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

anishathalye.com

31–40 of 244 posts

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

#31
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…

It just feels ancient and weird now that I can tap every screen I own, except my Mac. I don't want to replace the Mac's keyboard & mouse with a touchscreen, I would simply like it to support touch.

(This also made me realize the impending obsolescence of the Studio Monitor XDR: no touch support.)

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

#32
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…

I very much would want a touchscreen for my use cases.

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

#33
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…

I don’t understand touchscreens on laptops that aren’t designed to fold flat. It’s got the feel of finger painting an unconstrained birthday balloon.

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

#35
post #22

Touch screens are not pleasant for laptops. I prefer not to have them.

It's actually quite pleasant user experience for scrolling. Some interactions are better with a pointer, others are better with touch. You can try it on an iPad with Magic Keyboard attached, it's very good to be able to do precision through the trackpad and then casually move large things on the screen with your fingers.

Honestly I just hate having fingerprints on a screen. And I use pageup/pagedown mostly which to me is better than scrolling.

Trackpad is nice for a device you can lay flat on a table or keep on one hand while sitting on the sofa, not too much when the device has a keyboard permanently attached to it and it cannot fold. I know I have a thinkpad like that and I never use the touchscreen.

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

#36

I wonder how well this would work with my bright blue fingernails that are about .5" longer than my finger. I then wonder how much recalibration I would have to do when one of them broke and I was poking directly at the screen.

You could still use the keyboard and track pad

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

#37
post #27
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't get why Apple are apparently going to be putting them into the new MBP line later this year. Apple has apparently being going to put a touchscreen in a laptop every year since the iPad came out, and it's never materialized.

Previously, those were rumors from enthusiasts who wanted to see it. Now it's an internal leak so there's a lot more credibility to those rumors.

No, there were internal "leaks" in the past as well.

https://archive.ph/xOgtp

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

#38
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…

Macs are definitely not optimized for keyboard commands. If you feel the software you use is keyboard optimized, odds are it's not really Mac software.

Huh? Of all the wonky shit about my Mac, the flawless keyboard navigation is really none of that

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

#39
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Macs are definitely not optimized for keyboard commands. If you feel the software you use is keyboard optimized, odds are it's not really Mac software.

Huh? Of all the wonky shit about my Mac, the flawless keyboard navigation is really none of that

“Flawless” is absolutely the opposite of how I’d describe the third class keyboard navigation in MacOS.

It’s actually more intuitive to use a magic keyboard on the iPad than on the desktop OS.

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