2016 MacBook Pro May Include OLED Display Touch Bar and Touch ID

[drumcat]

*SIGH*

Looks like I'll be holding onto my trusty 2011 17" MBP (that I actually bought in 2011) even longer.

Five years, Apple. FIVE years of NOTHING I want. Of nothing to replace my 17".

(I think) I can live with an unnecessarily thin device and dongle-hell at the expense of dedicated Ethernet and other standard/useful ports, reasonable storage capacity (for large file, e.g. 4k video, etc), and expandability.

I. Just. Don't. Want. To. Downsize.

Apple, you went big with EVERYTHING ELSE (well, iOS at least).

Build a goddam 17" MBP already!!!

I'm with you. 7+ years on my 17". Battery is garbage, and it doesn't like to power up for at least 4 tries, but I am not giving up on a 4k screen. It's so simple... 3840, retina 2x 1920, and 3x 1280. I don't care if the laptop is 13 or 15, or 17 even. But it's 4k or no sale.

It would be completely appropriate if they included that hand-gesture bar in the base, too. That's a game-changer.

 

[JimmyHook]

For every rumor there are 100 negative children posting childish ramblings.

1) It's possible to have the awesome stability of a butterfly keyboard but combined with the travel of a MBP keyboard - best of both. Why assume it won't?

2) The possibility of a touch enabled OLED bar is straight from Apple patents. A keyboard that reconfigures itself based on what you are doing... pretty rad. This seems like step one to that goal

3) 4th quarter... who cares. It'll come whenever.

 

[Sedulous]

Think of what musicians/video editors could do with this strip. They could use pro, beefy apps on OSX macOS but still have ipad like input when needed (for scrubbing, selecting, whatever).

Meh, touchscreen on a desktop OS is ergonomically poor. The interface tends to have a "duplo block" feel to it and ends up eating far more screen real estate because it lacks the precision offered by a pointing device. Rather not have an extra display eating up power either. Weird gimmicky features are not usually Apple's style.

 

[freeskier93]

Others may have mentioned this, but Touch ID function on iPhone would be for older Macs.

To me it seems a bit out of character. Apple seems to like to trickle down features, they like to advertise the latest and greatest features on the latest and greatest hardware. To implement such a major feature, to only be completely obsolete on their latest and greatest hardware seems odd to me.

I do hope I'm wrong though since I have an older MBP.

 

[drumcat]

For every rumor there are 100 negative children posting childish ramblings.

1) It's possible to have the awesome stability of a butterfly keyboard but combined with the travel of a MBP keyboard - best of both. Why assume it won't?

2) The possibility of a touch enabled OLED bar is straight from Apple patents. A keyboard that reconfigures itself based on what you are doing... pretty rad. This seems like step one to that goal

3) 4th quarter... who cares. It'll come whenever.

I'm with you Jimmy.

Also, consider the iPhone 6S+... you can get to a 4k screen in 4 sheets of that LED. Put your phone on the screen in front of you and it's easy to fit 4 phones in that space. If it's Q4 for that to ship, that's fine. Put me down for it now. I'm in.

As for the OLED bar, the problem with the ancient ones were they were static softkeys. A DYNAMIC OLED would offer so many possibilities for so many apps... Hell, I'd put a news ticker or a twitter feed as the text when not in an app. So many choices!!

 

[citysnaps]

The OLED display touch bar? Dear Apple, stay away from the gimmicky features.

Hardly gimmicky. I can see all sorts of use and situations that could employ the OLED touchbar, both at the system and application levels. Just takes a bit of imagination.

Looking forward to the new laptops. Should be thinner and less weight as well - sweet!

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Just do something interesting already. Anything...

 

[segmentPage]

The rumour of Touch ID being in this computer and the rumour of iPhone-enabled Touch ID coming in 10.12 seriously contradict each other. Something is fishy. But I would love to see TID in a MacBook, that's for sure. The OLED bar, not sure because I have a hard time imagining what it would look like.

Actually its still believable. The older macs don't support Touch ID. And Macs have longer refresh cycles than iPhones. So Apple might be thinking of bringing the convenience to the older mac owners too. Gives them another small reason yet to show the use cases of their ecosystem.

 

[_mdavenport]

Awesome, can't happen soon enough.

 

[Avenged110]

The butterfly mechanism seems like it could make for a decent keyboard...if they would stop thinning the hell out of it. If you squash the z-height and cram all the keys together (MacBook), it might as well just be a touch screen. And that's not the MacBook Pro.

