MacBook Pro Touch Bar's T1 Chip Runs 'Variant' of watchOS, Also Secures Touch ID and FaceTime Camera [Updated]

[recoil80]

Interesting. So this is how Apple will use its ARM prowess to improve Macs in the future. Maybe we'll see the MacBook Pros start offloading basic functions to ARM chips in a future model, freeing up the Intel chip for applications.

iPhone 7 has a quad core architecture, two very powerful cores and two running at low energy, but they're all ARM.
I don't think they'll realise something similar with two Intel cores and two ARM for the Mac, looks like a ton of work and macOS should run on both architectures at the same time.
The touch bar is managed as it was an external device, so T1 can be used. Maybe in the future they'll add functionalities and managed them in the same way, allowing the T1 or other SoC to do all the work instead of the main CPU

 

[BootsWalking]

At first I thought the Touch Bar was a bit gimmicky, but after some thought, its pretty genius. Its a great solution to touch screen on a computer. Touch screens suck, most people forget they have them, you get fingerprints all over your screen, and the screen shakes and bounces with each tap.

The Touch Bar can put everything that you might need to tap on screen directly in front of you without even having to move your hands from the keyboard.

But you have to look down at the touchbar to interact with it, sometimes for extended periods of time depending on the complexity of the functionality you're using for the app. I don't see how this is a productivity advantage vs keeping the eyes fixed on the screen and doing everything there.

 

[definitive]

But does it secure the mic?

 

[nazaar]

Sorry... But the new Microsoft Surface Studio made me drool more. I think I may have been converted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzMLA8YIgG0

#sorrynotsorry

 

[lincolntran]

You can now feel colors??
[doublepost=1477670019][/doublepost]
You mean new features such as

• No SD Card Slot
• No USB-A ports
• No MagSafe
• Increased Price Points
  
• EmojiBar
• Anorexia Obsessed Jony Ive

I'd honestly like to hear what you think what are the new features that are worth talking about with this release.

Copied from a few posts above and added some more:

1) Much better speakers (trust me, you'd appreciate it if you've ever experienced the iPad Pro 12.9's speakers)
2) Much thinner / lighter (it does matter on a big device like a laptop)
3) Better build (all metal exterior)
4) Much better display
5) Better fans
6) USB C ports (multipurpose port is the future, not the past)
7) super fast log and user switching in through Touch ID.
8) Emojis bar (and much more)
9) Charge on any port and both sides
10) 1 single cable for both monitor and charging at the same time

Etc.

Were you asleep during the keynote or did you watch it at all?

 

[ChrisCW11]

I think the T1, aside from all of Apple's marketing rhetoric, was just there to support TouchID because it would be too difficult to secure the Mac against the normal Intel chipset and platform. I don't think its there for innovative "future" features. Some might argue that having the touch bar work on its own independent CPU alleviates the overhead of the main system having to support it, but I think that is a little overstating its purpose as the T1 was the quickest and easiest way to add TouchID support to the Mac.

 

[KPOM]

iPhone 7 has a quad core architecture, two very powerful cores and two running at low energy, but they're all ARM.
I don't think they'll realise something similar with two Intel cores and two ARM for the Mac, looks like a ton of work and macOS should run on both architectures at the same time.
The touch bar is managed as it was an external device, so T1 can be used. Maybe in the future they'll add functionalities and managed them in the same way, allowing the T1 or other SoC to do all the work instead of the main CPU

I'm not expecting a hybrid x86/ARM chip (though we might get an Apple-designed GPU at some point, perhaps jointly developed with AMD). But yes, as an "external device" it can power not only the Touch Bar and camera, but possibly also other inputs, such as the Apple Pencil (I'm sure Apple is paying attention to the Surface Studio).

 

[dumastudetto]

Unfortunately for us, trolls increase the activity on forums, and thus the advertising revenues.

When AppleInsider decided to get more strict and got rid of some notorious trolls (one or more of them ended up trolling here instead), the number of comments on articles decreased drastically.

AI is certainly not what I'd like to see MR become. I personally enjoy being able to debate with people who don't necessarily agree with my views on things. I don't want to be in a community where Apple fans just pat each other on the backs each time they say something nice about Apple, and then hound out anyone who dares post anything mildly critical (as happens on AI as you kind of alluded too). I think it's a big reason why MR is such a massively bigger and better site.
[doublepost=1477672048][/doublepost]

But you have to look down at the touchbar to interact with it, sometimes for extended periods of time depending on the complexity of the functionality you're using for the app. I don't see how this is a productivity advantage vs keeping the eyes fixed on the screen and doing everything there.

