Craig Federighi Says Touch Bar on New MacBook Pro Has 'So Much Potential' For Developers

[Pruus]

What bothers me the most is that using this new machines in my environment, where i want less cables, i do need to get extra dongles for normal use: ipad, iphone, ethernet. It would be better if the iPhone7(+) where equipped with the USB-C port. But for now, i won't buy a new MBP.

 

[mrbyu]

It is. A touch sensitive screen on a laptop from the company that has said for years that laptops and touch sensitive screens don't belong together.

They did not ever really say this. Steve Jobs said, to be precise, when they introduced the "Back to the Mac" concept (bringing some of the iOS experience to the Mac):

"We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work. Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical.

It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. it doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible.

Touch surfaces want to be horizontal, hence pads."​

As a matter of fact, the Touch Bar fits precisely into this concept. I am not saying that I personally see its usefulness or that I don't even have any concerns, but one really cannot say that it is something that goes against Apple's previous philosophy.

 

[huschpuscheli]

this gimmick creates unfortunate and confusing (because inconsistent) input redundancies across onscreen controls, mouse input, mouse gestures and keyboard commands.

 

[joueboy]

Craig is going to be the next CEO, his knowledge and enthusiasm is contagious. Very exciting and has the SJ's appeal when he's on stage. Marques is just kissing a** right now he has a feeling for the future. I don't even know why he go to Apple Events anyway. Obviously to get more clicks for the money and popularity.

 

[recoil80]

If you really want the function keys, Craig showed in the first minute of his demo that you can bring them back easily and keep them there.

Sure.
But if I need to stick to those keys what's the point of having a touch bar?
That's why I said that the bar is cool, but if you really want use it you have to change the workflow. This is not necessarily bad, for some people this can be a breakthrough, for other is may not be worthwhile.
It is good move to offer a MBP without touch bar at a lower price, so if one find out it wouldn't have benefits from the bar can save a bunch of money
[doublepost=1477650519][/doublepost]

Craig is going to be the next CEO, his knowledge and enthusiasm is contagious. Very exciting and has the SJ's appeal when he's on stage.

I love Craig too, but unfortunately being great on stage is not the only requirement to become a CEO.
Of course I'd prefer Federighi over Ive and its obsession with thinness if I had to pick one of their VP.

 

[macs4nw]

Poor Craig. It feels like him and Phil are the last of the SJ bred senior execs who actually want to innovate and push the boundaries. But they're held back by Timmy's penny pinching ******** and Jony's idiotic quest for an invisibly thin Apple device.

The way Craig says in his first answer, that they've been working on this for years.. to me it sounds like "FFS, Timmy finally let us get this out."

Tim definitely seems a lot more obsessed with profits than Steve ever was. Which makes a lot of sense considering Tim lacks the vision and patents of his predecessor, and his sole job security at Apple, to put it bluntly, rests on profits generated for the shareholders.

To wit: Apple's sudden increased efforts in services, following somewhat stagnating sales in the absence of recent hardware updates, and no new product categories on the horizon for at least several years.

 

[akbarali.ch]

Well I think the Touch Bar is a fantastic addition, although I have no interest in MBPs. I just hope they release an Apple keyboard with TouchBar/TouchID integration.

Very low chances, as it would require too much battery.

 

[Arthur75]

Yes, it does both line in and line out.

Yes but digital(optical) line out , or just the "normal" cables ?

 

[Jaekae]

What bothers me the most is that using this new machines in my environment, where i want less cables, i do need to get extra dongles for normal use: ipad, iphone, ethernet. It would be better if the iPhone7(+) where equipped with the USB-C port. But for now, i won't buy a new MBP.

There already is a lightnimg to usb-c cable, soon they probably release the charger for that cable too, so ppl with the new macbooks can plug in directly

And for dongles, its possible to keep it as extension of the accesoryies cable, no need to remove it from the acessory

4 usb-c ports with thunderbolt 3 is ALOT better than the crappy old usb standard

 

[Colpeas]

Can anybody explain to me, why are these still keeping the Pro monicker? I consider myself to be a poweruser and from the "universal usability" point of view, I could hardly imagine a worse machine than new "Pros".

 

[kaminsky]

For all intents and purposes, Mac is dead. This ****** keyboard OLED screen doesn't change a thing.

Spot on. Its clear to me that Apple is only interested in iPhone/iPad and Apple services nowadays. I think they are purposely pricing themselves out of the market in order to graciously dump the entire mac range. They probably thought they needed something above a spec bump to give the appearance of innovation - and what they've come up with is the touch bar.

 

[MacBH928]

I miss Jobs, he had the genius of making things better in ways that no one ever thought of. Remember how he put out products that even non-techies can launch and start using right away? So much so their mouse had 1 button.
Those were the days.

