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The main issue of this is just like with touchbar and similar solutions - power users don't look at the keyboard, so the usefulness will be minimal.
by skocznymroczny 6y ago
The main issue of this is just like with touchbar and similar solutions - power users don't look at the keyboard, so the usefulness will be minimal.
- nottorp 6y agoAnd power users here doesn't mean only IT people, but anyone who uses some application all the time for some kind of work. Someone processing photos may not be able to touch type but they'll learn the keyboard shortcuts for their stuff in no time.
- gurkendoktor 6y agoEven professionals who don't learn to touch-type should at least use an external screen if they use a computer all day, at which point they'll likely use an external keyboard without a TouchBar again.
- oblio 6y agoThey would be physical buttons, I don't understand your comment.
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoWhy bother with screens on the keys if no one (read: power users) don't look at the keyboard Personally I think key with screens on them sounds interesting / novel / fun, at least for a week or two, maybe longer.
- oblio 6y agoA lot of power users look at their keyboards. Touch typists are a very small minority, even among power users. At least pure touch typists (people who only touch type). And these computers are not purely for power users.
- kumarsw 6y agoI wonder how many folks touch-type with the function keys. I touch-type, but I still need to look down to use the function keys.
- oblio 6y agoIf they're grouped in blocks of 4 it's reasonably doable, especially for the ones at the edges of the blocks (for example F4 and F5 are popular buttons for IDEs and even browsers or other common applications).
- geerlingguy 6y agoI used to be able to touch type the speaker volume and mute F keys. With the slider or volume mute buttons, I often have a hard time hitting them correctly on the Touch Bar. This is after having it for years.
- toomanybeersies 6y agoI think HN is a bit unfairly biased against the touchbar, since it serves almost zero purpose for programming work. However, it's quite handy when doing multimedia work with applications that integrate with the touchbar (Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop)
- kristiandupont 6y agoIs this your experience or your assumption? I was personally very excited when they announced the touchbar but having lived with it for 5 years now, I hate it. And I do a lot of media work, mostly in Ableton Live but also Adobe Lightroom and others. I just bought a new Macbook Air and I was very happy that the feature of not having the bar was cheaper as it was something I would have gladly paid money for.
- toomanybeersies 6y agoFor photoshop, which I'll admit I use infrequently, it's very handy. I also use Ableton and Lightroom a reasonable amount (neither are my day job though), and am constantly left wishing that they integrated with the touchbar. I have a midi controller that I use for sliding controls in both when at my desk, but I don't take it when I'm out and about, which is where having the ability to adjust analog controls (sliders/dials) with the touchbar would be incredibly useful.
- revscat 6y agoI don’t hate it, I just ignore it. Most of the time my laptop is closed and attached to my monitor, so it’s unavailable. On the rare occasions I use it as a laptop, I might use the Touch Bar to adjust the volume, but not much else, if anything.
- saagarjha 6y agoIt's not completely useless for programming: for example, I use the button to stop an app in the debugger pretty often.
- 6y ago
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]