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A complete ban is ridiculous, they don't know what they're talking about if they think it's a real threat.

Having said that, Apple seemed to have stopped considering students in their notebook design in many aspects. But this was not on my list and shouldn't be a problem.
 
Just updated the post with more info. MacBook Pro w/ Touch Bar is entirely banned for the 2017 Bar Exam in California. Can't even use it after disabling the app-specific stuff.
 
Why wouldn't you want to use a real typing laptop instead for such an important exam like this...like a lenovo thinkpad

the macbook looks great but for real work typing, nothing beats the thinkpad's keyboard.
 
Update 2: terrible pun discovered in title of article. Article completely removed out of shame.
 
This was my experience as well. I think the software was called "Examsoft," it was terrible, but was essentially a basic OS/app combo that provided only enough functionality to permit typing an answer and uploading it to their server. It sure as hell didn't have drivers for Touch Bar, lol.

Yep, I also used ExamSoft in both MA and NH. My understanding is they are one of three or so vendors, and some other states use one of the other vendors.
 
Why wouldn't you want to use a real typing laptop instead for such an important exam like this...like a lenovo thinkpad

the macbook looks great but for real work typing, nothing beats the thinkpad's keyboard.
Most people don't buy a laptop based solely on keyboard... Besides, I doubt this exam has that much writing; it's not like English or History or something.

Also, the 2nd generation butterfly keyboard on the new MacBook Pros is really nice; I actually prefer it to the older chiclet-style keyboard.
 
I'm surprised they don't just use the honor system for these law students.

Well in California the Bar is exceptionally challenging for first time graduates taking the exam. They simply want to ensure a level playing field. But seriously this MacBook Pro has an embarrassingly mismatched feature set. I seriously doubt that Steve Jobs would be impressed with the public response to this product. And I'd anticipate someone getting fired for it's poor performance on launch.

We will unfortunately never truly know what he would have done. (Sad days ahead.)
 
Remember when the MacBook Air initially came out; people were stopped at airport security because TSA didn't believe it was a functioning laptop saince there was no harddrive in it...
 
It's interesting because right now to many people who don't have it at least, it doesn't seem like the Touch Bar can really do something that would be that useful for the bar exam.

Or maybe they think it's more useful than most MacRumors readers! ;)

Hmm, do you mean:

1) Maybe they think the Touch Bar is more useful than most MacRumors readers think it is

2) Maybe they think the Touch Bar is more useful than most MacRumors readers are

3) A little of both

:D
 
A complete ban is ridiculous, they don't know what they're talking about if they think it's a real threat.

Having said that, Apple seemed to have stopped considering students in their notebook design in many aspects. But this was not on my list and shouldn't be a problem.

It's the bar exam. The bar examiners don't play and I'm honestly more surprised that some states are allowing it at all.

When I took it you couldn't even use a wireless keyboard or mouse so I used a full wired USB keyboard and mouse to take the exam.
 
Once again, showing that lawyers are completely out of touch with the technology. If someone wanted to cheat, and figured out a way to use the touchbar to do it, they could also do it without the touchbar. They have a whole computer to work with. The touchbar is probably the least of their concerns.
 
I'm not really sure how it can be used for cheating, but then I don't really know what the exam procedure is in the first place.
 
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