Now we have 3 input methods, which I am not sure if it is going to be confusing or easier to use

 

[taylorpaul2]

MacBook Pro, great to see that Apple has gone back to its core products

 

[maflynn]

I can see developers leveraging it, but will it be an industry wide sort of change? Not if Apple doesn't offer keyboards for the iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro with the touch bar. Never mind the other laptops.

Do developers want to spend a lot of time and money on a feature that is found on a subset of laptops from a company that has a tiny market share?

 

[Firebrand]

I'd like to see the Knightrider red light wave on it, anyone?!!

 

[Vjosullivan]

Anytime anyone says 'I want touchscreen laptop' all I can think about is this

Bought an HP laptop with a touch screen recently. Touch screen on a laptop is excellent, just as it is on an iPad or iPhone. Finger print are no more an issue on stuff Apple doesn't make than on stuff that it does.
[doublepost=1477652113][/doublepost]"So much potential" Craig Federighi

(from the apple web site.)

 

[gopo]

""Affordability is "absolutely something we care about," Schiller says."" - he is DELUSIONAL (dictionary)

""Jony Ive for at least two years, and according to Ive, it "marks a beginning" of a "very interesting direction" for future products"" - I don't want to pay +$500 for a "beginning"...I will think to pay this amount in plus even when it gets to MATURITY.....

There is a big contradiction in what they do...manufacturing, design, marketing etc....they get rid of all the options we need in order to come up at their presentations with a new, sleeker, smaller etc etc "invisible" apple products....but then, you go home, work, public and you need lots of "intestine" dongles (look like a cancerous tumour to a beautiful body design)....people look at you and they are put off because of this monstrous apple device that has become....so, in the end by doing it, they reject potential customers....simple is good...but scary simple is suicidal...

 

[Nr123*123]

Regardless of how I feel about the new Macs, I have to say MKBHD did a great job.

That last question was very novel and separated him from a generic interview he could've done.

Also, Craig seems genuinely enthusiastic. He reminds me of old Apple.

 

[Jsameds]

Bought an HP laptop with a touch screen recently. Touch screen on a laptop is excellent, just as it is on an iPad or iPhone. Finger print are no more an issue on stuff Apple doesn't make than on stuff that it does.

That is true, but if you make something a touch screen it will be touched, therefore by default your HP Touchscreen laptop will attract more fingerprints than a MBP.

 

[Macist]

Maybe, just maybe, one day someone will invent a device where the entire screen is touch sensitive. Could you imagine the potential?

 

[Jsameds]

Apple should sack everyone on the board and hire MR readers instead. They will do a much better job at running the company. I know that because they told me it was true.

 

[dantroline]

That is true, but if you make something a touch screen it will be touched, therefore by default your HP Touchscreen laptop will attract more fingerprints than a MBP.

Yeah, but if you wipe your HP screen with a cloth or your finger it won't develop defects and ulcers like MBP screens do. It doesn't kill people to wipe surfaces occasionally - but it kills Macbooks! If you actually make a balanced comparison you will notice how the competition has moved on and proven Steve Jobs wrong on some points, as visionary as he was.

 

[trevgriff]

I was hoping I'd wake up and see that the prices of the new MBP-TouchMeElmo's were dropped to Tuesdays pricing schedule!

 

[Breaking Good]

We wouldn't be as angry if they hadn't gimped the $1,499 rMBP by using a Macbook Air class 6360U 15W CPU...
Why give us something worse for the same money after 2 years of wait?

Can you please expand on this? Are you saying that the $1,499 rMBP is using the same Intel processor as the MacBook Air? I had thought about looking at these when they go on sale at resellers in a few months. But if is using the same processor as the MBA, I'll just wait for a discount on the MBA.

My US$0.02, Apple has decided to leave the laptop/desktop market and focus on building around iOS and the iOS ecosystem.

 

[Macist]

Apple should sack everyone on the board and hire MR readers instead. They will do a much better job at running the company. I know that because they told me it was true.

I could treble Mac sales.

Scrap the Mini, make a headless iMac with easy user upgrades as a realistic price point. Reduce the iMac iineup.

Scrap the trash can. Make a normalish big Xeon tower as good as any rivals - give it a rose gold facia and an Apple logo.

Make MBPs as fat as the 2011 models but with killer battery, al the ports you need, and put the latest CPUs and Graphics in as soon as they're out - make the Apple premium over other high-end laptops only 100 bucks at most. Keep 'crazy slim' to a single 'rich consumer' model.

Why does this treble sales? Pros come back or don't leave. Fewer consumers are priced out of the Apple market. People hanging on to their ageing but upgradable machines finally upgrade.

Keep people on Mac and they'll occasionally decide they need Final Cut X or Logic, or some £3 app store utility, and keep adding money to the coffers. If they go Windows they won't.

Truth is Apple seems to want to destroy the Mac lineup until they can say, 'Hey, no one even buys mac, everyone really wants post-PC!