Love TouchBar thread discussion [merged]

[Hadron]

Hopefully we will see some game changing functionality to the touch bar in 2019 when iOS touch based apps merge with macOS.

Most Macbook Pro users I know do not use iPhones, so for them it is unlikely to be a game changer. And since there's nothing analogous on an iPhone or iPad it's going to take thought, effort and imagination to integrate it well with most apps - meaning we are likely to see a few developers do it well and many not do anything.

Yup and Touch ID is less useful than unlock via open with my watch.

And very few MBP owners I can think of own an Apple Watch. So though that's useful to you, overall I'd say that Touch ID is more useful to more people.

 

[afir93]

By the way, the app Pixelmator Pro has a pretty amazing Touch Bar implementation and is a strong positive-example for how the Touch Bar can cleverly assist you in your workflows if the implementation is done right. The Pixelmator team has a good overview on their website over what one can do in the app with the Touch Bar – in essence, it allows you to select and quickly switch between all the editing modes, quickly adjust the settings for the current tool or for a selected object, gives you precise controls for straightening objects and much more.

Now all of this is of course possible without the Touch Bar aswell, but I've been impressed by how well it's implemented. For example, on a non-TB device, if I want to draw something in an image I have to select the right pencil, width, color, transparency and so on from the side bar, then draw something (with the mouse/trackpad) to see if it looks as desired, then move the mouse back to readjust the finicky menus, move it back to where I want to draw something, and so on. This can sometimes go on for one or two dozen times and it means a lot of unnecessary mouse movement across the screen back and forth for some very basic things, which is not just tiring in the fingers but can waste quite a lot of time if you sum it up.

With my new Touch Bar MBP, I can just leave the mouse cursor at the precise point in my picture where I want to draw, and use the Touch Bar to make all the adjustments. I can essentially have one finger on the trackpad and another one on the Touch Bar during this which means a lot less finger and cursor movement. It also means that the adjustments I make immediately become visible on the mouse cursor since it's hovering over the picture all the time. This new method doesn't just make editing/drawing in Pixelmator much less tiring on the fingers but can actually save time. Much less time wasted through Fitt's law by moving the cursor back and forth in-between adjustments.

There are also some applications in Pixelmator that just feel better with the Touch Bar than with hacking on the keyboard or moving the cursor; for example, straightening an image by moving around a precise Touch Bar scrubber just feels more natural than dragging around an on-screen slider with your mouse. But these things are of course personal taste. I also really dig the (system-wide) color selection tool for the Touch Bar that Pixelmator Pro (among many other apps like Pages) uses.

Full disclosure: I am by no means a professional artist or photographer, I'm just a student who regularly needs to make sketches, outlines, drawings and so on for his lectures and scripts.

 

[MrGunnyPT]

Touch Bar is useful depending on your workflow.

For me is great for when I'm using Notes (edit them quickly with the touch bar) or for when I'm using a VMWare Fusiona and wanna do quick toggles on it.

If Apps lack the native support you can always end up using Better Touch Tool like I do, I have a bar just for when I work with the SAP Client so I can quickly work thorough shortcuts.

I also have a VPN Bar made with Better Touch Tool so I can swap out VPNs really quickly.

 

[NBAasDOGG]

Touch Bar is useful when you’re using Safari at Starbucks!

Shortcuts are much faster than the Touch Bar and you don’t have to take your eye off the screen.

 

[afir93]

Touch Bar is useful when you’re using Safari at Starbucks!

Shortcuts are much faster than the Touch Bar and you don’t have to take your eye off the screen.

If that's always the case, maybe take a look at the Touch Bar application in Pixelmator Pro I described two posts above and tell me how constantly moving the mouse from one end of the screen to another to change the color, depth, width etc. of a brush to the precise value you like is faster than not having to move the cursor at all and just having one finger on the Touch Bar, the other one on the trackpad to continue drawing with the new brush right away? I'd be happy to hear how you manage to circumvent Fitt's Law.

Not every Touch Bar application has an equivalent keyboard shortcut. Or what exactly is the keyboard shortcut to select the color rgb(161, 244, 66) in the color picker? Or to rotate an image by exactly +42.1°?

 

[travod]

In anticipation of my new MacBook...

I know on BTT you create your own images for the buttons, so is there a way to use the ones that Apple generates in Safari? Those shortcuts are clean and pretty. I don't want to be cropping my own favicons.

 

[afir93]

In anticipation of my new MacBook...

I know on BTT you create your own images for the buttons, so is there a way to use the ones that Apple generates in Safari? Those shortcuts are clean and pretty. I don't want to be cropping my own favicons.

I suppose you can make a screenshot of the Touch Bar when it currently shows the icons you want to use (Command + Shift + 6) and then use Preview or another image editing software to crop the screenshot to the respective buttons. Maybe not the most elegant solution but it should work.

The icons themselves can probably also be found somewhere in the system files of macOS, so if you're feeling adventurous you could also look for them there (or see if you can get their location via Google). But if that doesn't work, the screenshot method should.

