7 ms·

I have the new 16 MBP and love the touch bar. I find it much easier to change brightness/sound (place the finger and drag); I find it much easier to control app

I have the new 16 MBP and love the touch bar. I find it much easier to change brightness/sound (place the finger and drag); I find it much easier to control apps, like music, safari, and all, and the habituation period was shorter than with the keys back in the day (when i started using macs). I would love to be able to easily customize the touch bar though, the author mentions BetterTouchTool, looks good, might be worth it. Like the author I also have some problems with Catalina: the subtle hangs drive me nuts, the bugs with the True Tone going pale, the gpu's going crazy just because they want PS: Apple - please consider improving your AirPlay video support or doing some other protocol for it. It sucks having to use cables for even HDMI video playback on a secondary screen. (or place back the display port / HDMI entrance)

mercer 6y ago
BetterTouchTool is amazing. Here's how I've got my touch bar set up (from left to right): - a dock for quick task switching (as well as seeing what apps are running that I can shutdown when I'm on battery) - a music/spotify widget that can play/pause, go back/forward and that shows me the track and artist as well as the album arg. - a date/time widget that I've customized so it shows me the week number too. This one has been surprisingly useful, as I'll regularly walk over to my macbook and tap on the touchbar to see the time or date. - a battery percentage and time remaining widget - a mute/unmute widget But what I perhaps like best is the swipe gestures. If I swipe anywhere along the bar with two fingers, it adjusts the volume, and with three fingers I can change the brightness. I don't currently make much use of app-specific touch bars, and there are a ton of other features I might use eventually. But even just with this I've come to really like the touch bar, where before I much preferred the function keys. Can't do without an escape key though, but thankfully they put that one back :).
morelikeborelax 6y ago
Get BetterTouchTool is totally worth it if you want to customise the touchbar. Also a decent window placement tool, shortcut manager and a bunch of other things.
ponyous 6y ago
Changing music on Spotify doesn't work for me 80% of the time. Physical keyboard worked 100% of the time. I hate the touchpad greatly. 0 benefits to me but tons of annoyances. I keep touching random buttons I never intended. I cannot press the correct button without looking (used to put volume to really low in bed)
- read_if_gay_ 6y ago
  I don’t mean to belittle any issues you have, but > I cannot press the correct button without looking does this seem like a really really minor problem to anyone else? I can’t imagine using function keys often enough that this would actually become annoying.
  - eCa 6y ago
    With physical F-keys (correctly grouped in fours) it’s very easy to hit F5 for example, without looking. (Yes, I use a Windows keyboard with my work Mac.)
  - dijit 6y ago
    I disagree, I don't look at my keyboard at all, my head doesn't tilt down during the whole day for any reason other than I want it to. Adding something that changes the ergonomics of that should be treated as being a high price, so the benefits should be huge.
  - tpxl 6y ago
    Debugger commands in IntelliJ are tied to F7 (step inside), F8 (step over), F9 (run) and looking down to figure out where to press again and again is a big hassle.
    - read_if_gay_ 6y ago
      Can you not bind those to any shortcut?
      - tpxl 6y ago
mrweasel 6y ago