 

[haydn!]

Is this quarter four calendar or quarter four apple reporting? July-Sept would seem reasonable but suggests we might not see a debut at WWDC.

 

[er2429]

Looks like we'll see them at WWDC. Almost certain he means Third Fiscal quarter 2016 (I.e April - June). There is no way they will wait until the end of the calendar year.

 

[Sedulous]

For every rumor there are 100 negative children posting childish ramblings.

1) It's possible to have the awesome stability of a butterfly keyboard but combined with the travel of a MBP keyboard - best of both. Why assume it won't?

2) The possibility of a touch enabled OLED bar is straight from Apple patents. A keyboard that reconfigures itself based on what you are doing... pretty rad. This seems like step one to that goal

3) 4th quarter... who cares. It'll come whenever.

Apple actually does not like UI features that constantly shift around. Worse still is that you would need to shift focus from the main display down to the OLED strip that would be oblique to natural viewing angle for most users. A second power consuming screen that ultimately is of limited use just does not seem likely. I'd rather Apple just make a larger display. On a desktop OS, the precision of pointing devices, the tactile benefits of fixed keys, and a sensible UI is far more beneficial than anything a hybridized touchscreen option could offer.

 

[davidhands]

Having to touch your phone to unlock your laptop is the stupidest idea I've heard in a long time.

 

[Analog Kid]

I'm trying to get my head around what the benefit is here. On the one hand, keys labeled F1-F?? are kind of silly in the modern world, and we'd find them cryptic and annoying if we didn't grow up with them always being there. I'm trying to remember the last time I used a function key for an actual function... So the OLED strip can be more descriptive and make those keys useful again to applications.

Actually, I've been thinking lately that I need more space on the menubar to keep little indicators. Putting iStats Menu on that little strip might be a good place for it.

On the other hand, this could be the new Dashboard that gets written into the system and then can't be expunged once the novelty wears off.

It's all in the execution...

 

[Soccertess]

Macbooks are the last frontier that Apple still has a lead, and that is slowly diminishing.

I really hope someone in Apple has some sense and keeps them relevant. I really would love to update my Air, but won't touch something with only one port!

 

[alvesik]

Usb 3 anyone? It better appear because I've never heard of anything as ridiculous as someone not being able to plug in a year old iPhone to Apple's flagship computer without an adapter

 

[Patriot24]

Touch ID embedded in the OLED touch strip paving the way for the same in iPhones? Bye, bye home button.

 

[Sedulous]

Macbooks are the last frontier that Apple still has a lead, and that is slowly diminishing.

I really hope someone in Apple has some sense and keeps them relevant. I really would love to update my Air, but won't touch something with only one port!

Yeah, really Apple needs to clean up their product lines. One of the first things Steve Jobs did when returning to Apple was tell them to throw out all these fragmented products that don't really serve anyone well. Thus the dawn of the consumer / prosumer division that works so very well. Narrowing down the product lines will help define the products, make support easier, and simplify production. Essentially the MacBook should be the Air. The Air should be the MacBook. And the MacBook Pro should actually be Pro. Right now no Apple portable computer really is clearly fit for purpose... and a confused product will not sell.

 

[Goaliegeek]

Fourth quarter? So they skip broadwell and skylake. Kaby lake it is. An ssd upgrade better not be $500+ dollars.

 

[friedkimchi]

Macbook Airs are definitely not getting future updates. This will be Apple's budget laptop, replacing the classic Macbook Pros without the retina screen.

Q4 of 2016 seems to be in line with the release of Polaris GPUs from AMD for the 15". Who knows, the TDP draw from these new mobile GPUs could allow the 13" to have one as well?

 

[Brien]

Of course Apple would introduce a MacBook with a 13" display rather than a 14" display!

And of course the MacBook Air will remain in the line-up, offering 768p/900p in 2016

I would much rather see 14 and 16 inch screens, especially since there isn't a 17" anymore.

 

[pat500000]

AND...once again...possible soldering macbook pro.

 

[cerberusss]

It'd be cool if they renamed Siri to Kitt, and whenever you'd say "hey Kitt", the OLED strip would show a pulsating red light.

 

[pat500000]

To be honest...I felt apple had been drinking that "little" potion that shrunk Alice (from the wonderland) into lighter and thinner version of her.