 

[poorcody]

I know on BTT you create your own images for the buttons, so is there a way to use the ones that Apple generates in Safari? Those shortcuts are clean and pretty. I don't want to be cropping my own favicons.

You can get the favicon from any website by adding /favicon.ico to the root address, e.g.:

https://www.macrumors.com/favicon.ico

Or you can use this site to download it:
http://www.getfavicon.org

 

[afir93]

You can get the favicon from any website by adding /favicon.ico to the root address, e.g.:

https://www.macrumors.com/favicon.ico

Or you can use this site to download it:
http://www.getfavicon.org

I believe they didn't mean the favicons from websites, but the buttons and icons from Safari itself that Safari display on the Touch Bar (i.e. forward/backward, new tab, formatting options and so on...)? Since the favicons themselves nowhere on the Touch Bar in Safari. But not 100% sure. In any case, good to know that this is possible!

 

[poorcody]

I believe they didn't mean the favicons from websites, but the buttons and icons from Safari itself that Safari display on the Touch Bar (i.e. forward/backward, new tab, formatting options and so on...)? Since the favicons themselves nowhere on the Touch Bar in Safari. But not 100% sure. In any case, good to know that this is possible!

Ah, maybe you're right... thanks.

If that is the case, this might be helpful:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41110454/macos-sierra-touch-bar-icons-location

 

[travod]

Yeah for example I was testing adding websites to favorites in the store and when I added Twitch it made a nice button that was entirely purple with the logo.

 

[travod]

Downloaded the trial and have been adding buttons but I have to say this app is not easy to use. To finally figure out how to get buttons with proper spacing took me a solid four hours.

https://imgur.com/FsFB5pO

 

[afir93]

By the way, does anybody know if there's a way to turn off the auto-dimming of the Touch Bar? The Touch Bar will always dim 50% after 60 seconds without user-input, and will fully turn off after another 15 seconds until the user makes any input again. Personally I find that too short and would much rather have it dim after 3-5 minutes instead of one as it leads to situations where I have to press the TB twice for simple things such as brightness or volume controls (once to wake it up, a second time to actually use these controls).

Does anyone know a workaround or solution to this?

 

[BacToMac]

Most Macbook Pro users I know do not use iPhones, so for them it is unlikely to be a game changer. And since there's nothing analogous on an iPhone or iPad it's going to take thought, effort and imagination to integrate it well with most apps - meaning we are likely to see a few developers do it well and many not do anything.


And very few MBP owners I can think of own an Apple Watch. So though that's useful to you, overall I'd say that Touch ID is more useful to more people.

Really? I have a hard time believing this, but it is entirely possible that I'm just not "pro" enough to know better. Seems kind of a waste to build an elaborate ecosystem if the flagship computer doesn't encourage purchase of the flagship phone or watch and vice versa. I use continuity features all of the time. Maybe we need a poll...

 

[afir93]

Really? I have a hard time believing this, but it is entirely possible that I'm just not "pro" enough to know better. Seems kind of a waste to build an elaborate ecosystem if the flagship computer doesn't encourage purchase of the flagship phone or watch and vice versa. I use continuity features all of the time. Maybe we need a poll...

You have a hard time believing that Touch ID is more useful to the average user than the unlock-via-Apple-Watch feature? I mean, even if we ignore the fact that many MBP users don't have an Apple Watch (yes, I definitely agree with Hadron's assessment in this regard, at university I see plenty of people with MacBooks but barely anyone with an Apple Watch), even then you have to admit that Touch ID on the Mac can do a lot more than the Apple Watch unlock feature.

Not only can it unlock your Mac safely, but it can be used to authorize purchases in the Mac App Store or iTunes Store, it can authorize actions that require admin privileges (like installing/removing certain apps), it can be used for Apple Pay online and (my favorite) it can be used to unlock password managers like 1Password. That's a ton of password-typing that Touch ID relieves you off. The unlock-via-Apple-Watch feature can do none of that.

 

[BacToMac]

You have a hard time believing that Touch ID is more useful to the average user than the unlock-via-Apple-Watch feature? I mean, even if we ignore the fact that many MBP users don't have an Apple Watch (yes, I definitely agree with Hadron's assessment in this regard, at university I see plenty of people with MacBooks but barely anyone with an Apple Watch), even then you have to admit that Touch ID on the Mac can do a lot more than the Apple Watch unlock feature.

No, I have a hard time believing that a great deal of MBP users don't have an iPhone. But I guess that depends on your environment, and Hadron's personal experience is different than my own. I've only had my new MBP since Thursday, but I have already made several customizations to the TouchBar using BTT. I like it far more than I was expecting to based on feedback here. I was expecting to hate it. I also don't hate the keyboard, although my accuracy so far sucks. I hope that improves over time.

