4 ms·

Ask HN: After 2-3 years, what are your favorite Touch Bar use cases on the Mac?

8 points by benguild 8y ago

Akarnani 8y ago
I love the Apple Pay / fingerprint reader button. Beyond that, I do my level best to avoid touching it. The volume and brightness features are nice but it would be better to not have had it as I mis-key it all the time and it exits me from where I'm working.
hboon 8y ago
Out of curiosity. How many of us knows that swiping sideways quickly on the volume button changes the volume? Ditto for brightness.
- landa 8y ago
  It doesn't have to be quickly. It's very convenient. Just touch the volume or brightness button and keep holding, then just move your finger left or right to change the value.
  - hboon 8y ago
    No. I really mean swipe quickly. Try it out :)
java-man 8y ago
none. please bring back the regular keys!
framebit 8y ago
I guess it's kind of nice to have Spotify controls for pause and play over other applications, but I would gladly give that up for regular keys. That's literally the only thing I can think of. I want my function keys, I want my physical volume and brightness.
ecesena 8y ago
Mostly volume & brightness. In some rare cases I use it for emoji, but it's typically faster to get them from iMessage and copy & paste. I tried with screenshots and lock screen, but I'm too used to the keyboard shortcut and I always use these. I guess I'm not really using the touch bar a lot because I'm used to looking at the monitor vs the keyboard, which I think it's pretty common for many folks here. Maybe people used to looking at the keyboard have more uses?
Tevunah 8y ago
Touch ID, logging in
actionowl 8y ago
I love using touch id instead of password for sudo. I also accidentally hit the Siri button all the damn time, I should probably remove it or something.
WillKirkby 8y ago
Touch ID login is super convenient, and remapping Caps Lock as a tactile Esc key has made for a much more pleasant vim experience. That's it.
freediver 8y ago
This http://vas3k.com/blog/touchbar/ http://vas3k.com/blog/touchbar/
docker_up 8y ago
I have not bought a MacBook since they introduced the Touch Bar. It offends me that they got rid of it, and I refuse to pay money for their laptops until they offer me one without it. I'm about to switch entirely to Lenovo and never looking back if they don't make one without a Touch Bar by 2019.
myinitialsaretk 8y ago
For me, mostly useless. I do however, enjoy using Touch ID for sudo permissions. HT to: https://twitter.com/cabel/status/931292107372838912 https://twitter.com/cabel/status/931292107372838912

8 points by benguild 8y ago

I love the Apple Pay / fingerprint reader button. Beyond that, I do my level best to avoid touching it. The volume and brightness features are nice but it would be better to not have had it as I mis-key it all the time and it exits me from where I'm working.

hboon 8y ago

Out of curiosity. How many of us knows that swiping sideways quickly on the volume button changes the volume? Ditto for brightness.

landa 8y ago
It doesn't have to be quickly. It's very convenient. Just touch the volume or brightness button and keep holding, then just move your finger left or right to change the value.
- hboon 8y ago
  No. I really mean swipe quickly. Try it out :)

java-man 8y ago

none. please bring back the regular keys!

framebit 8y ago

I guess it's kind of nice to have Spotify controls for pause and play over other applications, but I would gladly give that up for regular keys. That's literally the only thing I can think of. I want my function keys, I want my physical volume and brightness.

ecesena 8y ago

Mostly volume & brightness. In some rare cases I use it for emoji, but it's typically faster to get them from iMessage and copy & paste. I tried with screenshots and lock screen, but I'm too used to the keyboard shortcut and I always use these. I guess I'm not really using the touch bar a lot because I'm used to looking at the monitor vs the keyboard, which I think it's pretty common for many folks here. Maybe people used to looking at the keyboard have more uses?

Tevunah 8y ago

Touch ID, logging in

actionowl 8y ago

I love using touch id instead of password for sudo. I also accidentally hit the Siri button all the damn time, I should probably remove it or something.

WillKirkby 8y ago

Touch ID login is super convenient, and remapping Caps Lock as a tactile Esc key has made for a much more pleasant vim experience. That's it.

freediver 8y ago

This http://vas3k.com/blog/touchbar/ http://vas3k.com/blog/touchbar/

docker_up 8y ago

I have not bought a MacBook since they introduced the Touch Bar. It offends me that they got rid of it, and I refuse to pay money for their laptops until they offer me one without it. I'm about to switch entirely to Lenovo and never looking back if they don't make one without a Touch Bar by 2019.

myinitialsaretk 8y ago

For me, mostly useless. I do however, enjoy using Touch ID for sudo permissions. HT to: https://twitter.com/cabel/status/931292107372838912 https://twitter.com/cabel/status/931292107372838912