I also use my machine with an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, so it would also be a waste. That said, I need a new computer. As much as fragmentation is undesirable, I wish I had the choice of choosing one without a Touch Bar.
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New MacBook Pro Reviews Mixed as Touch Bar Called Everything From 'Useful' to 'Gimmick'
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I also use my machine with an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, so it would also be a waste. That said, I need a new computer. As much as fragmentation is undesirable, I wish I had the choice of choosing one without a Touch Bar.
That's because Lenovo has zero control over Windows developers and Microsoft themselves. Apple is the only company that can pull this off because they do the hardware, software and have some pretty loyal developers in tow.
I'm still using my mid-2012 MBP and, FOR ME, it's still meeting my needs. In the past year I've upgraded it to a 1TB SSD and 16 GB Ram. Since I've mostly used it through the years with an external keyboard, monitor and touchpad, it still looks brand new. It runs my apps fast — how much more than instantaneous do you really need after all? Now, I'm speaking for myself and my own needs — not anyone else. I was more than ready to buy one of the new MBPs, but wasn't all that impressed with the touchbar and definitely no fan of the $3,000+ I would have to spend to equal the size of SSD and amount of RAM I already have.
Precisely! It's clear that the Macbook Air, which used to be their hardware gateway into the ecosystem, has been supplanted by the iPhone, and the iPad to a lesser extent. It would make far more sense on a philosophical level to demote the current MacBook 'Pro' to a branding revolving around portability and recommit themselves to building pro hardware in the vein of the Razer Blade Pro, whose embarrassment of riches in the power department made me defect to Windows for my daily driver for the first time in thirteen years.
3d TOUCH lol the tb doesnt even come close.
Remember this : the new version of the macbook that will come out in tree years will have touch sensitive keyboards with taptic engines and 3d toudch !
It was a review!!! DOH!!!
Some people on these forums should really think 3x before they post something.
On topic though: Yes, I think its gimmick also. When the support arrives for the apps it will be something you 'might' occasionally use but that will probably be mainly for consumers. If you are a prosumer or higher and use a dedicated software to edit videos, music, pics etc. then most likely you either use wacom table with a pen or a mouse (or something) and you have your hand placement in ideal (and hopefully ergonomical) way and I don't think you would be willing to constantly move your hands and use a small bar above the keyboard. The usage will be very specific and very limited. It just looks more and more that Apple is moving to iToys territory each year as otherwise I don't know how to explain it. The demo at the keynote showed exactly WHY its not very practical.
Nah. it was a gimmick when other parts of the industry tried it 4 years ago too.
And those function keys aren't "little used" in whole host of professional environments (just like ethernet is "little used" at home, used *a lot* in offices).
As far as this laptop- I'm getting a 13 touchbar model for several reasons 1)Inevitable good resale value 2) Small size 3)It has to be better than my Macbook 12''
Of all the great things about my Macbook - it's small size and the whole thing looks amazing, it's a very limiting machine. The screen size is small, but fine for most things. The processor though is horrible.
Now I'd probably say 99.9% of what people need to do could be done on the $1499 version w/o touch bar but where's the fun in that! The fingerprint ID is the biggest sell up in my opinion. Not worth $300 but if your like me, you'll get much of that back if you trade it in.
Of all the great things about my Macbook - it's small size and the whole thing looks amazing, it's a very limiting machine. The screen size is small, but fine for most things. The processor though is horrible.
Now I'd probably say 99.9% of what people need to do could be done on the $1499 version w/o touch bar but where's the fun in that! The fingerprint ID is the biggest sell up in my opinion. Not worth $300 but if your like me, you'll get much of that back if you trade it in.
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Kept the ports or at least some of them, offered a few different colors, made 512 and 16 base models and dropped the price by $200. Offer upgrades of 32 RAM for $200 and and 1TB for $200. Start it like this... 15 inch 2.7GHZ 512 GB 16 RAM with legacy ports $2,200. Make a matte black one only available in the more expensive model. People that buy based on color can't really complain. People looking to save money can buy the other color.
Make the shiny new black one the one with no ports and charge a premium. Try to deliver it on time. That way the pros get what they want and the people looking for cutting edge and fashion statements can pay the stupid tax for the rest of us.
Same specs on a 13" $1,800. 14 hours battery life etc....
They didn't need to do anything special and in fact they haven't. I could be wrong of course and have no idea what Apple needs to do to pay their Irish tax bill but I think the specs I gave seem somewhat reasonable. They would have probably been met with people saying they aren't great but people would be able to justify buying one.
Incremental updates are fine, but it would be nice if they were more frequent
I my experience, touch is useful only occasionally on a touchscreen laptop in laptop mode... probably about as much as this bar will be.
What really shines though is that most touch laptops these days have tent modes (superb for presentation) and tablet modes (removes an entire additional gadget). The best ones also have graphics tablet modes, when you can replace a $1400 Cintiq.
Yeah, I laughed when they asked who even uses terminal emulation software anymore? Well... We do. We just upgraded our old Unix terminal to a Linux terminal.
It may not be what I have chosen, but it's rock solid, has zero issues and the employees that use it know how it works. As far as tracking inventory, it does a good job.
...We also still use our fax machine. Some of our clients in foreign countries require it.
the problem is that there is little to none you can do to revolutionize it without breaking a great laptop format that has been established through the years.
I've been waiting a long time for an update. But the entry-level non-TouchBar model is barely a better performer than the 13" rMBP that's still for sale. And configured nearly identically, they're barely over $100 apart price-wise. Even the MacBook, with 8MB of RAM and 512GB SSD is only $200 less.
This is a terrible time to be a Mac laptop user, because the long-awaited updates really aren't cutting it. I may wait a little longer to see how soon the Kaby Lake speed-bumped machines come out. Part of me is even considering switching to a premium Windows 10 laptop.
This is a terrible time to be a Mac laptop user, because the long-awaited updates really aren't cutting it. I may wait a little longer to see how soon the Kaby Lake speed-bumped machines come out. Part of me is even considering switching to a premium Windows 10 laptop.
No, they hated it because its a solution looking for a problem and by solving it created new problems that didn't exist before.
The function keys may be little used by yourself, but I use them all the time to change screen brightness and volume; having to dig for these basic features would be very annoying to me.
Would it have caused too much clutter to have simply put the touch bar above the function keys? Perhaps...
"However, she noted common system controls such as volume and brightness are now buried within menus, a change that is "less efficient" than dedicated function keys on older MacBook Pro models."
Sorry lady but you are lying ..you can press and hold the volume button and you adjust the volume from there. So are buttons that you can press and hold
Sorry lady but you are lying ..you can press and hold the volume button and you adjust the volume from there. So are buttons that you can press and hold
I've never been in an office of a major corporation that didn't use a fax machine. It's still the standard for signed invoices across the Western world.
Interesting. Sadly, regardless of the net customer satisfaction with TouchPad there is little precedent to suggest that Apple would ever "go back" of anything. We're stuck with it... like it or not.
Or, perhaps, a full touchscreen keyboard that can be mapped to anything we want. Every app could have custom keys.
It's tempting now, it's going to be overwhelming Christmas 2017.
With the reviews of the budget Pascal 1050s coming out, it's pretty clear that you'll be able to get a $800 Windows machine this time next year that has more real world grunt than Apple's $3500 "professional" option. Which is insane.
You'll be able to get a "premium" option for twice that... and still be half of Apple's equivalent.
