Lots of hate for the touchbar.. is it justified?

[grmlin]

I'm absolutely with you there. I love the buttons in my car. Why would anyone redesign a volume knob with a laggy slider thing on a touchscreen. Or what's the point of having to deal with menus in the infotainment to change the temperature of my ac. Screw that, we have perfect solutions for these problems, I hate some parts of modern cars for that reason.

 

[x-evil-x]

I'm absolutely with you there. I love the buttons in my car. Why would anyone redesign a volume knob with a laggy slider thing on a touchscreen. Or what's the point of having to deal with menus in the infotainment to change the temperature of my ac. Screw that, we have perfect solutions for these problems, I hate some parts of modern cars for that reason.

Japanese doesn't go that way my Toyota I had for 18 years was a tank. Parks rarely broke and easy found. German cars try to reinvent the wheel at terms of reliability for maybe a small added luxury feel to it.
I personally like the Touch Bar. You can add haptic feedback with the app better touch tools. I also use two finger and 3 finger gestures for brightness and volume and don't have to look where im touching. I never used the function bar row much better and its always been a remember of what they do with what kind of thing with me. So anything more is better to me. Ive never had an issue with it freezing or not working. Also, can skip through ALL youtube commercials is nice

 

[ScreenSavers]

I really like it. I find myself using it whenever a notification window comes up, as well as for typing. It’s excellent in FCPX.

 

[Donnation]

Can someone please explain to me the escape key gripe? You can literally map the touchbar to have the escape key there whenever you want it.

 

[ScreenSavers]

Can someone please explain to me the escape key gripe? You can literally map the touchbar to have the escape key there whenever you want it.

The escape key is always there and very easy to hit. Never had any issues with it. I installed haptic Touch Bar and it feels exactly like an old escape key.

 

[Nugget]

Can someone please explain to me the escape key gripe? You can literally map the touchbar to have the escape key there whenever you want it.

For those of us who use the escape key thousands of times a day, losing the physical button with its tactile feedback and actual motion is crippling. Imagine if apple replaced just the enter key on your keyboard with a Touch Bar. You’d hate it, just as we hate the loss of the actual Esc key.

Surely this is not difficult to understand.

 

[poorcody]

For the missing ESCape key, can you just remap the tilde key?

Rumors are the new 16" MBP will add back an ESCape key (implying it will keep the Touchbar otherwise).

 

[MrGunnyPT]

For those of us who use the escape key thousands of times a day, losing the physical button with its tactile feedback and actual motion is crippling. Imagine if apple replaced just the enter key on your keyboard with a Touch Bar. You’d hate it, just as we hate the loss of the actual Esc key.

Surely this is not difficult to understand.

I love the Touch Bar but would love the esc key to be physical... However.. since I changed the keyboard 2 times already... I'm not so sure...

 

[ScreenSavers]

Escape key: always there

 

[pallymore]

For the missing ESCape key, can you just remap the tilde key?

Rumors are the new 16" MBP will add back an ESCape key (implying it will keep the Touchbar otherwise).

As a heavy VIM user the absence of the physical ESC key REALLY slows me down when I have to use the built-in keyboard.

the tilde key is used a lot in many programming languages.

Many people map ESC key to CAPS but personally I don't consider this as a "solution".
Imagine Apple removed the physical Enter/Shift key and just ask you to map it elsewhere.

I can see why many people may like the touchbar but it's not for me. Having to look down on your keyboard when you want to do something is not great / productive comparing to using shortcuts / combo keys. And the touchbar buttons change based on context - sounds great on paper but when you are constantly switching between 5 different apps plus VMs it's not an ideal tool for a pro.

 

[poorcody]

As a heavy VIM user the absence of the physical ESC key REALLY slows me down when I have to use the built-in keyboard.

the tilde key is used a lot in many programming languages.

Many people map ESC key to CAPS but personally I don't consider this as a "solution".
Imagine Apple removed the physical Enter/Shift key and just ask you to map it elsewhere.

One of our developer's still likes VIM -- he mapped the tilde to the ESCape, and Fn-` to produce a tilde. Not a big deal.

I can see why many people may like the touchbar but it's not for me. Having to look down on your keyboard when you want to do something is not great / productive comparing to using shortcuts / combo keys. And the touchbar buttons change based on context - sounds great on paper but when you are constantly switching between 5 different apps plus VMs it's not an ideal tool for a pro.

We are software development shop, and we make extensive use of Touchbar macros to manage our workflow. The fact you can switch between environments and share macros is very productive: e.g. we use code-documentation macros under Visual Studio Code and XCode that activate the same way despite some being Swift and some JavaScript. Same thing with Macros under VMs. I think for "a pro" the Touchbar is even more useful.

I think one should think beyond the Touchbar just replacing simple keyboard shortcuts... it can do a heck of a lot more than replace Command-B for bold. It provides a visual macro spot that is quicker than using a mouse, and much easier than trying to map and memorize hidden shortcuts across multiple apps.

 

[Nugget]

he mapped the tilde to the ESCape, and Fn-` to produce a tilde. Not a big deal.

Sounds like a big deal to me. That's an affordance I'm not willing to make. I'll just buy a laptop with a complete keyboard and not jump through all sorts of ridiculous hoops and re-learning just to stroke Apple's ego.

Either Apple come to their senses on the touch bar or they've lost me as a laptop customer.

I think one should think beyond the Touchbar just replacing simple keyboard shortcuts... it can do a heck of a lot more than replace Command-B for bold. It provides a visual macro spot that is quicker than using a mouse, and much easier than trying to map and memorize hidden shortcuts across multiple apps.