I feel the same way. I almost never look down at my keyboard. Whenever I do have to look down, and it's very rare, it slows me down in whatever I am trying to do. I'm sure some people will find uses for Touch Bar, but I truly don't see it working for me. I'll still probably end up buying one of the new MacBook Pros with the technology though, because I need the other specs.

 

[blackcrayon]

First Mac with an integrated ARM CPU

The Surface Studio is also $3000 with last gen nvidia GPU.

And lacks USB C / Thunderbolt 3. A computer that expensive without "PCI slot ports"? Apple would be skewered for that.

 

[godkiller]

Copied from a few posts above and added some more:

1) Much better speakers (trust me, you'd appreciate it if you've ever experienced the iPad Pro 12.9's speakers)
2) Much thinner / lighter (it does matter on a big device like a laptop)
3) Better build (all metal exterior)
4) Much better display
5) Better fans
6) USB C ports (multipurpose port is the future, not the past)
7) super fast log and user switching in through Touch ID.
8) Emojis bar (and much more)
9) Charge on any port and both sides
10) 1 single cable for both monitor and charging at the same time

Etc.

Were you asleep during the keynote or did you watch it at all?

LOL that is a list of very "innovative" features that justifies their new price points

 

[imola.zhp]

I guess I will have to reserve final judgment for after I try it out at an Apple Store but I am just not sure I fully understand how this is such a breakthrough. The design of the machine itself is an amazing breakthrough, but I am not sold on the touchbar. It seems like a lot of the shortcuts they showed would typically be selected by pointer click on the touchpad, in other words, duplicated, I am not sure if duplication means better, sometimes it just means more complicated.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Why isn't the FaceTime camera 1080p? Apple solved those issues with the iPad and iPhone.

 

[avanpelt]

It seems like a lot of the shortcuts they showed would typically be selected by pointer click on the touchpad, in other words, duplicated, I am not sure if duplication means better, sometimes it just means more complicated.

You're exactly right. In Apple's own spec for the Touch Bar, it says that developers can't put any special functionality on the Touch Bar that is not also accessible some other way so that Macs without Touch Bars still have full functionality. The Touch Bar is really nothing more than a "shortcut bar" that can change functionality based on what the user is currently doing.

 

[blackcrayon]

I'm a professional full time filmmaker and currently edit just fine using my trackpad. The Touch Bar seems like an incredible enhancement to me.

People are also ignoring the ability to hold a touch bar slider with one hand while manipulating or changing options, etc with the other on the trackpad. Could be interesting.

 

[ChrisCW11]

Then the touch bar would have no purpose if it's on the display. Why do we have to raise our hand/arm to reach for those commands. That's uncomfortable.

Lol and yet that is the ONLY way Apple expects so called professionals to use the iPad "Pro" in its docked desktop state. I have to raise my arm to interact with the iPad Pro to do anything if it's in its docked keyboard mode. Why is this the only way to interact for one platform and yet completely dismissed by another?

 

[Tubamajuba]

It seems like Mac Rumors has been infested with trolls who only cry on and on about every little detail that they think sucks. I can't even read through here anymore to find any interesting posts talking about new features. If you don't like what Apple is doing then goodbye, go get a "faster better equipped", cheaper windows computer and enjoy that experience. It's really got to be mostly trolls, forums are horrible now.

Maybe we need to do some work for them and find some good MS/Windows forums for these people to migrate to, since they seem unable or unwilling to do so themselves.

I say this as someone who now prefers Windows over Mac- if all you're going to do is complain about Apple and exalt Microsoft, you have no reason to be here instead of a Windows forum.

 

[Shanley]

But you have to look down at the touchbar to interact with it, sometimes for extended periods of time depending on the complexity of the functionality you're using for the app. I don't see how this is a productivity advantage vs keeping the eyes fixed on the screen and doing everything there.

I think the benefit is that added real estate that it could provide on the screen. Things like the menu bar, ribbon, tabs, take up real estate on the screen. If those move off of the screen and onto the keyboard it leaves more real estate on the screen to display what is being worked on instead of displaying the functions required to work on it. It should also cut down on the use of the mouse or trackpad. I like it. Can't wait for it to become available on the wireless keyboards so that when the laptop is docked I can use the wireless keyboard with the touch bar.

 

[Kaibelf]

You can now feel colors??
[doublepost=1477670019][/doublepost]
You mean new features such as

• No SD Card Slot
• No USB-A ports
• No MagSafe
• Increased Price Points
  
• EmojiBar
• Anorexia Obsessed Jony Ive

I'd honestly like to hear what you think what are the new features that are worth talking about with this release.

