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Concept Imagines What a Dynamic OLED Touch Panel Could Look Like on a MacBook Pro

Looks great!

But I'd want it in addition to the function keys - not replacing it. I use them all the time (and not really for the volume/brightness stuff but as real function keys, mainly in the terminal). And I use Esc even more. Tactile feedback is important. That was the main reason it didn't work very well for Lenovo with the X1 Carbon. Though I'm sure Apple will make it work much smoother.

But I suppose not that many people still use the function keys?
 
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The Doctor11 said:
I'd certainly not want this to take the place of the current F row, where I find it quite nice to have volume and brightness no matter what app I'm in.
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Couldn't agree more.

1) need that tactile feedback on what I'm tapping, and screw having to look at the damn keyboard

2) not having that mute button available at a single touch no matter what application or context I'm in would be a dealbreaker for me

3) It's crucial to my productivity to be able to program function keys for other actions that are available regardless of what app I'm in - particularly things like expose

Feels like a gimmick to me, but I'm willing to humor them as long as they don't mess with the rest of my keyboard.
 
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splitpea said:
Couldn't agree more.

1) need that tactile feedback on what I'm tapping, and screw having to look at the damn keyboard

2) not having that mute button available at a single touch no matter what application or context I'm in would be a dealbreaker for me

3) It's crucial to my productivity to be able to program function keys for other actions that are available regardless of what app I'm in - particularly things like expose

Feels like a gimmick to me, but I'm willing to humor them as long as they don't mess with the rest of my keyboard.
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I totally agree. while it looks 'cool' I don't think this is a significant upgrade or revolutionary. not sure what apple has left in it's bag of tricks but we will see.
 
Why don't they just make a touch screen? This seems very amateurish and primitive. I know I know, here come the "derp I use my laptop at arms length and don't want to outstretch my arms for a touchscreen" crowd. Yeah like stretching your hand towards this touch panel will be much different. Man, give it up Apple and just put a touchscreen on your laptops and join everyone else in 2016 (well really 2012 or so).
 
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As some have said here, it looks cool. But it's going to come down to implementation. And this is not El Cap. This is (?) the next major revision of OS X. Which is why I'm starting to believe the rumors of a fall timeframe for this. My eyes will be watching the WWDC for any OS references to this, possibly a sneek peek at the hardware itself. I have to admit I'm thinking about all the potentail for native app use cases, as well as third party - extentions?
Yes we've see some other mfgrs try some similar things. But they didn't fly because of bad design and even worse -zero deep OS support. imo. we've moved ahead. I say this as a pc user as well.
fingers crossed, cause I'm more than likely going to pull the trigger on this. But oh how I hate being on a bleeding edge, 1gen iteration device. nashing of teeth/wringing of hands. all the blood.
 
I'm probably the minority but I'm not digging this redesign. I hope they don't screw up the keyboard buttons themselves by using the God awful MacBook physical keys. The MacBook Pro keys right now are perfect. The other stupid thing is the 4 usbc connections? Really you couldn't even get one usba connector there. That's going to be wonderful to need an adapter for every single USB device I have and then a thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 3 adapter for every single device I have. Not to mention I'll never be able to use a simple USB key memory stick in the field without yet another adapter on hand.
 
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Dynamic key mapping is interesting — my hunt-and-peck typing skills would be transformed into something more powerful! :p
 
bighype said:
No hardware ESC key, no thanks. Plus the new low travel keyboard is not really meant for constant typing becauel thes pain after few hours of use. :(
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Yea, I use that quite a bit. It's handy, and I'd hate to have to click on the desktop to get back to the 'Finder' context just to hit the escape key. If that's the case, I could just click to close the window (or whatever).
[doublepost=1465524372][/doublepost]I like how he snuck his iP7 concept in the images.
 
argentum47 said:
Agreed; precisely why many people consider it a gimmick.
If you usually use the laptop on a stand with an external keyboard, maybe it can be useful.
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This feature will be integrated into external Apple keyboards. Otherwise, you're right, no point.
 
rowspaxe said:
Minority report: i find the creation of a touch bar pointless.
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Agreed. At least in this concept, all the information is easily accessible via the menu bar. To me, it's simply not worth losing the physical power and esc key.

The Doctor11 said:
It seems that a lot of people in this thread really like this. But I'm struggling to realize why. I don't really see the benefit of having information displayed on the keyboard. What would really be the benefit of having information placed not the keyboard? I'm already looking at the screen so put stuff there.
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It does look cool on this concept art, which is why people are liking it in this thread. However, the more I think about this OLED touch the more I don't want it.
 
