Apple Says Touchscreen Macs 'Not a Particularly Useful or Appropriate Application of Multi-Touch'

[tubeexperience]

You mean the devices that have removable screens or swing arms to allow you to actually get the display into an ergonomic position? Yea, the fact that they have to do that really tells you everything about the ergonomics of vertical touchscreens.

And what's your point?

The touch screens can be put into ergonomic positions on those devices.

 

[iMcLovin]

of course Mac OS with touch doesnt work out of the box. But if they added a stylys and ergonomical stand to the imac and a apple pen and touch pinch and zoom, it would be useful...But that kind of ideas needs innovation, and that kind of creativity has apparently left Cupertino and moved into Microsoft.

 

[niun]

EASILY develop tablet and phone application without needing to constantly copy the build output to my iPad or Android tablet to ensure that it is user and touch friendly, and there are just things you CAN'T do on a desktop emulator with a mouse, even on a Mac trackpad, that can simulate the direct touch of a mobile application.

Doh, I totally forgot about that.. It'd become such an every day task that I don't even register I'm testing iOS and Android apps on my Surface!!

 

[pjarvi]

Every time I see "Ive" written it makes me think the author forgot an apostrophe and was writing from their personal perspective.

 

[luciferuk]

I can't help but feel just above the track pad would have been a far more useful place to put the touchbar. Make it slightly larger to show more content and have it as an extension of an area you naturally pinch, tweak, zoom etc..

Rather than an area of the machine you jab at.

Ooooo, you may be onto something here niun. They did just enlarge the surface area of the trackpad after all!
I wonder if this would be in line with a potential touchscreen!?

 

[SDuffy]

First: LOL Acer.

Second. You're right, I never heard of it. Because "LOL Acer".

Third: I'm looking at the product page. I don't see touch. The images all show a bezel'd panel, which isn't touch, and their features page doesn't list touch. So what am I missing here?

Look, you don't have to believe me, I'm new here but specifically created an account just to make you aware. Take it or leave I don't care. Point is, your statement of basically, "It can't be done if Apple doesn't do it." is moot. Someone did and they have. Apple is behind again and yes; to Acer. So you can use uncomfortable "lol"s all ya want. Apple was out done by ... Acer. Again; that was Acer who out designed Apple. Acer.

 

[AppleWarMachine]

Apple's Phil at Mac Pro reveal: "Can't innovate anymore...my ass"

Apple's Phil at MacBook Pro reveal: "My ass can't innovate anymore" (or at least what he should have said)

 

[vcboard]

The only reasonable explanation that I can think of is that the release of current mbp with the touch bar only acts to stall the product line while they are trying to merge the laptop/computer lines with the iPad.

Making macOS to be ready for touch interface is a lot of work and not going to be easy. Even Finder's UI which provides basic functionalities are far from optimised for touch. Look at Windows 10 ,that despite years of UI development and iterations with Metro and what nots, still does not have excellent full touch UI experience yet.

 

[8692574]

Well, maybe you do and can provide some examples. That would be a lot more constructive.

I guess any program can become more productive with touch and are in a way optimized, Word for pictures, Excel for graphs, Final Cut for cutting and moving video and so forth and so on.

Even Apple agrees with me since they implemented touch for that, the problem is that their solution is a 30px high bar wich is almost useless as compared to doing the same thing on a 15 / 27 inches monitor.

Having a touch screen does not mean you have to work touch 100% but it is there when you need it and when it can enhance your experience!

 

[baryon]

I agree that touch screens on a computer aren't the best idea. The thing is, on your phone and iPad, it's fine. Portability is the most important thing, and you're willing to be more clumsy in exchange for that. You're not going to do anything serious, things have little consequence, and you don't spend all day on them (i.e. 8-10 hours) like you do on a computer.

