it’s a novelty idea for me.. fun for a few days and then pointless. you cant beat old fashioned laptop
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Apple Reportedly Working on Touchscreen Macs, Including MacBook Pro
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People have been making this prediction for a decade, using the many features that have managed to make its way across platforms as evidence! It may happen, sure, but hard to say it (or anything) is inevitable.
I’ve never understood saying vertical touchscreens are uncomfortable when Apple themselves sell multiple keyboard attachments that all make the iPad vertical. There was even on at the introduction of the iPad in 2010.
It’s been said that people don’t want to use touchscreen Macs because then we’d have our hands in the air all the time... that’s the point though, use which input makes sense in the moment.
Besides that, look at restaurants, they’ve been using vertical touch screens for their point of sale systems all the way back to the garbage resistive touch panels.
Yes and No. Yes, as a support person, I can verify that people with touchscreens tend to eat a greasy burger before touching their screen (but then, people with non-touch screens seem to touch their screens just as much!).
BUT, in the Windows market, YOU CAN CHOOSE. Most model are available with or without touch. If you don't want it, you don't pay for it. If you get one forced on you, don't touch it.
I don't get why people are so against this.
Apple added touchpad support to the iPad for a reason. Vertical touchscreens are uncomfortable when used for longer periods of time. Since I started using Magic Keyboards and Logitech Combo keyboards, I find myself using the touchscreen on my iPads a lot less.
Exactly. I was never in favour of it because I couldn't see much of a use for it, then I saw someone under 25 using a touchscreen PC laptop. She'd use the keyboard when appropriate, then touch away on interface widgets, then back to the keyboard. And like anyone who knows what they're doing, she was fast at it.
Now we have a lot of kids coming through the school system who have used Surface Pros. Much to hate about that device, but the kids are used to the level of interactivity it brings. An iPad doesn't really make the grade for "real computing" like you and I know it. Windows is getting there, but Steve painted Apple into a corner by being so single-minded about "NO TOUCH ON MY MACS". Time to embrace the new.
Apple likes to trickle apps, features and functionality unfortunately it’s one of the things it does that irks me. Prime example Calculator and Weather on iPad, how long did one of these take to finally be native.
Im ready for the amount of finger prints from work colleagues pointing to my screen by touching (already happens) and things get selected/moved around
You’ll still be paying for it. And what will you design your OS around? Touch input or Mouse input?
I don’t get it.. Mac sales are going strong, even without these weird “innovations”.
It has its conveniences.
1- you want to "click" on a spot on the screen... sometimes, it's just more convenient to reach and directly touch on that spot. Esp. if the laptop is easily within arms reach. As opposed to if the mouse cursor is at the opposite end
2- foreign language input. I've heard those who are used to writing Japanese and Chinese that it's easier to just directly "draw" the character in rather than using English characters, rather than using some "Roman pinyin" system.
3- for drawing, using your finger, or get a compatible stylus.
Except that’s not what the article claims. It says it will be a traditional form factor laptop. I actually could see a strong argument for a 12.9” iPad Pro-sized device to have a touchscreen version of macOS (complete with a “Magic Keyboard” with trackpad), but simply adding a touch interface to a MacBook Pro strikes me as a ”catch-up” move with few real benefits.
There are legitimate benefits to adding touch support, but the most significant benefits are when the touchscreen is horizontal (e.g drawing or writing with an Apple Pencil). Given the pricing of the 12.9” iPad Pro, it would make a LOT of sense for it to run a specialized version of macOS.
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Steve Jobs just made known that it’s uncomfortable to interact with macOS on a vertical display, once the display is detached it can be horizontal and macOS since his comments have been transitioning to iPadOS design elements. Steve Jobs was also not fond of stylus but ApplePencil says he was a great marketer for his time.
Just tweak OSX to run on the iPad and its done. iOSPad suck and OSX would make the iPad useful.
Despite years of resistance, Apple is now working on adding touchscreens to Macs, according to a report today from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The report claims that a new MacBook Pro with an OLED display could be the first touchscreen Mac in 2025.
Gurman said Apple engineers are "actively engaged in the project," indicating that the company is "seriously considering" producing touchscreen Macs. The first MacBook Pro with a touchscreen would retain a traditional laptop design with a trackpad and a keyboard, but the display would gain support for touch input like an iPhone or iPad.
The first touchscreen Macs are likely to use macOS, as Apple is not actively working to combine iPadOS and macOS, according to the report. iPhone and iPad apps are available on Macs with Apple silicon chips, though, unless a developer opts out.
Apple has repeatedly dismissed the idea of a touchscreen Mac over the years, so this would be a major reversal in philosophy for the company if it moves forward with these plans. In 2010, for example, Steve Jobs said that "touch surfaces don't want to be vertical" due to arm fatigue associated with holding up a finger to the screen. And in 2021, Apple's hardware engineering chief John Ternus said the Mac was "totally optimized for indirect input" and said the company did not feel there was a good reason to change that at the time.
Article Link: Apple Reportedly Working on Touchscreen Macs, Including MacBook Pro
I think Jobs envisioned the iPad replacing the laptop over time. Obviously that hasn’t happened, but remember his “car vs truck” analogy? Perhaps iPad could have replaced the laptop for most people but Apple hasn’t quite found the right mix of power vs. simplicity in iPadOS that would make that possible. There’s a 180+ page thread on the iPad forums debating just that.
Nobody forces people to use the touchscreen component of a touchscreen laptop.
Sure the resting position for hands on a laptop is on the keyboard just as it is when using Apple’s own keyboard cases for the iPad and people use those for 12 hours+ every day.
The point being that users get to use the input that makes sense in the moment.
- Positions it makes sense to use mouse and keyboard
- Sitting face forward at a desk with elbows at 90º
- Slouching at desk with laptop/desktop basically in front
- Positions it makes sense to use touch instead
- Sitting catty corner to the machine
- standing next to the desk
- Uses unlocked by having touch available
- standing nowhere near a desk
- Laying in bed
- laying on the floor
- all other positions that are not sitting at a desk
Pointless. Touchscreen laptops were the “new thing” some years ago, but thats mostly gone by the board. Hardly anyone asks for them now.
That’s the approach Microsoft took. It took them years to get it “right” and even then it is still clunky. In any case, for anything smaller or less powerful than the iPad Air 5, iPadOS is more optimal for the iPad hardware.
The only way a touchscreen will work (at least for me) is if the Macbook will be able to fold like Window's 3-in-1 laptops (ie., traditional, a presentation view, and tablet mode). That being said, touch will inevitably make its way to a Mac and Apple will find a way to spin it off into a great user experience. Touch has become an essential interaction, and we should start to embrace it.