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spinedoc77 said:
Why don't they just make a touch screen? This seems very amateurish and primitive. I know I know, here come the "derp I use my laptop at arms length and don't want to outstretch my arms for a touchscreen" crowd. Yeah like stretching your hand towards this touch panel will be much different. Man, give it up Apple and just put a touchscreen on your laptops and join everyone else in 2016 (well really 2012 or so).
Click to expand...

Kaspersky said:
Terrible! Just use a ****ing touch screen, for God's sake...
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Why? What function would it add? You can do almost all of things on a touch screen using the touch pad using multi-touch gestures. A touch screen would add very little functionality other than to.... I don't even know what the point would be. That would be much more a gimmick.
 
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Back in 1998, apple got rid of the floppy drive. It worked out welll for them.

In 2008, they introduced the macbook air with only one port, and incredibly thin. That also worked out well for them.

So, like an addict who had a great time with their first few hits of heroin, they now are addicted to thinner, and less ports, thinking it will always give them the 'high' it has in the past.

Thinner, less ports. Thinner, less ports. Rinse and repeat.

We'll see. Me? I'm betting their slale notion of 'innovation' is finally catching up with them.
 
I honestly cannot see them putting the battery gauge, notification icon, date/time, and wifi status ones down there.

Volume controls? Probably, because it's something that exists in the current f-key row. I can also see that being extended to be a rev/play/pause/ffw widget too.

Maybe open it up eventually to 3rd-party widgets too, but we'll see. Spotify widget right from day one? Highly doubtful. Apple will have that bar locked down tight right out of the gate.

First gen, it will most likely just be an f-key row, with ability to toggle between that view and hardware control button view (screen brightness, volume, wifi toggle, etc.)

I also wouldn't be surprised to see Apple announce this hardware at WWDC, but not available for sale until at least next version of OS X. Reason why I think the hardware will be announced at WWDC is because there will probably be some form of software release or presentation that includes code related to it, so they may as well announce the hardware along with the software, otherwise people will be running "strings" commands all over the beta code to look for hints of new hardware models.

Also, that f-key bar is going to most likely require substantial modifications to OS X code ... Something that I doubt we will see with a 10.11.x point release. More likely that we'll see it with MacOS 10.12.
 
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x0vash0x said:
Why? What function would it add? You can do almost all of things on a touch screen using the touch pad using multi-touch gestures. A touch screen would add very little functionality other than to.... I don't even know what the point would be. That would be much more a gimmick.
Click to expand...
In this concept Apple just attached a touch screen to the keyboard... so that's no point either. It's Lenovo's x1 carbon 2nd gen all over again, just read those reviews...
 
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robeddie said:
Back in 1998, apple got rid of the floppy drive. It worked out welll for them. In 2008, they introduced the macbook air with only one port, and incredibly thin. That also worked out well for them. So, like an addict who had a great time with their first few hits of heroin, they now are addicted to thinner, and less ports, thinking it will always give them the 'high' it has in the past.
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Why wouldn't it? SaaS, Cloud Computing, Streaming. There's very little need for ports, or large storage, or anything else for that matter. Yeah, yeah 'Pros' may use Apple computers, but that's not who the majority of their customers are. Also, their revenue driver is the iPhone not Macs. Plus, their focus in on emerging markets (China, India) and what their consumers want. So, yeah... sorry to disappoint, but Apple isn't going anywhere: their focus isn't 'Pros' anymore. Apple is no longer a niche company.
 
I was skeptical of this at first, but with Haptic feedback on the Touch Bar, this could be a very effective interface. Just too bad that it requires looking at it to know what is where. I'm a huge Esc key presser to cancel things.
 
x0vash0x said:
Why wouldn't it? SaaS, Cloud Computing, Streaming. There's very little need for ports, or large storage, or anything else for that matter. Yeah, yeah 'Pros' may use Apple computers, but that's not who the majority of their customers are. Also, their revenue driver is the iPhone not Macs. Plus, their focus in on emerging markets (China, India) and what their consumers want. So, yeah... sorry to disappoint, but Apple isn't going anywhere: their focus isn't 'Pros' anymore. Apple is no longer a niche company.
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what you need to do is get an ipad an do your dinky little 'computing' on that and quit ruining the market for people like us who want a real computer with power, ports and features. You already have your stupid ipad, why do you insist on ruinig our tool as well?
 
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Kaspersky said:
In this concept Apple just attached a touch screen to the keyboard... so that's no point either. It's Lenovo's x1 carbon 2nd gen all over again, just read those reviews...
Click to expand...

Does Apple release anything that's the same as the competition? It's not like they're slapping Lenovo's touch bar on their Macs. This one will be unique and much better in one or more ways.
 
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