Touch screens suck in many ways. Yes, they allow for the omission of a keyboard and mouse, they save space, and this is worth the cost in consumer devices like iPhones and iPads. But the cost is still not to be forgotten: you lose tactile feedback, you cover valuable screen space with the bigger interface/keyboard and your own hands. You smudge the display and have to keep cleaning it. I would not like doing that while doing professional work, such as video editing or photo retouching. I don't mind reading messages through a dirty iPad screen. I *do* mind specs of dust and smudges when removing specs of dust and smudges from a photo in Photoshop. It's not the same thing.

I doubt the mechanical keyboard is going away anytime soon, there's just no other way to type fast. So if that's staying, might as well keep the trackpad/mouse too, because it allows your hand to not cover the screen. Sure, you could add touch to the screen for things like pressing buttons and drag & drop, but how would that be any better than just using a mouse? You'd still need a keyboard and mouse, so you'd end up doing most things with those anyway. A touchscreen Mac wouldn't add a lot of functionality to a system that otherwise works great.

Drawing onto the screen with a stylus, however, is huge. But that's not the same thing as "touch" — you can recognize the hovering and clicking of a stylus without recognizing a finger, just like the Wacom products do. That would make sense, because it would add value to the machine, you would no longer have to buy an expensive Wacom tablet.

 

[SDuffy]

You hold your iPad on the screen. The MacBook rests on the table, on your lap, or on the side of the bed. People don't hold their MacBooks by the screen.
Different devices have different ergonomics.

Ummm yeah that would be because the MB doesn't have the ability to fold like the Surface Book ... just like I don't hold my laptop by the screen. That's not the point I was making with my post. lol

 

[TrueBlou]

Honestly I agree, a touchscreen MacBook in their current form doesn't appeal, I don't think it's the best way to utilise the technology.

The best way, the more I think about it, is what Microsoft have done with the Surface Book.

I want a powerful laptop and I want a powerful tablet, I also want macOS and iOS. So that's a MacBook Pro and an iPad Pro then. But really, why can't they be one and the same thing? Don't get me wrong, I still think macOS is useless for touch input. I also still think iOS would be a terrible traditional computer platform.

But I don't believe for a second that Apple, of all companies, can't find a middle ground. Imagine if we had our MacBook Pros, big Trackpad, Touch Bar and all. We use it during the day for our work exactly as we do now, with macOS looking and working much as it does now as if it didn't have a touchscreen at all. If we didn't want to poke awkwardly at a laptop screen, we wouldn't have to.

Then at night, when we want to kick back and read a magazine, the news, browse the web or whatever else. We pluck the screen from the body of the MacBook and voila, essentially an iPad Pro, touchscreen, Pencil input and all. The interface changes to reflect the fact that we're no longer using it as a laptop, all is well.

I'm pretty sure this is where Apple will end up, with the rising popularity of these 2-in-1 type devices Apple would be foolish to ignore that market and we know they don't like to miss out on money.

They're probably already laying the groundwork for it as we look at them, testing and perfecting each component without combining it all at once.
The MacBooks are getting touch screen input, macOS already has launchpad, multi-touch and force touch implemented, the iPad Pro has its smart connector and Pencil input, they're whittling down our reliance on different and incompatible ports. Slowly but surely the pieces are falling into place for Apple to transition to a device
targeting that market sector.

Or and this is a real possibility, 39 hours without sleep makes you talk a lot of crap

 

[dumastudetto]

Laptops with touchscreens are extremely useful. Ask any Surface Book or any other touchscreen laptop owner. None of them would ever go back to a laptop without touchscreen. And a touchscreen is a hell of a lot more useful than a Touch Bar.

I have an XPS 15 here the touch-enabled version, and I have touched the screen twice. Once, just to see the thing working in Windows 10 for the first time. The second time, to see if Linux was able to do the touch-enabled stuff too (it can). I have never felt the need to touch the screen again since then.

 

[yaxomoxay]

I believe in this commercial they are making emphasis of a person typing a large document.
I personally have this setup and touching the screen in this mode is also fruitless. Most of the time the iPad falls backward.

lol, really? Never happened to me (not saying it didn't happen to you, just that it never happened to me).
I don't think that it's fruitless. I find myself wanting a touchscreen on my Macs more and more by the day. I used to think it like Apple, but their own iPP changed my mind. Now I want touch (in addition to mouse/trackpad) and choose what and when to use the different tools.

