Apple Reportedly Working on Touchscreen Macs, Including MacBook Pro

[SadBoy Pro]

Given the screen in the MacBook Pro is the same tech as the iPad Pro albeit minus the touch component I was really hoping the new MacBook Pro was going to be more like a Surface Pro. Just with all the benefits of being a Mac.

The ability to swiftly start using brushes and masking up when editing without having to pull out an iPad and start using sidecar to mirror the display would be highly valuable to many many people.

 

[deevey]

For one, the weight balance is way off on iPad. Nobody wants a screen-heavy device on their lap.

Second problem is performance. It doesn't matter if Apple puts in M1 Ultra in there. If there's no heatsink or fan on iPad Pro, it won't perform.

For 99% of users speed is not the problem.

Firstly: M2 ipads are still faster that all but the most the most up-to-date, 12th gen 12core i7 laptops - plenty viable.
Secondly: No one is going to be doing intensive tasks that require insane amounts of horsepower/heat on their lap.
Thirdly: If I wanted to sit on the couch I'd probably be undocked anyhow - thats the point of a tablet.

Personally the ideal situation would be an automatic GUI switch between MacOS and iPad OS depending on whether or not the Tablet was docked and the apps themselves contain both touch and mouse driven GUI's depending on the input devices connected - however that would probably completely cannibalize their notebook line - so probably not gonna happen.

Touch screen Mac, I don't really get it. Extending the desktop apps to be touch capable wirelessly with a connected iPad works great. A large dedicated secondary touchscreen monitor with sidecar connection would be fantastc IMHO.

 

[Ifti]

My current work laptop is a Dell XPS 15 with a touch screen, and every now and then I brush my knuckle on the screen and I'm reminded, oh yeah I guess this is a touch screen. It actually hides fingerprints surprisingly well too. But I never use it.

Exactly this, although with a Dell XPS 13. Occasionally I go to brush some dust off of the screen and am reminded its a touch screen! Otherwise its never touched.

I use my iPad Pro with the Apple Magic Keyboard - again in that configuration I rarely touch the screen at all. Instinct just takes over and you start using the trackpad like a 'normal' laptop. When I need to use pencil with the screen, generally for 3D modelling work, I end up removing the iPad from the magic keyboard and actually using it as a tablet instead.

I personally would never touch a screen on a laptop hence I have no desire for such a setup. It will only result in Apple driving up prices even further.

 

[atomic.flip]

Don't even think of this as a done deal. It would cannibalize iPad sales (assuming they make it work with the pencil as well as iPad Pro does). I'd be ordering one on day 1 if I could, the iPad OS and workflow is so horrible.

LOL. Cannibalize an emaciated product line?

I’m pretty sure they’re willing to risk it.

 

[Konrad]

Magnificent idea. But if someone doesn’t like it, they don’t have to touch it.

 

[OS X Dude]

As an older millennial, the folks that taught me computing were much more likely to prefer keyboard shortcuts than gui interactions via mouse or trackpad. My kids were born post-iPhone. They expect touch screens. I don’t know how many times over the years I’ve gently swatted fingers away from my computer screens.

This likely has been under consideration since the flattening of the OSX interface and greater spacing between UI elements years ago. The touch bar gave an example of a glass panel that was touch sensitive and didn’t get as grimy as an ordinary display.

As much as I don’t want it, the slab-of-glass generation is going to bring touchscreen Macs with it.

A lot of kids are actually tech-illiterate due to using simple apps for most of their lives... it's quite shocking.

My dad always tries to use my MacBooks as though they have a touchscreen. He had a couple of laptops many years ago but has been iPad and iPhone-only for many years now, so he just expects everything to have a touchscreen.

 

[xxFoxtail]

They have everything they need for a touchscreen Mac right now. Just put macOS on the iPad.

 

[NEPOBABY]

My current work laptop is a Dell XPS 15 with a touch screen, and every now and then I brush my knuckle on the screen and I'm reminded, oh yeah I guess this is a touch screen. It actually hides fingerprints surprisingly well too. But I never use it.

It’s just not natural to reach out and do something that you can do on your trackpad.

All animals species like to use as little energy as possible to get a job done efficiently. Using a trackpad we move our fingers barely a few centimetres to interact with apps.

It is unintuitive to reach out 10-15 centimetres push things on a screen, then realise the screen angle has been nudged, readjust the screen angle, and then clean the screen. Annoying to odd that all day.

Likewise I don’t think Apple Store employees would like cleaning fingerprints on Mac screens all day when they are already cleaning iPad screens all day.

 

[xXRainKingXx]

Why is everyone acting like this wasn't obvious since Big Sur came out? What other reason was there for spacing out the UI and adding iOS style controls.

 

[backdraft]

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i Dual Screen Laptop

Pretty great except its the wrong OS 🤣

Hopefully this will be a separate product category.

MacBook Pro , iPad Pro and new MacTouch Pro

Maybe a 4th if it’s a dual iPad - TouchPad Pro

 

[darngooddesign]

They have everything they need for a touchscreen Mac right now. Just put macOS on the iPad.

Well...everything except for a touch-optimized version of MacOS, and that's kind of the most important part of the equation.

 

[NEPOBABY]

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i Dual Screen Laptop

Pretty great except its the wrong OS 🤣

Software keyboards bad and get worse as the system slows down with OS updates.

It’s a no thanks. It makes me shiver with NOs.

 

[backdraft]

Software keyboards bad and get worse as the system slows down with OS updates.

It’s a no thanks. It makes me shiver with NOs.

View attachment 2141491

Well it’s great if you use an external keyboard and mouse. Portable dual screen setup is gold. I definitely think they should have it in a separate product category. “MacTouch Pro”

 

[darngooddesign]

Software keyboards bad and get worse as the system slows down with OS updates.

