I have to agree. Touch screen would be stupid on a Mac, laptop or desktop. They must have made prototypes and concluded it's pointless. I conclude the same every time I see a dweeb smudging his laptop screen for no good reason.
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Apple Executives Address Lack of Face ID and Touchscreens on Macs
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Boger is in marketing, so in this case you may be right.
FaceID on a Mac can make sense to me, but not a touchscreen. The form factor of the Mac does not make itself amenable for touchscreen use.
Now, if they were to re-design the Mac laptop such that it can flip the screen so it lays both flat and the bottom chassis folded under, then we could talk about the usability of a touchscreen. In its current form, touchscreen makes almost no sense.
I do see an argument for not having FaceID on a Mac though. Maybe it’s more of a security risk because one doesn’t have to physically interact with the device in order to unlock it. But then again, so is using an Apple Watch to unlock a Mac in that case. Maybe add FaceID with the option of not enabling it?
Now, if they were to re-design the Mac laptop such that it can flip the screen so it lays both flat and the bottom chassis folded under, then we could talk about the usability of a touchscreen. In its current form, touchscreen makes almost no sense.
I do see an argument for not having FaceID on a Mac though. Maybe it’s more of a security risk because one doesn’t have to physically interact with the device in order to unlock it. But then again, so is using an Apple Watch to unlock a Mac in that case. Maybe add FaceID with the option of not enabling it?
Most of the comments here are all addressing a single use case for Face ID - unlocking your Mac. How often do you do that per session? Once, and yes that would be easier with Face ID vs Touch ID (although I have an Apple Watch so it's irrelevant to me). What about all of the other authentication scenarios?
You browse to your favourite website and want to login. Your password manager pops up and requests authentication. Do you want Face ID to automatically open it or do you want some control over whether it's displaying/filling in your credentials? At home, you probably want it to just fill it in. In a cafe, maybe you want some control.
You're logged in now and would like to purchase something. You click the Apple Pay button and the confirmation dialogue comes up. Currently you have the option to change addresses, payment, shipping etc and then authenticate using Touch ID. What happens if you have Face ID instead? You still need the pause to confirm all this stuff. When you want to authenticate, what do you do? On iPhone, you double click the side button and then Face ID authenticates. If you need something similar here, you may as well just use Touch ID.
Lastly, and I'm sure there are more use cases, what about all of those people that use their laptops closed? The Touch ID enabled keyboard or your Apple Watch are how you deal with that.
Ultimately, Face ID is great for the initial login, but I don't see it as the best approach for most other authentication scenarios in which intent is important and not possible with Face ID alone.
I think it is more about security than anything else. If my partner comes into my office and I lock the screen and she comes and sits on my lap, and I turn and happen to look at the computer and it opens up... well, she might not ought to see what is on the screen in case I am buying her a Christmas present. Where is the fingerprint works better because it is something that I have to be conscious about.
But, I hear what you are saying and Apple can provide both ways of accessing the computer and let the user decide.
Hope this helps.
The problem with having FaceID on a Mac is how do you trigger it?
Clearly you don't want FaceID to always be ready to authenticate (imagine a scam app trying to charge you for in app purchases and it works because you're always looking at the screen), so you need some kind of user interaction, like clicking a button or pressing a key like the double tap the power button on iPhone/iPad.
But if you're doing that then what's the advantage over TouchID? You might as well make the button press and authentication one and the same.
Clearly you don't want FaceID to always be ready to authenticate (imagine a scam app trying to charge you for in app purchases and it works because you're always looking at the screen), so you need some kind of user interaction, like clicking a button or pressing a key like the double tap the power button on iPhone/iPad.
But if you're doing that then what's the advantage over TouchID? You might as well make the button press and authentication one and the same.
Face ID is the ultimate unlocking convenience. Imagine the moment you rise the MacBook display when you stop it’s unlocked.
The same for iMac … touch any key or mouse … and voila no need to go after a special button.
Heck even the current notch size looks way too big just to hold a sibgle camera. I bet they were planing to put it there in the lab … it’s ready. It was a production cost vs pricing decision. Not a UX one.
It will come next year …
The same for iMac … touch any key or mouse … and voila no need to go after a special button.
Heck even the current notch size looks way too big just to hold a sibgle camera. I bet they were planing to put it there in the lab … it’s ready. It was a production cost vs pricing decision. Not a UX one.
It will come next year …
"Mr. Boger said Touch ID is more convenient on a laptop since your hands are already on the keyboard." My thumb is already on my iPhone so why no under the screen Touch ID on my iPhone then?
"Face ID on an iPhone unlocks the device"
That's absolutely not true. Have you ever used 1Password on iPhone? or a banking app? or many others?
Face ID is used for seamless authentication and password filling without requiring to double tap the side button.
I would argue that device unlocking, app authentication, and password filling are cases muuuuch more frequent than purchasing stuff. Unless you are frenetically buying 20 things every day.
Well said! And I think Apple would be trying to solve a problem that really isn't a problem.
Even with the fingerprint and my laptop lid closed, it does cause a 2% grief which I don't mind when sitting at a desk, but wow, it really is nice when I am actually away from my desk and able to use the laptop and simply touch (not press) the button. It is convenient and it is nice and it is an added feature.