 

[CriticalVoice]

Happens to me, too, after I've worked on my iPad Pro for some time... really annoying switching and not having touch.

just use the trackpad and you have it... (as I do)

 

[Scarpad]

Hate to say it but may get passed by when the new version of windows come out, they seem to be embracing touch not running away from it

 

[Pilgrim1099]

Nonsense. He has never been to an art studio that has them. Even for one on one board member presentations - they are amazing.

The irony? Jony's an Industrial Designer and should know better. After all, Industrial Designers work on....drafting tables. Oh yes, they did. I remember attending art school and seeing them at the ID department with rows of drafting tables. Students had to learn to do it the old school method and then eventually 3D modelling paved the way. I'll bet you that Jony actually uses a Wacom Cintiq secretly to work on the designs of the products for precision purposes such as AutoCAD.

"Gorilla Arms", my foot.

 

[DanielDD]

Having a touch screen does not mean you have to work touch 100% but it is there when you need it and when it can enhance your experience!

There's a problem with that. There are a lot of passive disadvantages to having a touchscreen on a computer. Poorer battery life, less efficient use of screen space because of touch-optimized UI, ton name a few. These are there whether someone intends to use touchscreen or not. On top of these, there are no compelling reason for 99% of users to have it.

So, you want every single Mac user to deal with tradeoffs while providing benefits for such a niche market?

 

[Mindcrime]

Look, you don't have to believe me, I'm new here but specifically created an account just to make you aware. Take it or leave I don't care. Point is, your statement of basically, "It can't be done if Apple doesn't do it." is moot. Someone did and they have. Apple is behind again and yes; to Acer. So you can use uncomfortable "lol"s all ya want. Apple was out done by ... Acer. Again; that was Acer who out designed Apple. Acer.

Dude, you a bit off the reservation. Also, i don't understand your aggression, I've been civil with you. I never said "It can't be done if Apple doesn't do it.

Also, the evidence says the Acer isn't touch.

 

[Dave245]

So do you considered this a giant tablet connected to a PC?

I consider it an iMac copy with touchscreen. But i'm not a Windows fan.

 

[niun]

A touchscreen Mac wouldn't add a lot of functionality to a system that otherwise works great.

IF, a big if, Apple hadn't released the iPad line.. Do you think graphic studio artists would all be sitting in front of a glorious reclining 5k iMac Studio right now using the Apple pencil to do, 'Magical' things?

 

[8692574]

So, you want every single Mac user to deal with tradeoffs while providing benefits for such a niche market?

Who decided it is a niche..... PC manufacturer surely don't think so

 

[themuseboy]

Asked if the Mac community's expectations and emotional ties to their devices affects his design considerations, Ive emphasized that his team "don't limit ourselves in how we will push – if it's to a better place", although "what we won't do is just do something different that's no better".


Then why did they drop the Magsafe power connector?

Mark

 

[Jsameds]

The biggest problem with touchscreen on your desktop isn't the angle, as this can be eradicated with design and it's also not fingerprints (although they are annoying for sure) as they can be removed with a wipe.

IMO the biggest issue is having to use an OS that's designed for both touch input and keyboard/mouse inputs at the same time. Windows 10 is horrible for that reason (and many other reasons..) and I don't wish Apple to ruin OSX for the same reason.

iOS and OSX need better integration so you can use your iPad Pro as your touch input for drawing in Photoshop etc. and OSX for the rest. I imagine this is coming as we already have a primitive version of the feature called Handoff.

 

[Dave245]

IF, a big if, Apple hadn't released the iPad line.. Do you think graphic studio artists would all be sitting in front of a glorious reclining 5k iMac Studio right now using the Apple pencil to do, 'Magical' things?

No, i think Apple's intentions have always been to develop the iPad and have touch separate from the Mac, i.e. the iPad and iPhone.