After 1 year with the Touchbar

[revmacian]

I'd be interested what the cost and battery drain are from the TB. To me it's a distraction as well when the display changes.

Doesn't the Touch Bar use BridgeOS? I believe BridgeOS is a modified version of watchOS, it has to be using battery power somewhere.

Edit: Upon further study, it may be that BridgeOS is used solely by the T2 chip and not have anything to do with the Touch Bar.

 

[fousfous]

With physical keys, I can do things without pausing and without looking at my keyboard. It's not worth the $300 premium which Apple makes everyone pay.

Well, I have no touch bar and after 6 years with my Mac I stil need to look to the function key for the pause or volume, if I do it without looking I'm pretty sur I won't touch the good button.
The function keys aren't really the keyboard, they don't serve when I type, so no ways to remember which key is which.
And I don't think you pays a 300$ premium for that, and I you juste want the cheapest computer buy a PC. MacBook have always been expansive, so as far as I'm concern, I prefer to have innovative function with it, not juste more power (and it will be boring to have just more power, coucou iMac).

 

[Cape Dave]

That was actually the first thing I ever noticed about the TouchBar several years ago when using one and I couldn’t stand it then and I can’t stand it now.

It’s annoying as hell to have stuff flashing down there, particularly in a dim or dark environment.

So true. I would simply never buy a laptop with that stupid addition. Thank God for Lenovo!

 

[raqball]

Apple appears to be doubling down on it as even the base 13" MBP now comes with it. I think it's a gimmick and needs to go the way of the dodo bird..

At least on the new 16" Apple got wise and added back the ESC key but the gimmick remains..
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Thank God for Lenovo!

I think Lenovo was the 1st to try it several years ago and they quickly dumped it...

 

[grmlin]

The fact that no one has tried to copy it tells you how people in general think about. When Apple hits something out of the park, everyone copies it.

I'd be interested what the cost and battery drain are from the TB. To me it's a distraction as well when the display changes.

Didn't you see all the second screen notebooks lately? Some have a screen in the trackpad others a bigger second display above the keyboard.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Didn't you see all the second screen notebooks lately? Some have a screen in the trackpad others a bigger second display above the keyboard.

That is mostly evidence of somebody trying to make something actually useful…

(Not copying the Touch Bar)

 

[sub150]

That is mostly evidence of somebody trying to make something actually useful…

(Not copying the Touch Bar)

Agree. No one has straight up copied the TB yet which is what usually happens.

The much bigger second display above the keyboard is quite different, and the trackpad screen is as well.

To me it's all like the 3D craze. The point of diminishing returns in tech is hitting hard and finding new features worth paying for is getting harder and harder.

 

[Cape Dave]

Apple appears to be doubling down on it as even the base 13" MBP now comes with it. I think it's a gimmick and needs to go the way of the dodo bird..

At least on the new 16" Apple got wise and added back the ESC key but the gimmick remains..
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I think Lenovo was the 1st to try it several years ago and they quickly dumped it...

LOL, that is possible. Thankfully, they took it out behind the barn and shot it. Apple, not so smart

 

[Lone Deranger]

The fact that the Touch-bar exists only on Apple's laptop line and not on their desktop keyboards, significantly compromises any potential usefulness it may or may not have. If you're a professional user that regularly switches between a desktop Mac and a laptop Mac, how can you be expected to integrate the Touch-bar into your workflow in a consistent, comfortable manner? You can't. It will just be a jarring, frustrating experience.

I have to use Windows 10 at work and spend a lot of time in Photoshop, painting. At home I use Photoshop on a Mac. The shortcuts are sufficiently different that I'm constantly fighting with them as muscle memory doesn't get a chance to solidify. It's annoying and wastes time.
Apple's Touch-bar discrepancy is no different. It beggars belief that Apple doesn't understand this and does not provide adequate solutions. ie. Offer the Touch-bar for their desktop keyboards, and/or provide it as a BTO option on their laptops. Not this wishy-washy halfheartedness.
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Where it really shines is in creative apps like Affinity Photo. Things like adjusting brush size on the fly is genuinely a lot easier with a Touch Bar than any other input method.

But is it though? I don't think it is. In Photoshop (don't know about Affinity as it's not up to par with PS for my needs) it's a simple CTRL+OPTION+LMB-drag horizontally to scale and vertically for brush hardness. My left hand resting on the bottom left part of the keyboard (where most of my frequently used shortcuts reside) never has to even move across the keyboard to reach up to a Touch-bar to trigger this feature. Nor do my eyes have to leave the screen where I'm concentrating on, to look at the Touch-bar to make sure I'm touching it's featureless surface in the correct spot. It's incredibly fast and ergonomic. The Touch-bar is far slower and more straining for procedures like this. Doing this hundreds of times in an average paint session and it really adds up.

 

[Lone Deranger]

I love the Touchbar but that’s also because I have it deeply customized with BetterTouchTool and the GoldenChaos preset:

GoldenChaos-BTT - Replacement Touch Bar UI for BetterTouchTool

Complete Touch Bar UI replacement for BetterTouchTool by GoldenChaos.

goldenchaos.net

If you haven’t tried it yet, I’d recommend checking it out

That does look rather nice and convenient in certain ways! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Apple2GS]

For me the only useful feature of the Touch Bar is the video slider. The main negative was the location and lack of feedback of the escape key. Seems like adding haptic feedback to the Touch Bar would help. That really isn't a big deal though as you can remap the escape key to other keys or use Karabiner for finer control.

 

[travelsheep]

The fact that no one has tried to copy it tells you how people in general think about.

Excellent point! Same goes for the sorry keyboard I'm typing on right now.. MacBook Pro 13" 2018... I will consider buying the next 13 " if it comes with the "(no) Magic Keyboard", even though usually I wait 3 years for every new MacBook purchase.

Ability to just replace the topcase and upgrade the keyboard to a "real" keyboard would be the greatest.

 

[Jim Lahey]

I like it. It looks cool and I use it a lot.

 

[LoganT]

I’ve never had a Touch Bar and I’m actually curiously excited for it. I’ve already downloaded BetterTouchTool in preparation and I plan on using it to its full potential.

 

[vladster]

@jerryk

If you could have a non-touchbar version of your machine for $150-300 less, which would you choose?

(assuming buying from scratch)

I would happily opted out of touchbar. My left palm fingers naturally rest in the very left of touchbar and so I kept frustratingly pressing touchbar buttons in that area. To the point I rolled back to my old mac.

Luckily I discovered that system settings/keyboard/customize control strip/ lets you insert "spaces" (dividers) in there. I placed a bunch of dividers to trouble spots so that touch bar is just black in there and can enjoy my laptop again.

Now is there a workaround against super-big touch pad? I with one could limit its working area programmatically so that IU could use what I need and not all of it.