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The Touch Bar is the perfect example of marketing people hijacking the product to push sales without helping customers.

lgrebe 8y ago
I tend to disagree. It’s effectively still doing the same thing by offering functions of the current application with a single direkt input. Previously as F1-12 Buttons they were overloaded with OS functions such as brightness and audio controls, moving the application Functions to the fn+ combo key. With the Touch Bar not only are buttons only available when applicable, they also allow for custom inputs such as a range instead of a binary click and their meaning is a lot more explicit with icons and text as opposed to F1-12 I actually think it’s more of a application support problem. If more applications offered better touchbar support I’d be happy about forgetting a series of hot key keystrokes.
- dolessdrugs 8y ago
  "It's not our niche technology, it's the damn developers not supporting it!"
- drinchev 8y ago
  If only they have left the Esc key.
gdubs 8y ago
I avoided upgrading to the new MacBooks for as long as possible because of everything I read about the the Touch Bar, how awful it is, etc. I finally upgraded and... it’s fine. Actually, I don’t really mind it at all, and sometimes it’s kind of delightful.
sidcool 8y ago
I may be a minority, but I like the touch bar. It opens a lot of possibilities for each kind of program. It's like bringing software to keyboard. But that's just me.
- bjtitus 8y ago
  I love the concept of the Touch Bar. In practice, I never use it and it's not uncommon for freezing to occur when I'm trying to adjust the volume which really colors my perception of the whole thing. I think the target market should be for non-professional users (who don't otherwise use external keyboards and have shortcuts memorized) which is why it's weird that it's a top of the line addition (obviously, a cost issue).
- c1sc0 8y ago
  But it requires each application to write custom code to support. In a world where companies chose Electron over proper native development that is a no-go.

I tend to disagree. It’s effectively still doing the same thing by offering functions of the current application with a single direkt input. Previously as F1-12 Buttons they were overloaded with OS functions such as brightness and audio controls, moving the application Functions to the fn+ combo key. With the Touch Bar not only are buttons only available when applicable, they also allow for custom inputs such as a range instead of a binary click and their meaning is a lot more explicit with icons and text as opposed to F1-12 I actually think it’s more of a application support problem. If more applications offered better touchbar support I’d be happy about forgetting a series of hot key keystrokes.

dolessdrugs 8y ago
"It's not our niche technology, it's the damn developers not supporting it!"
drinchev 8y ago
If only they have left the Esc key.

gdubs 8y ago

I avoided upgrading to the new MacBooks for as long as possible because of everything I read about the the Touch Bar, how awful it is, etc. I finally upgraded and... it’s fine. Actually, I don’t really mind it at all, and sometimes it’s kind of delightful.

sidcool 8y ago

I may be a minority, but I like the touch bar. It opens a lot of possibilities for each kind of program. It's like bringing software to keyboard. But that's just me.

bjtitus 8y ago
I love the concept of the Touch Bar. In practice, I never use it and it's not uncommon for freezing to occur when I'm trying to adjust the volume which really colors my perception of the whole thing. I think the target market should be for non-professional users (who don't otherwise use external keyboards and have shortcuts memorized) which is why it's weird that it's a top of the line addition (obviously, a cost issue).
c1sc0 8y ago
But it requires each application to write custom code to support. In a world where companies chose Electron over proper native development that is a no-go.