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Love TouchBar thread discussion [merged]
- Thread starter PhilMacbook
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So I have read a lot of comments about the Touch Bar and very few seems to like it. I really like it myself as it has saved me tons of time when filling out forms. I have applied for hundreds of jobs in the last few months and having the Touch Bar has been a huge time saver for me filling in forms. This alone makes it worthwhile having but I am sure there are other things it can work well with.
My next laptop would probably be the MB for commute or trips due to weight and size. while my MBP 15 would stay at home or be used for heavier tasks. however I would definitely miss the touch bar.
What other uses have you found for the Touch Bar that really makes it worthwhile?
My next laptop would probably be the MB for commute or trips due to weight and size. while my MBP 15 would stay at home or be used for heavier tasks. however I would definitely miss the touch bar.
What other uses have you found for the Touch Bar that really makes it worthwhile?
It heavily depends on the developers of the app to make use of it. I found it has practically the same functions for me (SW developer) as the F1-F12 keys had, it's just more visually appealing and you have to get used to the lack of feedback.
I find it useful for controlling debugger or I used it quite a lot for text formatting in Pages.
I find it useful for controlling debugger or I used it quite a lot for text formatting in Pages.
the clear statement is that i use the touchbar a lot more than the old function keys
I forgot to add that when presenting it is also very useful for being able to pick individual slides in powerpoint when presenting.
I also love the Touch Bar... A lot. I cannot use Keynote without it. It has become part of my workflow and I find it a lot easier than using keyboard shortcuts and the inspector panel all the time. Also in Trello it helps you move quickly across boards much faster, which is a huge time saver. There are so many apps that I use it and love it in and think if people give it a chance, they will realise that it’s actually pretty useful and helpful. So much unnecessary hate on it by tech reviewers made it cool to dislike, but people were just angry at the price hike of the MacBook Pro that would have come with or without the Touch Bar.
I emailed Phil Schiller in the hopes that they don’t abandon it because it’s helped with my productivity a lot.
I emailed Phil Schiller in the hopes that they don’t abandon it because it’s helped with my productivity a lot.
my prediction : TB is quietly dumped in the next form factor revisions, followed by a huge thread here with people outraged by it's omission
I don't find having different functions in different apps terribly useful, and many of my most-used apps don't use it at all or make little use. Plus since none of my other computers have a TB I don't think it would be efficient of me to come to depend on it for some feature of a word processor or whatever. So instead I use BetterTouchTool to add a fixed set of options that I do use (or might: some I use rarely, but they'll be replaced when I think of something I might use more).
As I auto-hide the menu bar I quite like having a clock on the touch bar. Likewise a battery widget, and a button to lock the screen is useful. And I have a set of buttons to jump directly to different spaces (I use virtual desktops a lot, and this is quicker that scrolling one-by-one or opening Mission Control). Other things I don't use very often, but it's better aesthetically than a blank space. And of course I can change the look (currently the tiles are much darker than Apple's defaults).
So yeah, I've made it useful to me, but had to use a third party app: Apple's own customisation options are very limited.
As I auto-hide the menu bar I quite like having a clock on the touch bar. Likewise a battery widget, and a button to lock the screen is useful. And I have a set of buttons to jump directly to different spaces (I use virtual desktops a lot, and this is quicker that scrolling one-by-one or opening Mission Control). Other things I don't use very often, but it's better aesthetically than a blank space. And of course I can change the look (currently the tiles are much darker than Apple's defaults).
So yeah, I've made it useful to me, but had to use a third party app: Apple's own customisation options are very limited.
I like it in Logic Pro X.
I won't have it on mini because apple didn't put it on the external keyboard... will have to setup logic remote app.
too bad.
i think lack of support on other apple computer will kill the toucher, it was an experiment that failed.
I won't have it on mini because apple didn't put it on the external keyboard... will have to setup logic remote app.
too bad.
i think lack of support on other apple computer will kill the toucher, it was an experiment that failed.
Between the touch bar and notification center, there is all that blinking and beeping and flashing
I find it to be a use tool if you explore its features. Composing documents and emails for example, with minimal effort bold, italic, underline, colors, etc etc is much faster via the Touch Bar. Depending on the app I'm using I can get those controls off the screen too.
I think a couple more months and I would be disappointed if my next MBP didn't have TB.
I think a couple more months and I would be disappointed if my next MBP didn't have TB.
Or Apple will improve the Touch Bar further my hope
I also love the Touch Bar and don't understand all the hate. It's super useful and now I wish Apple included one in the keyboard for the iMac. I wish I could continue to use it there. It took a little while to get used to it, but once I did, I can't imagine not having it now.
I love the Touchbar too. Its real value to me is the ability to create macros that are visually accessible with a quick press (using the BetterTouchTool app). I have custom macros in virtually every app I use. Our developer team shares macros for doing coding shortcuts and shared procedures. Really useful if you take the time to set it up...
It's real simple - for some of us it's objectively in the way and a step backwards (or at least an unwanted lateral move).
I only have hate for it because they haven't made it fully optional.
I don't care a lick if they keep it around forever - if they make it optional on all the models.
I'm all for people having the option to have/not-have it as they see fit.
That's the ideal solution here.
Yeah, imagine a keyboard for $349 which also randomly crashes with its OS every other day, along with 2 days of battery - might as well be a wired keyboard at this point. Although considering people were buying a $300 book with pictures of Apple products, I don't think this scenario would be a stretch.
I don't personally have anything against people who want the touchbar, but it definitely should be optional. lIf you are willing to pay $300 extra, willing to suffer the potential Bridge OS crashes (I've had them on two machines already), and if you can blindly press an f9 or an ESC key while doing your work and telepathically know that you did it then go for it.
But for the rest of us - give us a proper PRO machine.
Totally agree. It should be optional just like different keyboard layouts, storage space, or RAM sizes.
I don't think anyone is saying no one can love it or use it. For instance, a BetterTouchTool extends the power of the touchbar. I can't speak for everyone, but my contention is they removed something that was useful, for something that was less useful for me. I won't delve into more of why, other then I think its a solution in search of a problem. For a number of people (a lot, a few? I have no idea) it is helpful and useful.
I get what you're saying but to say the MacBook Pro is not "a proper pro machine" because it uses a Touch Bar seems to be an exaggeration. I agree that Apple should have a build to order option with the standard keyboard. That would be easy to do and would keep both camps happy!
In fact, they could give you the option of full Touch Bar or standard keys plus Touch ID as seen on the new Air... I'll bet folks like you would even pay the same price for it, so it's a win-win, right?
I have set the TB to always show esc+brightness+etc. keys, which is the only thing I use it for. The loss of physical escape key has been huge inconvenience for me and make the touchbar worthless and leading to lack of productivity for me. And the TB switches off after every period of inactivity, which is distracting and again leads to loss of productivity. Its crazy that you are wasting precious battery capacity (already diminished from the 97WHr in previous models) just to keep some buttons lighted up all the time. This is a horrible design. Whoever thought up this abominable design should be ... probably some committee came up with this, thats the only explanation.
The bridge OS failures are related to the T2 chip (which is in all 2018 computer models) and not related to the touchbar.
The butterfly keyboards (2016-2018) have issues in both the touchbar and non-touchbar computers (i.e. the keyboard issues are not related to the touchbar).
I can understand some people wanting the traditional esc and function keys.
As far as cost, I think your $300 might be an exaggeration
. I think that it's more like $40 - $50 for the touchbar feature.What will you do if Apple replaces the problematic butterfly keyboard with a haptic touch screen keyboard (I think that's the way they are heading) ?