Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Okay but TouchID requires you to consciously change your hand placement. The screen is right in-front of your face so FaceID would require no thought to unlock, it would be instant..
… thus charging your card instantly. Which would mean they’d need another input to confirm that you do consciously want to make that purchase. And, if they make that other input a button… well, then might as well keep TouchID :)
 
I also don't think that Face ID is very useful on a laptop. A lot of the time when I use my laptop, it is on my desk next to an external monitor. Having to move over and look at the laptop to unlock would be awkward at best.

As much as i'd love FaceID on my Mac there are totally reasons why it doesn't make sense. Using external displays is a perfect example. This is where TouchID on the latest Magic Keyboard works perfectly. I'm using it this way with an external display right now. And sure you could say "Apple should make an external display with FaceID then..." but where does it end? Cramming FaceID into everything with TouchID is a simpler and more flexible implementation that works just as well? I'd love FaceID but I'm not as concerned about it for my MacBook Pro and Mac Mini. TouchID works just fine. I wouldn't go back to TouchID on my iPhone or iPad though. FaceID all the way. Which is funny because there are people that want them to implement underscreen TouchID and would prefer it to FaceID on those devices. You can't please everyone.
 
"more convenient on a laptop since your hands are already on the keyboard"

as if your face is anywhere but in front of the screen when you are using said laptop...

what a dumb excuse - plus if you are right handed your hand is likely on the mouse or trackpad when a Face ID prompt shows up, so it's actually less convenient to lift the hand and use the touch sensor.

How do you think indicating acceptance to a FaceID prompt coming up would be done?

It clearly isn't:
Mac: Do you want to buy this thing?
Mac: I see that you are looking at your screen and I've just confirmed by a FaceID scan that it is you.
Mac: Product purchased; FaceID prompt closed.

And all of that going on without you clicking something.

Unless you think FaceID will be confirmed by something like: blink twice for yes, you are going to either click something on the screen using the pointer (meaning software controlled) or click physical hardware. I don't see how TouchID doesn't stay involved.
 
Wasn't Steve Jobs against putting touch screens on Macs like how he is against using a stylus during the unveiling of the iPhone in 2007? Or am I remembering it wrong?
SJ, as an fan of artists and calligraphy, wasn’t against something like the Pencil, but rather didn’t want a stylus to be the main method of OS interaction.
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: CarlJ and MacNeb
Face ID is the sole reason why I’m waiting for the second generation of these new MacBook Pros (assuming Gurman is correct).

As for touch screen, just no. Tablets work much better for that.
 
Ridiculous excuses.
The only reason for the notch on both the laptops and the phones is identification.
They want to be identified in all the movies, coffee shops, meetings etc.
Money is always the bottom line with Apple.
Only when it starts affecting their bottom line will they change anything at all. Then they'll go to their interviews saying "we are always listening to what our users say" but that's usually several years later.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: jz0309
at least the summary of that article/interview is very superficial, but that is product marketing at its best /s

and no, touch screen is not for 95% of users, even corporate Windows users who have it, most don't use it
Yep, we had a couple of touch screens in the office a couple of years ago. The users who had them never used the feature. I think one of the secretaries didn't even realize her computer had the feature until I showed it to her.
 
That is such a cop-out answer re: FaceID. No way is it more convenient to find a button on a keyboard. What a joke.
I have zero issues quickly locating the top left corner key for Esc and the same is true for the top-right key for Touch-ID; its not like Touch ID is on the left bracket key. It may simply be that having Face ID at the top center of the screen makes it too easily to accidentally authenticate payments; the iPads require more of a sideways glance in landscape which is less likely to accidentally happen. And if you then need a second action to confirm payment, like how my rMac requires I press the power button on my phone to confirm authentication, its less convenient than an easy to locate touch-id key.
 
Last edited:
Everyone forgets - how do you make a purchase with Face ID? You double-click the power button.
So what is easier, looking into the camera and double-clicking the power button on the keyboard, or just putting your finger on the power button on the keyboard?
 
  • Like
Reactions: MacNeb
“Tom Boger, Apple's vice president of iPad and Mac product marketing, told Stern that Touch ID is more convenient on the Mac since users' hands are already on the keyboard.”

Isnt your face already infont of the webcam too?

What a cop out that sounds! I’ve never tickled my Touch ID from behind before I think most users would agree you sit down infont of the laptop?

Ohh look a notch!! Funny that ehh…

"We make the world's best touch computer on an iPad. It's totally optimized for that. And the Mac is totally optimized for indirect input. We haven't really felt a reason to change that," John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, told me.”

So why the touchbar?? Come on…..
 
I mean, of course they're going to spin it so that it sounds like they chose Touch ID over Face ID because it was more practical to the user but the real reason is that they can't build all the Face ID tech in a small enough package to fit in the MacBook Pro's notch. That's the main reason. If they'd put Face ID on the iMac, it would have looked odd not having it on the later released MacBook Pro. Once they can produce a wide angle Face ID setup on their laptops then they'll probably go with that. Or they might just offer both.

Of course, the reality is that Touch ID might actually be just as practical as a Face ID implementation now because they use a physical button that you have to press. Without that button, you'd have to mouse over something and double click or press enter in the right box to get it to activate FaceID just like you have to double tab the button on iPhones and iPads.

In terms of the touch screen, honestly, having a touch screen on a desktop OS has such minor uses that it really doesn't seem worth it and I say that with an office full of Surface Books. It's really only practical to use for scrolling the occasional document and the mouse wheel is just as good at that really.
 
They brought the notch to the MacBook Pro so there was more useable space. Same reason it's on the iPhone. There is no behind screen tech that is feasible quite yet to hide the cameras.

I find it humorous that many want TouchID back on the iPhone and then many want FaceID on their MacBook.

iPhone doesn't just use FaceID to authorize payments. You need to double press the right button and address the screen with your face.

With the notch so wide on the MacBook Pros, I'd expect FaceID to be included and without for the notch to be less wide.
 
I also don't think that Face ID is very useful on a laptop. A lot of the time when I use my laptop, it is on my desk next to an external monitor. Having to move over and look at the laptop to unlock would be awkward at best.
When you use your laptop as a laptop is when TouchID (and possibly future FaceID) are most useful. My laptop is in clamshell mode on my desk attached to a monitor, so TouchID or FaceID is useless for me at my desk, but I also use my laptop a lot away from my desk and that's when I'd like FaceID.
 
Divided on this. Face ID is better than Touch ID. And I'm already spoiled with Face ID and 5G on my M1 iPad Pro. As long as Touch ID does what it needs to do then whatever.
 
I have no desire for a touchscreen MacBook. However I would love a MacBook where you can remove the screen and use it as an iPad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TVreporter
Wonder if there’s a way to add partial touch screen support to the iMac that’s differentiated from the iPads and tailored to macOS / desktop use. Like, bottom fifth of the screen, square in lower right corner, whatever.

Hoping they pull off that curved glass patent with the built in keyboard and trackpad and bring back a much bigger Touch Bar. But too big a risk
 
His comment about how Face ID on a Mac isn’t needed because your hands are already on the keyboard & touch ID is easier… make no sense. I have Face ID on my iPad Pro & iPhone Pro even tho my hands are holding them too. I would love to just sit down & unlock my macbook pro or mac by looking at it.
 
I ditched my work PC with a touch display. Never used it, it’s just not intuitive. I could fold it to become a tablet, but it was too heavy and hot to handle.

I’ve used iPads since the very first one, and it’s just two completely different devices.

It’s like putting a steering wheel on a motorcycle while still keeping the handlebars. ?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.