I like the Touch Bar

[skier8689]

I freakin love it. For people complaining about it taking longer to change brightness and volume, did you know you could simply do a quick swipe left or right on brightness / volume buttons to do quick adjustments? I would never want a "normal" keyboard again

 

[buran-energia]

Also if the touch bar is so great why didn't they install in on the iMac pro keyboard?

The keyboard is wireless. It would need to receive data wirelessly for this second display. It would require much more frequent recharges and significant redesign (unless Apple wants to go back making wired ones).

 

[macdudesir]

I absolutely hated the touch bar, it just made all the actions twice as long (like brightness/volume). Lack of physical ESC key is infuriating. Word prediction unless I am typing with one finger blindfolded is absolutely useless. Emoji swiper - I only use around 10 or so, don't need it. Running in the background 24/7 and eating up the battery life. Also more high tech components = more stuff that can break.

Also if the touch bar is so great why didn't they install in on the iMac pro keyboard? Oh wait, it's cause everybody would buy a $40 Logitech instead that is actually designed for work.

Overall, I am really hoping it's gonna go away. Remember how "A touch of genius" was all over Apple's website and all ads? Well, in this update there was not a single word about the touch bar. Probably because they realize what a disaster it is.

Really? I find it makes it significantly faster...

 

[haruhiko]

Really? I find it makes it significantly faster...

Exactly. Brightness / Volume? Just put your finger on the 'button' and immediately start sliding. One single action to allow adjustment to any level. For an Fn button? Multiple taps.

 

[BayouTiger]

I didn’t find too much use for it on my 2016, but I am seeing more apps using it now. Not necessarily with anything groundbreaking, but just making more functions quicker to access than digging through menus. I also tend to customize it a bit to put functions that I don’t use often enough to remember their keyboard equals. Especially Bluebeam, who’s developers seem to have some strange ideas on a user interface.

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

I used mine during a presentation yesterday, Keynote displays little thumbnails as a slider - and I daren't even try it during a client meeting. But I did yesterday, and it was actually super useful for swapping between slides without having to go back to the desktop. Not saying it's life changing, it's a freaken Touch Bar... But it was useful, and I still think it's useful in certain situations. Definitely more useful than fixed keys (For me), I only ever use volume/media buttons anyway, so gives it a lot more potential without sacrificing use (Arguable making things like volume easier).

 

[buran-energia]

Finally got an mbp with one. What nobody mentions is that during various dialog windows that ask for an action or confirmation (e.g. when exiting TextEdit with unsaved text), all those buttons appear on the touch bar. I find it convenient to press the button on TB instead of track pad when I'm not using a mouse.

 

[afir93]

Also if the touch bar is so great why didn't they install in on the iMac pro keyboard? Oh wait, it's cause everybody would buy a $40 Logitech instead that is actually designed for work.

The much more likely reason is that it's just more engineering effort to put it into an external keyboard. Remember, the entire 2170x60px screen needs to be refreshed at up to 60 times per second, and Apple probably doesn't want to revert to a wired-only keyboard, so they would need to find a solution to have the whole thing work via Bluetooth somehow without too huge sacrifices to the TB screen or the keyboard's battery life. On the MacBook, all of this is much easier since it's all part of a single device.

I'd say an external Magic Keyboard with Touch Bar is still coming; the desktop Mac refresh this fall or the Mac Pro release next year would be some good candidates for release dates. It's just much more technically delicate to put it into an external, even more so a most likely wireless keyboard than on a laptop.

 

[Hater]

I can kind of understand wireless mouses, but what's the issue with a wired keyboard if you're using a desktop computer? It's not like it moves place at all.

If you're using a laptop or hosting meetings, sure, but why does a TouchBar keyboard need to be wireless?

 

[afir93]

I can kind of understand wireless mouses, but what's the issue with a wired keyboard if you're using a desktop computer? It's not like it moves place at all.

If you're using a laptop or hosting meetings, sure, but why does a TouchBar keyboard need to be wireless?

For me it wouldn't need to be wireless at all, I'd be happy to see a wired-only Magic Keyboard with Touch Bar. But knowing Apple, they don't want to let something like a Touch Bar get in the way of their vision for a "truly wireless future" and everything, hence what I wrote. They already have wireless keyboards so bringing out a new keyboard that only works wired would be a step back, and Apple doesn't like to do that.

So if we do see a Magic Keyboard with Touch Bar then it will most likely be wireless (with the option to be used wired via USB-to-Lightning like with the current Magic Keyboard).

 

[Hater]

Mmm. I'm just sick of recharging batteries for every goddamn little thing. I'm actually using a wired Microsoft Basic mouse from 2001 or so because I cannot be bothered recharging the Magic Mouse.