Agree. My Mid 2014 runs just fine without it. Waiting for the next gen MBP w/out a touchbar.
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Former Apple Employee Thinks Touch Bar Shouldn't Be Forced on Users Who Want Highest-End MacBook Pro
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If they went all the way and laid essentially an iPad down as a conditional touch keyboard and configurable control surface in place of the mechanical typewriter, then there'd be a good case to take your eyes off the display. Hell, throw in a low-power ARM chipset to power that half, and integrate iOS with additional functionality as an overlay for OS X and fully make use of the best of both worlds. But this one skinny strip, past the keyboard, facing the sky, doens't do anything to justify its cost in both $ and allocation of that $ away from more powerful hardware. It's a half-measure.
I remember in 2011 I paid $3300 for a new MacBook Pro. Fast forward to 2017 with all the improvements, I paid $3688. Not that bad. Did I pay 400 dollars for a touch bar? Or inflation, and all the things like faster throughput, better resolution displays and output, and improved internals? It's not that much of a markup if your willing to wait for a deal.
Not haters. People are just calling out an ill-thought out addition which is really of limited use to anybody. Sure, some will say they can't imagine life without it but some people also like Android phones.
How do even know it was a spike? They stop manufacturing those models, they stop having refurbs!
To someone who spends a huge amount of time in Vim, this is an enormous downside. If they had a physical Escape key at one end, Touch ID at the other, and the Touch Bar in between, I'd be all for that. But they won't do that because it isn't as pretty. Which is disheartening. I need to be able to easily hit the Escape key with 100% reliability, without looking, and it's a huge plus if you can rest your finger on it without pressing it. None of those hold true for the virtual Escape key. Sigh. Apple makes the best Unix laptops, but they're trying hard not to.
This is Apple's real crime here in that the non-TB "Pro" machines are pieces of junk. You get crappy USB-C ports which are useless for anything without a dongle. To add insult to the price, there are only 2 of them. Who in their right mind would call a neutered machine with only 2 ports, of which one is for power, a Pro machine. Apple truly is making fools of us all when they went this route. The bottom line for the MBP now is that the non-TB is a joke of a machine and the TB version introduces a higher price point to fatten up the profit margin. Apple's marketing segmentation is an utter disgrace and Tim Cook should be ashamed of himself for allowing this to pass.
This sentence makes no logical sense - you're claiming that people for whom a new feature has an actual negative effect on their use case, are irrational "haters". That sure is an easy way to dismiss people who have legitimate complaints. Is your argument really that people should have the attitude of, "well, this is horrible for my uses, but it's popular with others, so hooray Apple"?
Have you watched the 2015 in the refurb store? They're like gold dust and are sold out almost immediately. The refurb store is awash with discarded 2016 models as the smart Apple buyers know the 2015 model is the benchmark by which the later models fail miserably against.
Yep, the touchbar is big bummer for Vim users. Though, I have read that some Vim users re-mapping the escape key to the `~ key, which is hardly ever used for anything else, and it working for them just fine.
I'm old or older (60s) and like the TB and my number item on the wish list is s touch screen.
For you really old guys let's go back to command line computing and drop these GUI interfaces entirely.
No, on second thought that's a bad idea.
~ is used to change the case of the char under the cursor in vim. I use it more than escape!
I'd be for it if it was the full keyboard with an LCARS style interface. Which could be customized by the user and for programs.
As it stands now. It should be an option. Perhaps make the Touchbar model standard and offer a BTO regular keyboard option for $200 less
As it stands now. It should be an option. Perhaps make the Touchbar model standard and offer a BTO regular keyboard option for $200 less
Couldn't agree more. Make the touchbar an option for people who want it. But if I want a non touchbar MBP, I should have to sacrifice chip speed and number of ports etc.
Touch bar is a downgrade. I remember when they made crappy membrane keyboards on early computers because mechanical keyboards were more expensive.
Agreed 100%. Apple should stop beating around the bush and finally introduce the Mac to that cutting edge technology called touchscreen. So much for not being afraid of cannibalization.
You're incorrect. Since the new lineup has been announced they have had the basic 13" model (with the new design) but with physical function keys. That's always been available. That's what everyone is talking about.
Does the line come in any other colors but red?
I don't like red, reminds me of college.
It really isn't, because turn signals didn't replace something else (that was useful). A better analogy would be something that actually happened to me recently: Honda replacing the rotary volume dial with a touch-screen slider in the new Civics. Theoretically they can say it's a win because they've eliminated a moving part, perhaps the readout of the volume can be more accurate since it's a numeric value, and maybe it saves a little space. But usability-wise, it's a disaster and is actually dangerous because it's not easy to use without looking at the screen. I want my rotary volume dial back.
Keep thinking people like it. 2015 pro keyboard is much better. USB-C has not been adopted enough to get rid of normal USB ports. Shove a gimmick down people's throats and ask for extra $$. Top notch. The general public led to the outcry. Apple executives had to speak out. When was the last time that happened?