It’s a no thanks. It makes me shiver with NOs.

View attachment 2141491

The Asus Zenbook Fold 17 is the product I wish Apple would make. Another company makes one with a half-depth keyboard so you can position it in the back of the bottom screen and use the other half the screen as your trackpad.

 

[the 12th Doctor]

You all say you wouldn't, but we know you would.

 

[TundraKing]

For me a touchscreen MacBook isn't of any interest BUT....... a "MacPad" CERTAINLY is. I would buy one immediately if it was introduced. A Mac with a detachable keyboard Ala an iPad for me would be the PERFECT form factor and combine power with convenience...

 

[TundraKing]

Well...everything except for a touch-optimized version of MacOS, and that's kind of the most important part of the equation.

Actually it's even easier.... Just let an M equipped iPad Pro dual boot into MacOS.... Problem solved and make everyone happy ..... Except Apple because people would start buying iPads INSTEAD of MacBook Airs......... I certainly would!

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Am I stupid or wasn't there a touchscreen Mac laptop at some point?

There was a third party company that would take your macbook pro and create a tablet out of it. It was very expensive and as time went on the company slowly started to go bankrupt. I honestly can’t even remember the name of the company.

Edited to add: I believe they were called Modbooks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modbook

 

[boyarka]

I member when Apple did that arrogant "what's a computer?" iPad ad. Only to have a gazillion attacheable keyboards released later because fingers are only good for food, phones and fingering but not for actual work on an on-screen keyboard that steals have the screen area and touch instead of mouse that's never as precise.
Now, ever since Apple dumbed down the settings menu in OSX I just KNEW they will fully cross over/merge iOS and OSX in a frantic move to catch up to what's Microsoft doing with Android on Win11.

So better hold on to yoyu favorite apps... ALL GUI is about to be made touch friendly and get dumbed down. It actually won't surprise me if full file system access just gets deleted because "oh no, I was born in 2002, I can't navigate unless the OS stores stuff automatically in like max 3 places". And more. More iOS-ing of OSX. Until there's nothing left, where the entire "laptop" is just a tablet with 5 keys - which are all customizable memoji buttons.

 

[darngooddesign]

Actually it's even easier.... Just let an M equipped iPad Pro dual boot into MacOS.... Problem solved and make everyone happy ..... Except Apple because people would start buying iPads INSTEAD of MacBook Airs......... I certainly would!

Not me. I don't want to need a keyboard and trackpad just to use MacOS. I want a touch optimized version of MacOS where things like the hit target padding changes depending on whether a mouse/trackpad is attached. I want MacOS to accommodate an on-screen keyboard. I want to be able to hot-swap between the two OSes without having to shut-down or boot.

 

[NEPOBABY]

Well it’s great if you use an external keyboard and mouse. Portable dual screen setup is gold. I definitely think they should have it in a separate product category. “MacTouch Pro”

This use only works for me if I was some kind of travelling trader who needs a chart on top and and accounts at the bottom, otherwise I have no point to it personally and I’m happy multi tasking windows on a single screen and using my brain to memorize what is in all the windows.

 

[NEPOBABY]

Not me. I don't want to need a keyboard and trackpad just to use MacOS. I want a touch optimized version of MacOS where things like the hit target padding changes depending on whether a mouse/trackpad is attached. I want MacOS to accommodate an on-screen keyboard. I want to be able to hot-swap between the two OSes without having to shut-down or boot.

macOS comes on Macs.

What you are really asking is for iPadOS to have better windowing options and maybe a Desktop type app so you can see documents sitting on a surface and not just in a file manager.

Windows 8 tried to do touch optimized OS with merged tablet/desktop functions and it gave users a heart attack, but maybe it can be done the iPadOS way of doing it.

There’s no need to hot swap both OS on an iPad.

 

[darngooddesign]

macOS comes on Macs.

Until it comes on an iPad or MacPad.

What you are really asking is for iPadOS to have better windowing options and maybe a Desktop type app so you can see documents sitting on a surface and not just in a file manager.

No I'm not. I have zero problems with documents being in a folder instead of sitting on the desktop; however, other people like using the desktop so what happens when the on-screen keyboard covers half the desktop?

Windows 8 tried to do touch optimized OS with merged tablet/desktop functions and it gave users a heart attack, but maybe it can be done the iPadOS way of doing it. There’s no need to hot swap both OS on an iPad.

Sure there is. I don't want to have to shut down MacOS and boot iPadOS just to use an iPad app. I don't want to wait for all my Mac apps and documents to relaunch when I'm finished doing whatever I'm doing in iPadOS. I want a common local file location so both a Mac and iPad version of the same app can edit the same file. If I'm playing music in one OS, I want to continue listening to that music in the other OS with no interruptions instead of a long pause and then having to launch and play the music again. I want an iPad video to persist as a floating window in MacOS.

Good UX is hard. Good hybrid OS UX is very, very hard.

 

[twistedpixel8]

For one, the weight balance is way off on iPad. Nobody wants a screen-heavy device on their lap.

Second problem is performance. It doesn't matter if Apple puts in M1 Ultra in there. If there's no heatsink or fan on iPad Pro, it won't perform.

But it already does perform. And tremendously well, even in the Macs without fans.

What they could do to allow even more performance is add passive vents to the iPad Pro and the stand would have fans that output the airflow to those vents. I think there are plenty of clever ways to cool the chips.

 

[twistedpixel8]

Touchscreen Macs make more sense on a product like the iMac. Imagine you can finally draw with the Apple Pencil on a big 24-inch screen. That would be very nice.

I think your arm would get sore almost immediately. That’s why I think having the iPad Pro with an iMac-like stand makes more sense. The stand can house IO and power supply. Detach the screen (iPad) whenever you want to draw on it.