The reason face detection is on our phone is because when we raise the phone up, we want to use it right away, and face detection works well. There are some phones that uses the fingerprint - either way, it works.
And you can still have those. But c'mon, Apple does not design laptops based on users that keep them closed. If so, I have missed that in their commercials.
I work in healthcare. We are supposed to log out out every time we get called away from the computer, because of need for privacy on our patients' on-screen personal information. That happens over and over and over. I literally log into my dang machines hundreds of times in a day, then log into each database hundreds of times a day, to the point that I sometimes feel that I'm mainly paid to log in, rather than do actual work. Touch ID would be great, but our keyboards are covered with a plastic shield so they can be regularly washed down to prevent spread of... well, superbugs. So, faceID would be a godsend; sadly, our hospital is too cheap to buy anything that supports Windows Hello either...
As long as I'm ranting, my main Windows machine has a camera notch on the monitor, and if I could throw that thing out the window, I would. The minimize/expand/close buttons are always disappearing behind it, and either you take a gamble on what you're clicking on behind the camera, or you have to keep moving the windows around to be able to minimize etc. What an unbelievably bad idea, and I'm really disappointed that Apple would curse such a beautiful machine as these new laptops with a notch, handled the same way as that piece of junk on my desk (at least Apple centred it).
Meanwhile, my mind is blown by the M1Pro and M1Max, but guess I'll have to wait for a notchless laptop with FaceID at some point in the future...
What are you doing on your computer with your hands not on the keyboard?
*******
The second thing I do when getting a new computer is, put a bit of tape on the camera. The first thing I do is, not setup TouchID. (Edited to say, not set up TouchID, not FaceID.)
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But doesn’t that you still touching the iPad to open it? Why make two ways to get into a device when one works flawlessly. (FaceID is not flawless, in fact, annoying at times).
Just because there’s a notch doesn’t mean FaceID makes sense.
Here's my own anecdote for why I think Steve Jobs was right about why touch screens on Macs aren't a good idea.
There's a reason why blind people lay their Braille books flat on a table to read them. It puts less strain on your hands when you're moving them up and down a 2D surface like that. It's fine to read something quick like a sign on a wall or the numbers in an elevator, but I've been to places where they have vending machines and they tape a list of all the options on the front or on the wall next to it. By the time I get about a quarter of the way down the list my arm is killing me.
So if you're manipulating things on a screen that's up in front of you with your fingers all the time , especially on a bigger screen like a 27" iMac, your hands would probably get tired pretty quickly.
There's a reason why blind people lay their Braille books flat on a table to read them. It puts less strain on your hands when you're moving them up and down a 2D surface like that. It's fine to read something quick like a sign on a wall or the numbers in an elevator, but I've been to places where they have vending machines and they tape a list of all the options on the front or on the wall next to it. By the time I get about a quarter of the way down the list my arm is killing me.
So if you're manipulating things on a screen that's up in front of you with your fingers all the time , especially on a bigger screen like a 27" iMac, your hands would probably get tired pretty quickly.
That explanation is likely false. Apple made a notch plenty big enough for FaceID, but only put a webcam in there. My guess is that there was an engineering issue, a supply issue, or a cost issue that prevented FaceID. I personally don't care for FaceID, so I'm happy enough with what they did, and it's not like they're likely to say, "We wanted to do it, but it didn't work out."
I don't care about the touch screen or Face ID - the fingerprint reader works fine. But I went to the Apple Store to pick up a 14" Mac Book Pro to replace my dying 13" MBP and wound up not taking it home. The thing is just too thick and heavy for me, and its specs don't in my mind justify lugging all that weight around.
For the first time in around 15 years I'm thinking of going back to a Thinkpad. The current Thinkpad X1 Gen.9 is a full pound lighter, offers all the ports, and has a longer battery life. I would wait for a replacement 13" MBP to stay in the Mac ecosystem if I knew it was coming out soon and had a form factor more like what it replaces, but seems not to be on the horizon unless I missed something. Looks like the 13" Air is at least 6 months away.
For the first time in around 15 years I'm thinking of going back to a Thinkpad. The current Thinkpad X1 Gen.9 is a full pound lighter, offers all the ports, and has a longer battery life. I would wait for a replacement 13" MBP to stay in the Mac ecosystem if I knew it was coming out soon and had a form factor more like what it replaces, but seems not to be on the horizon unless I missed something. Looks like the 13" Air is at least 6 months away.
Totally agree with this!
That has been similar to an argument I’ve had about why touchscreens for Macs and Mac laptops in the current form factor makes little sense.
I don’t know about the weight of the 14” MBP as they didn’t have them when I was at my Apple Store. But, I don’t very much like the new form factor. It harkens back to the old Titanium PowerBook G4 which for back then it looked fine but now looks rather dated. I guess it’s mostly the bottom chassis of the 14” that makes it look dated. I still love the form factor and design of the 13” MBP — very sleek. Sure, it could use a re-design to jazz things up, but between the 14” and 13”, I’d rather have the 13” design.
I do, however, prefer the 14”’s design of the screen and bezel. That’s pretty cool.
I've never once wanted to touch screen on a laptop, it's a dumb idea. I don't want my screen all grubbed any more than it already is.