6 ms·

TouchBar. Dead on arrival. This is a cute feature, but kind of embarrassing from an innovation perspective. And given the announcement of the Surface Book updat

TouchBar. Dead on arrival. This is a cute feature, but kind of embarrassing from an innovation perspective. And given the announcement of the Surface Book update and the new Surface Studio, Apple is inconceivably playing second fiddle to Microsoft on the innovation front. The leap ahead on ports is premature at best. I'm sure Apple will hold most of their fan base, but there are going to be quite a few defections me thinks.

steejk 10y ago
Agreed. To me all the demos of the touch bar looked awkward and could've been replaced with far better functionality using a touchscreen. Hopefully it's more appealing when actually using it.
- tnecniv 10y ago
  Or just built the functionality into the program UI in the context specific cases.
  - scottmf 10y ago
    Or just do everything on a CLI.
drawkbox 10y ago
I just don't get the appeal of having to look at your keyboard instead of the beautiful screen. The Microsoft approach with the dial on the screen at least is on the screen. Why do I want to keep looking down to be sure the TouchBar has the keys I expect? I'll take a look at them and see, but it seems like something that will be used very little and almost annoying. The locked 16GB memory is a deal breaker for developers, can't even run OSX and Bootcamp for Windows 10 on it. 8GB per VM is not enough and really we need 32GB/64GB to have 16GB/32GB each. Same with their current iMacs, next update better have 64GB+ options or they are making themselves irrelevant to developers and designers without having to spend $6k on an Mac Pro.
- scottmf 10y ago
  "Why do I want to keep looking down to be sure the TouchBar has the keys I expect?" How far are you looking down? I have to make more of an effort to look up to the menu bar than to look down at the function keys. The touch bar looks great and makes a lot of sense. Far more than having to lift your hands up to touch a screen. I'm just not a fan of the price increases.
  - drawkbox 10y ago
    It might be cool, still have to check it. As an owner of the last lapzilla (17" screen) I think I'd just prefer a 17" screen and more space to put things. I feel like some of their demos are not as useful. Seems like fat fingers will be in the way instead of precise touchpad placement, same issue as using tablets/pads with just your finger, your finger hides precision. - Picking a color with your fat finger having to look over your fingers and down to see it, why not just a color selector on the screen next to your work? Usually droppers are used as well, messes up flow. - Browser tabs on the navbar, cmon, just use the tabs on the browser or hotkeys. - Video editing on the navbar, not going to happen. Anything with sliders, precision will not be fun on that. Buttons will probably be fine. - Placement changes, people know app dialogs/panels more than they will when having to look down at the changing buttons. If it sits there constantly changing while you do actions on the screen, it could be quite annoying almost like a flashy ad on a site forcing you to look down more than you want. Customizing your keyboard a bit and the keys available is pretty nice, and it is probably cooler in person. But I feel like this won't be used much and will just be an annoyance. I could be wrong, sometimes you get an Apple feature and it just works.
    - scottmf 10y ago
      If you're questioning things that much, why have keyboard shortcuts at all? >Anything with sliders, precision will not be fun on that. Why wouldn't it offer precision? People do the same with trackpads right now. And multitouch on this thing looks far more useful than with a trackpad. >Placement changes, people know app dialogs/panels more than they will when having to look down at the changing buttons Why wouldn't people learn positions of buttons? Hell I can type faster on my iPhone without looking than most people can type with a physical keyboard. I'd have expected people here to be far more accepting of this feature. This thing looks far more useful on a laptop than a touch screen, particularly for people like us who make heavy use of the keyboard. Apple doesn't tend to make gimmicky features of this level, especially not at a $4-500 premium. It's a defining feature of the new MBP and I trust it has had a lot of thought put into it. There's incredible potential here, it's sad a lot of people here don't see that.

steejk 10y ago

Agreed. To me all the demos of the touch bar looked awkward and could've been replaced with far better functionality using a touchscreen. Hopefully it's more appealing when actually using it.

tnecniv 10y ago
Or just built the functionality into the program UI in the context specific cases.
- scottmf 10y ago
  Or just do everything on a CLI.

drawkbox 10y ago

I just don't get the appeal of having to look at your keyboard instead of the beautiful screen. The Microsoft approach with the dial on the screen at least is on the screen. Why do I want to keep looking down to be sure the TouchBar has the keys I expect? I'll take a look at them and see, but it seems like something that will be used very little and almost annoying. The locked 16GB memory is a deal breaker for developers, can't even run OSX and Bootcamp for Windows 10 on it. 8GB per VM is not enough and really we need 32GB/64GB to have 16GB/32GB each. Same with their current iMacs, next update better have 64GB+ options or they are making themselves irrelevant to developers and designers without having to spend $6k on an Mac Pro.

scottmf 10y ago
"Why do I want to keep looking down to be sure the TouchBar has the keys I expect?" How far are you looking down? I have to make more of an effort to look up to the menu bar than to look down at the function keys. The touch bar looks great and makes a lot of sense. Far more than having to lift your hands up to touch a screen. I'm just not a fan of the price increases.
- drawkbox 10y ago
  It might be cool, still have to check it. As an owner of the last lapzilla (17" screen) I think I'd just prefer a 17" screen and more space to put things. I feel like some of their demos are not as useful. Seems like fat fingers will be in the way instead of precise touchpad placement, same issue as using tablets/pads with just your finger, your finger hides precision. - Picking a color with your fat finger having to look over your fingers and down to see it, why not just a color selector on the screen next to your work? Usually droppers are used as well, messes up flow. - Browser tabs on the navbar, cmon, just use the tabs on the browser or hotkeys. - Video editing on the navbar, not going to happen. Anything with sliders, precision will not be fun on that. Buttons will probably be fine. - Placement changes, people know app dialogs/panels more than they will when having to look down at the changing buttons. If it sits there constantly changing while you do actions on the screen, it could be quite annoying almost like a flashy ad on a site forcing you to look down more than you want. Customizing your keyboard a bit and the keys available is pretty nice, and it is probably cooler in person. But I feel like this won't be used much and will just be an annoyance. I could be wrong, sometimes you get an Apple feature and it just works.
  - scottmf 10y ago
    If you're questioning things that much, why have keyboard shortcuts at all? >Anything with sliders, precision will not be fun on that. Why wouldn't it offer precision? People do the same with trackpads right now. And multitouch on this thing looks far more useful than with a trackpad. >Placement changes, people know app dialogs/panels more than they will when having to look down at the changing buttons Why wouldn't people learn positions of buttons? Hell I can type faster on my iPhone without looking than most people can type with a physical keyboard. I'd have expected people here to be far more accepting of this feature. This thing looks far more useful on a laptop than a touch screen, particularly for people like us who make heavy use of the keyboard. Apple doesn't tend to make gimmicky features of this level, especially not at a $4-500 premium. It's a defining feature of the new MBP and I trust it has had a lot of thought put into it. There's incredible potential here, it's sad a lot of people here don't see that.