• No SD Card Slot - most people don't use it. Spare us the faux outrage of amateur photographers and self-anointed "pros."
• No USB-A ports - it has to happen sometime, and it might as well be now. This will help push out USB-A and get us to a unified port instead of the nonsense with people who have HDMI in one laptop, MDP in another, and DP in a third.
• No MagSafe - yeah instead you can charge from any port and via external devices instead of pretending like you are constantly tripping over a power cord, even though only a minuscule percentage of PC users seem to have that problem with spacial coordination.
• Increased Price Points - new technology and a strong dollar result in this. No one owes you cheap things
  
• EmojiBar - it's a contextual bar. What do you want it to show when they are demonstrating it with Messages? This comment was, with all due respect, silly.
• Anorexia Obsessed Jony Ive - the market likes notebooks from Apple to be portable. If you don't like it, buy an old Z-book.

 

[NT1440]

Is it just me, or is the Touch ID not a huge selling point on this new MBP? Other Macs get Apple Pay without this feature by using an iPhone, which most mac users will have - so what is the big deal here?

Other than user switching, I guess.

Instant login, for those that don't have a watch to unlock.

 

[kazmac]

It seems like Mac Rumors has been infested with trolls who only cry on and on about every little detail that they think sucks. I can't even read through here anymore to find any interesting posts talking about new features. If you don't like what Apple is doing then goodbye, go get a "faster better equipped", cheaper windows computer and enjoy that experience. It's really got to be mostly trolls, forums are horrible now.

While I see this to a point, I think many folks disappointment and anger is justified. I cannot and will not speak for anyone else. As a 20 year Apple user who has had almost constant problems the last 3 years with Apple tech, yesterday's event was pretty much the last straw.

While there are some trolls there are also folks who have patiently waited, saved up for and hoped for a machine that was right for them. In their case, Apple did not deliver and instead flouted arrogance masquerading as "experience" as the reason for the outrageous price hikes amongst other things. Old tech got a price increase too - F U very much. To compound this is what is noted in this article, if the tech in the toolbar goes awry, you have to get that replaced. Something else to push you toward repair or buying a new machine which is exactly what Apple wants now.

If my anger and disappointment in what Apple has become has labelled me a troll, so be it.

If you enjoy this new Apple and the way overpriced new MBP, great. Perspectives and that.

 

[goobot]

You're exactly right. In Apple's own spec for the Touch Bar, it says that developers can't put any special functionality on the Touch Bar that is not also accessible some other way so that Macs without Touch Bars still have full functionality. The Touch Bar is really nothing more than a "shortcut bar" that can change functionality based on what the user is currently doing.

How would Apple enforce this since no one actually uses the Mac App Store?

 

[ENduro]

This makes me think that an external touch bar is coming to iMac, Mac Mini, and Mac Pro. A touch bar with its own chip authenticating the touch ID could be a step in the peripheral territory. I could also see touch bar placed on the 'chin' of the iMac and Cinema Displays.

I would pay $200-300 for a more robust touch bar enabled Apple keyboard for my iMac 5k to use with Logic Pro as a controller. In combination with an iPad running Logic Remote, this could be pretty awesome for Pro Apps.

Why not just let the iPad or iPhone sync with your mac and do this instead of another 200-300 dolla... oh. Right. This is Tim's Apple.

 

[thewebb]

None of us have used Touch Bar, and at first I didn't think it'd be useful, but now that I've had a chance to digest it, I think it's an excellent idea with essentially no cons.

Basically, the Touch Bar is superior to a full touch screen because it allows for a contextual menu to show up depending on where your cursor is or what window / tab you're in. For example, I'm typing this message, and yes, if I had a touch screen, I could reach up, but with the Touch Bar, I could see a wider contextual menu that is much more accessible for my hands, which are already on the keyboard.

People are complaining that they'd need to look down at the Touch Bar, but over a short time, you'd get used to the Touch Bar options on your commonly used apps, and since the Touch Bar is color coordinated, you can easily tap it without looking.

But... But... complain complain complain!!!

 

[citysnaps]

It seems like Mac Rumors has been infested with trolls who only cry on and on about every little detail that they think sucks. I can't even read through here anymore to find any interesting posts talking about new features. If you don't like what Apple is doing then goodbye, go get a "faster better equipped", cheaper windows computer and enjoy that experience. It's really got to be mostly trolls, forums are horrible now.

So many sad and weak people here who are angry. No doubt because they don't have much going on in their lives, and whining at a company creates an internal rush and artificial sense of power.

What's really sad, though, is that a company or a CEO has so much power over their lives, causing that anger and feeling of helplessness. Day in and day out. Not a healthy situation.

 

[imola.zhp]

People are also ignoring the ability to hold a touch bar slider with one hand while manipulating or changing options, etc with the other on the trackpad. Could be interesting.

How exactly would this be helpful? Maybe I am just not understanding. Then again, I use my MBP for basic computing, so perhaps my needs are to basic in nature to warrant such need(s).