If Apple had two versions of their laptops, one with the touch bar and one without, I feel pretty confident that the version with the standard F-keys would outsell the touch bar. I mentioned this before, but the real proof that the touch bar isn't for professionals is that you can't buy an Apple keyboard with the touch bar. Local labor laws require that I have a "external" keyboard when working at my desk, so the touch bar is pretty worthless, unless it was available on the standard alone keyboards as well, and it's not. Personally I prefer the old keyboard because I find it easier to change volume and brightness using a key and not a slider, but that's personal preference.
- sneak 6y ago
  > Local labor laws require that I have a "external" keyboard when working at my desk Whaaa? Why? Where?
  - mrweasel 6y ago
    Denmark, among others I assume. Using your laptop, without external monitor and keyboard is only allowed as an exception, even when working from home, and only for a short period of time. You can use the laptop monitor as a secondary display. It's a pretty good law, which forces employers to provide you with an ergonomically sound work environment. You're also required to have a height adjustable desk and chair... and a window.
    - rcarmo 6y ago
      Honest question: How does that work for remote? I do have a home office with a window, chair and whatnot, but many of my colleagues don't.
      - Symbiote 6y ago
        One option was to ban working from home, which was my employer's official stance. On 13 March, we took from the office anything we needed (monitors, keyboards, mice, desk chairs). No-one said they didn't have a desk, so I don't know how we would have handled that.
raindropm 6y ago
Another appreciation for BetterTouchTool. That app change the way you use macOS and open up some new way of interaction you didn't think it's possible, all in a well- designed app. Also it made the touchbar usefulness rating goes from "yeah, that's...okay?" to "I LOVE IT!" instantly. Apple seems didn't really care about the touchbar much, which is a pity.
nanna 6y ago
Out of interest, what's the status of Linux support for the touch bar these days?
dep_b 6y ago
> I find it much easier to change brightness/sound (place the finger and drag) Right? It's such a pity that Pock messed that one up. I added Pock to have the same thing in the same position all of the time and I really like how it gave me more screen real estate but it's those little details that they missed.
fipar 6y ago
I got a new MBP earlier this year, and while I personally did not care about the touch bar, it's amazing what you can do with BetterTouchTool if you're an emacs user. For a long time I was evaluating getting some additional keys (like an xkeys stick) for shortcuts, but was put off because apparently you can only configure those in Windows. With the touch bar and BTT I've got that and more. I'd have a hard time going back to a machine without this now.
oh_hello 6y ago
I agree. I upgraded from a 2013 15" to the new 16" as soon as it came out. I expected the Touch Bar to be worthless based on everything I had heard. Over the months I've found myself using it more and more. It isn't nearly critical, but as I come to discover certain uses they get added to my rotation. As many have pointed out, there is a discoverability problem with this feature and I don't see how that is fixable.
vorpalhex 6y ago
When I first got the touch bar, I hated it with a passion. Now I actually like it, and in some apps it's better. I think the biggest issue is the mis-aligned defaults and lack of training on it. Things like knowing you can slide to adjust volume and brightness from the buttons (which is entirely non-obvious) and the ability to control it a bit better were big game changers for me.