My eyes spend 0% of the time looking at my hands when I am typing and working on the computer. Touch Bar is effectively invisible to me.
[doublepost=1563807962][/doublepost]

Escape key: always there

Escape key: not a key.

 

[pshufd]

I think it's a gimmick useful for some people, and annoying for others. All Apple should do is adding an option to buy one without it. That's all. It's possible as we can see in the Air.
I don't look at my keyboard and keys, I need haptic feedback using my keyboard. And on top of that I use my MBP at work with external trackpad/keyboard most of the time, so it's just a waste of money and something that can break.

Best solution - add it on top of the old function bar.

 

[grmlin]

Best solution - add it on top of the old function bar.

this would also reduce the size of the enormous trackpad lol, win win

 

[ScreenSavers]

this would also reduce the size of the enormous trackpad lol, win win

Trackpad is the best part!

 

[jerryk]

Can someone please explain to me the escape key gripe? You can literally map the touchbar to have the escape key there whenever you want it.

If you use an editor that terminates every command with ESC, (vi, vim, etc.) than it is a pain. Just imagine if they replaced the physical RETURN key with a virtual key.

 

[Suture]

I'm still getting used to mine. I've only had my current MBP for a few months. I forget to look and see what it can do when I'm in an app.

 

[Jar Jar Abrams]

Not at all, the touchbar and the new keyboards are excellent and there’s only 27 youtubers or one YouTuber that disliked the others remade his unboxing video in their way (his way) like they all do and between them they have a few million subscribers (unbox watchers) they are decided upon never owning a MacBook with a touch bar and having never used one for any length of time that they sucked, this will be a massive factor in why Jony Ive has jumped ship from Apple, because he can no longer steer the industry into an awesome original future under Cook who just wants to appease everyone, watch the next MacBook Pro refresh in 2020 - gone will be the touchbar and back will be USBA ports and that old clunky POS keyboard, the one with all the travel that makes your fingers tired, Apple cant lead the industry anymore because a bunch of dildos that unbox videos for a living have decided to influence a bored bunch of YouTube sheep that the touchbar blows and the that the Fantastic butterfly keyboards (167 faults reported since 2016 btw from 4.7 million units sold) are no good, what a joke man!
I liked Cook in the beginning now he has an ego and is loving hanging with celebs and enjoying his rock star status something Steve Vegan Jobs would never have given a damn about, hey maybe Cook will sign off on putting the optical drive back in the MacBook Pro and maybe another non pro SD Card reader one that works with consumer cameras but not pro cameras (CFAST/Compact Flash).

Because of these influences we’ve lost Jony Ive because he knew going forward under Cook he cant design the way he wants to anymore..... the 2019 last refresh of the MacBook Pro with Touchbar will be the last forward thinking laptop Apple makes until they move people pleaser Tim Cook on. So buy one, anyone who hates the touchbar NEVER owned one!!!! Fact.

 

[intelligence]

Apple cant lead the industry anymore because a bunch of dildos that unbox videos for a living have decided to influence a bored bunch of YouTube sheep that the touchbar blows and the that the Fantastic butterfly keyboards (167 faults reported since 2016 btw from 4.7 million units sold) are no good, what a joke man!

You think they issue a 4 year keyboard replacement warranty for 167 faulty keyboards? Guess those people that have had multiple keyboard failures on their machines should go out and buy lottery tickets.

 

[pshufd]

If you use an editor that terminates every command with ESC, (vi, vim, etc.) than it is a pain. Just imagine if they replaced the physical RETURN key with a virtual key.

emacs uses escape as the meta key - but it is something that I use a lot.

The bigger issue, though, is that many of us go back and forth between an external keyboard and the MacBook Pro keyboard and would like the same layout, touch and feel. Basically a common UI. Does Apple make an external keyboard with the TouchBar? Why not? Would anyone buy it?

 

[petvas]

Actually I would love to have a Touch Bar keyboard for my iMac. Having the Touch Bar doesn't necessarily mean to lose the physical Esc key. It is just this version that has a virtual Esc button. I don't really mind it, but I understand the people who hate it. Maybe the next version of TouchBar will also feature a hardware Esc key.
Another benefit of having a Touch Bar based external keyboard is that iMacs would also get TouchID and that would be great.

 

[pcd213]

After enabling the "Expanded Control Strip" setting, and using the Haptic Touch Bar app to add haptics when pressed, I don't hate the touch bar as much as before. Still, if given the choice between physical and digital buttons, I would choose physical in a heartbeat.

 

[ScreenSavers]

emacs uses escape as the meta key - but it is something that I use a lot.

The bigger issue, though, is that many of us go back and forth between an external keyboard and the MacBook Pro keyboard and would like the same layout, touch and feel. Basically a common UI. Does Apple make an external keyboard with the TouchBar? Why not? Would anyone buy it?

Yes. I’d buy one in an instant!

 

[pcd213]

After enabling the "Expanded Control Strip" setting, and using the Haptic Touch Bar app to add haptics when pressed, I don't hate the touch bar as much as before. Still, if given the choice between physical and digital buttons, I would choose physical in a heartbeat.

I was way too nice in this post. I really hate the thing. If I didn't need more power, the MBA would be what I'd go for, but I already sold that in the need for more power.

 

[Nugget]

I was way too nice in this post. I really hate the thing. If I didn't need more power, the MBA would be what I'd go for, but I already sold that in the need for more power.

But that’s not possible! I was told that anyone who hates the touchbar has never owned one. It’s a fact, or something.