support ARM, and the iPad hardware can absolutely run macOS. What is the advantage of iPadOS, instantially?

The advantage of iPadOS is that Mimi and Papa have a harder time breaking it.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#214
post #16

I wouldn't want a touchscreen MBP even if it was free, anyone else feel similar? I don't get the draw - we already optimize for keyboard commands to avoid living our fingers over to a touchpad. Why would I want to start clicking on my screen? If you're using your computer for tasks (rather than entertainment) and you're not a visual designer, I don't get why Apple are apparently going to be putting them into the new…

Maybe they solved the greasy fingers leaving smudges on your screen problem with a new surface. :D

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason you want a touchscreen on a laptop isn't so that you can use it for "an extended period of time" but rather so that you can use it to do the few things that are painful with a touchpad, like drag and drop.

That is painful for you on a touchpad?

There’s been plenty of times where I would rather drag an item on the screen than fiddle with the sometimes flaky responsiveness and range of a touchpad. I’m usually fussy about my Asus laptop’s pad - the MacBook _usually_ does fine in the touchpad area. The best was my old ThinkPad’s nipple - preferable in most ways to what I use touchpads for at all.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what people will say when Apple releases the touch screen MacBook later this year then.

They'll say it sucks ass, and they'll be right. Touchscreen computers have failed for a reason. Then again... so did "transparent" UI, which Apple just exhumed.

I have a touchscreen laptop and I love it.

Mainly for stuff like quickly moving windows or highlighting.

But also I'm shocked Slay the Spire 2 on KDE is just working perfectly with the touch screen. Card games feel pretty natural with touch screens.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that now. And yet Apple now forces you to use shitty Bluetooth headphones to listen to its most popular music player.

What product are you referring to? One where you can’t use USB-C headphones or an adapter?

Not while you're charging.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll say it sucks ass, and they'll be right. Touchscreen computers have failed for a reason. Then again... so did "transparent" UI, which Apple just exhumed.

Average users won't, like the sibling comment notes, and that's who Apple generally targets; only power users complain. And not sure where you are getting the idea that touchscreen computers failed, many models with touchscreens have great sales figures, Surface for one notable example, Lenovo's for another.

The Surface is a tablet.

I don't know one person who has a touchscreen computer. It's a dumb way to work: not only impractical because your finger is too crude of a pointing device and your hand blocks your view of what you're trying to manipulate, but also uncomfortable to wave your arms around in front of you all day... pushing the lid of your laptop away to boot.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average users won't, like the sibling comment notes, and that's who Apple generally targets; only power users complain. And not sure where you are getting the idea that touchscreen computers failed, many models with touchscreens have great sales figures, Surface for one notable example, Lenovo's for another.

The Surface is a tablet. I don't know one person who has a touchscreen computer. It's a dumb way to work: not only impractical because your finger is too crude of a pointing device and your hand blocks your view of what you're trying to manipulate, but also uncomfortable to wave your arms around in front of you all day... pushing the lid of your laptop away to boot.

The Surface is a computer. Just because you don't like touchscreens doesn't mean other people don't.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And here we are, and the Pencil STILL doesn't work on the defectively oversized trackpads on Apple laptops. So... we're talking about more than one blunder here.

> And here we are, and the Pencil STILL doesn't work on the defectively oversized trackpads on Apple laptops. Many (including me) argue that Apple sells the best trackpads ever made, the size being a key attribute.

Then they're not paying attention to how little of the pad they actually use, and the irritating-as-hell spurious presses that can cost you several minutes (or more) of work.

There's nothing like filling out a form (or comment) on a Web page to have it suddenly reload or back-page, deleting everything you entered.

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