mercer 6y ago

BetterTouchTool is amazing. Here's how I've got my touch bar set up (from left to right): - a dock for quick task switching (as well as seeing what apps are running that I can shutdown when I'm on battery) - a music/spotify widget that can play/pause, go back/forward and that shows me the track and artist as well as the album arg. - a date/time widget that I've customized so it shows me the week number too. This one has been surprisingly useful, as I'll regularly walk over to my macbook and tap on the touchbar to see the time or date. - a battery percentage and time remaining widget - a mute/unmute widget But what I perhaps like best is the swipe gestures. If I swipe anywhere along the bar with two fingers, it adjusts the volume, and with three fingers I can change the brightness. I don't currently make much use of app-specific touch bars, and there are a ton of other features I might use eventually. But even just with this I've come to really like the touch bar, where before I much preferred the function keys. Can't do without an escape key though, but thankfully they put that one back :).

morelikeborelax 6y ago

Get BetterTouchTool is totally worth it if you want to customise the touchbar. Also a decent window placement tool, shortcut manager and a bunch of other things.

ponyous 6y ago

Changing music on Spotify doesn't work for me 80% of the time. Physical keyboard worked 100% of the time. I hate the touchpad greatly. 0 benefits to me but tons of annoyances. I keep touching random buttons I never intended. I cannot press the correct button without looking (used to put volume to really low in bed)

read_if_gay_ 6y ago
I don’t mean to belittle any issues you have, but > I cannot press the correct button without looking does this seem like a really really minor problem to anyone else? I can’t imagine using function keys often enough that this would actually become annoying.
- eCa 6y ago
  With physical F-keys (correctly grouped in fours) it’s very easy to hit F5 for example, without looking. (Yes, I use a Windows keyboard with my work Mac.)
- dijit 6y ago
  I disagree, I don't look at my keyboard at all, my head doesn't tilt down during the whole day for any reason other than I want it to. Adding something that changes the ergonomics of that should be treated as being a high price, so the benefits should be huge.
- tpxl 6y ago
  Debugger commands in IntelliJ are tied to F7 (step inside), F8 (step over), F9 (run) and looking down to figure out where to press again and again is a big hassle.
  - read_if_gay_ 6y ago
    Can you not bind those to any shortcut?
    - tpxl 6y ago

mrweasel 6y ago

If Apple had two versions of their laptops, one with the touch bar and one without, I feel pretty confident that the version with the standard F-keys would outsell the touch bar. I mentioned this before, but the real proof that the touch bar isn't for professionals is that you can't buy an Apple keyboard with the touch bar. Local labor laws require that I have a "external" keyboard when working at my desk, so the touch bar is pretty worthless, unless it was available on the standard alone keyboards as well, and it's not. Personally I prefer the old keyboard because I find it easier to change volume and brightness using a key and not a slider, but that's personal preference.

sneak 6y ago
> Local labor laws require that I have a "external" keyboard when working at my desk Whaaa? Why? Where?
- mrweasel 6y ago
  Denmark, among others I assume. Using your laptop, without external monitor and keyboard is only allowed as an exception, even when working from home, and only for a short period of time. You can use the laptop monitor as a secondary display. It's a pretty good law, which forces employers to provide you with an ergonomically sound work environment. You're also required to have a height adjustable desk and chair... and a window.
  - rcarmo 6y ago
    Honest question: How does that work for remote? I do have a home office with a window, chair and whatnot, but many of my colleagues don't.
    - Symbiote 6y ago
      One option was to ban working from home, which was my employer's official stance. On 13 March, we took from the office anything we needed (monitors, keyboards, mice, desk chairs). No-one said they didn't have a desk, so I don't know how we would have handled that.

raindropm 6y ago

Another appreciation for BetterTouchTool. That app change the way you use macOS and open up some new way of interaction you didn't think it's possible, all in a well- designed app. Also it made the touchbar usefulness rating goes from "yeah, that's...okay?" to "I LOVE IT!" instantly. Apple seems didn't really care about the touchbar much, which is a pity.

nanna 6y ago

Out of interest, what's the status of Linux support for the touch bar these days?

dep_b 6y ago

> I find it much easier to change brightness/sound (place the finger and drag) Right? It's such a pity that Pock messed that one up. I added Pock to have the same thing in the same position all of the time and I really like how it gave me more screen real estate but it's those little details that they missed.

fipar 6y ago

I got a new MBP earlier this year, and while I personally did not care about the touch bar, it's amazing what you can do with BetterTouchTool if you're an emacs user. For a long time I was evaluating getting some additional keys (like an xkeys stick) for shortcuts, but was put off because apparently you can only configure those in Windows. With the touch bar and BTT I've got that and more. I'd have a hard time going back to a machine without this now.

oh_hello 6y ago

I agree. I upgraded from a 2013 15" to the new 16" as soon as it came out. I expected the Touch Bar to be worthless based on everything I had heard. Over the months I've found myself using it more and more. It isn't nearly critical, but as I come to discover certain uses they get added to my rotation. As many have pointed out, there is a discoverability problem with this feature and I don't see how that is fixable.

vorpalhex 6y ago

When I first got the touch bar, I hated it with a passion. Now I actually like it, and in some apps it's better. I think the biggest issue is the mis-aligned defaults and lack of training on it. Things like knowing you can slide to adjust volume and brightness from the buttons (which is entirely non-obvious) and the ability to control it a bit better were big game changers for me.