Thanks so much for the info on Pixelmator's integration with the Touch Bar. Because my late 2008 had become a bit of a dog, I wasn't really able to use it and I have turned to Affinity Photo on my iPad. I'll give Pixelmator another go before buying Affinity for the Mac.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

If that's always the case, maybe take a look at the Touch Bar application in Pixelmator Pro I described two posts above and tell me how constantly moving the mouse from one end of the screen to another to change the color, depth, width etc. of a brush to the precise value you like is faster than not having to move the cursor at all and just having one finger on the Touch Bar, the other one on the trackpad to continue drawing with the new brush right away? I'd be happy to hear how you manage to circumvent Fitt's Law.

Not every Touch Bar application has an equivalent keyboard shortcut. Or what exactly is the keyboard shortcut to select the color rgb(161, 244, 66) in the color picker? Or to rotate an image by exactly +42.1°?

This is actually a very good usage scenario which I had never thought about.

Still doesn’t justify it being mandatory though

 

[cman-uk]

By the way, does anybody know if there's a way to turn off the auto-dimming of the Touch Bar? The Touch Bar will always dim 50% after 60 seconds without user-input, and will fully turn off after another 15 seconds until the user makes any input again. Personally I find that too short and would much rather have it dim after 3-5 minutes instead of one as it leads to situations where I have to press the TB twice for simple things such as brightness or volume controls (once to wake it up, a second time to actually use these controls).

Does anyone know a workaround or solution to this?

On a similar topic, is there a way to dim it completely? Or at least control its brightness?

 

[cfdlab]

By the way, does anybody know if there's a way to turn off the auto-dimming of the Touch Bar? The Touch Bar will always dim 50% after 60 seconds without user-input, and will fully turn off after another 15 seconds until the user makes any input again. Personally I find that too short and would much rather have it dim after 3-5 minutes instead of one as it leads to situations where I have to press the TB twice for simple things such as brightness or volume controls (once to wake it up, a second time to actually use these controls).

Does anyone know a workaround or solution to this?

Wow didnt know this since I am yet to get my new mbp. This needs more steps to do basic things like change spaces, adjust brightness/volume, etc., which are tasks I do frequently, which were previously available with a simple and immediate button press. Of course they cannot not dim them since it would consume battery. When battery sizes are shrinking (relative to 2015 models) and cpus are consuming more power, it is stupid idea to put basic control buttons in the touchbar which needs power to work.

 

[fooyork]

The thing I love about the Touch Bar the most (and I actually really like it in general) is the fact you can scrub straight through YouTube adverts, even if they would usually be ones you HAVE to watch before getting to the actual video...

But that's probably a bug, not a feature!

However, I do appreciate the Touch Bar more generally. Autocomplete with options is good when it comes to webforms when you have more than one email address/phone number etc, media scrubbing/control is very good, I like the tabbed window interface, it can be customised with third party apps... and let's not forget TouchID.

 

[afir93]

Wow didnt know this since I am yet to get my new mbp. This needs more steps to do basic things like change spaces, adjust brightness/volume, etc., which are tasks I do frequently, which were previously available with a simple and immediate button press. Of course they cannot not dim them since it would consume battery. When battery sizes are shrinking (relative to 2015 models) and cpus are consuming more power, it is stupid idea to put basic control buttons in the touchbar which needs power to work.

The thing is, the dimming after 60 and 75 seconds of no input happens even if the MBP is charging, in which case battery consumption isn't an issue at all. Which only reinforces the point that there should be some manual user-control over whether or not and after which time the dimming happens.

If it would only happen when you're on battery then I would agree that Apple does this for battery life reasons, but the fact that it happens even when charging makes me think if the main reason for this aggressive dimming behavior is as a precautionary measure against OLED burn-in. Then again, the first MBPs with TB shipped almost two years ago and OLED burn-in doesn't seem to be an issue for anyone, and if you're continuously typing or doing stuff on your MBP for 12 hours straight then the TB also doesn't have a chance to dim for 12 hours, so burn-in doesn't really seem to be a problem. If this was Apple's original reason for including that dimming then they should really add a simple toggle or slider in the system preferences to give users the ability to adjust that; the convenience of not having to tap the TB twice for things that are usually one tap should really outweigh the minuscule burn-in risk that you lose that way.

 

[Hadron]

I've only had my new MBP since Thursday, but I have already made several customizations to the TouchBar using BTT. I like it far more than I was expecting to based on feedback here.

I haven't even received my TB MBP yet (it takes time to work through my employer's procurement system), but I've already upgraded BTT in anticipation of it

 

[iEMH]

I am curious of the ratio of satisfaction with the MBP ‘s touchbar.
I still cannot convince myself to buy a MBP with it, but I will require an upgrade soon to a 15”, and there is no other option.
I have seen several reasons why is nice and why is not, but I’d like to see the ratio of satisfaction.
Thanks for voting, and please only vote if you have used it.

 

[Ploki]

I like it so much I hate the fact that I'm going to lose it on the Mac Mini.

 

[mrex]

(cannot vote, because it doesnt work in tapatalk app)

i like it alot. Installing BetterTouchTool software lets you customized the touch bar alot more rather than just using it with basic default buttons...