'TouchSwitcher' and 'Rocket' Apps Let You Switch and Launch Apps From the Touch Bar

[Ma2k5]

The touch bar would have been more useful if it had like the dock there instead of it being on screen? Or things that don't have keyboard shortcuts and require one to select using the trackpad.

if you think about it, actions which you need to move the cursor somewhere and click, are performance hindrances, so anything to get around that is good.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Just because some of you find the touch bar pointless, that doesn't mean that others don't find it useful.

News Flash: Apple does not build computers to cater to certain individuals expectations. If you don't like the touch bar feature, don't buy the touch bar Mac. Real simple.

We now return you to the "Cave Man Grunts At New Apple Products He wouldn't Use Anyway" show already in progress.

 

[dilbert99]

What a waste of space this touch bar is, it's solving a problem that doesn't exist while reducing the functionality of the actual Mac!

As much as I hate Apple at the moment (you can check my posts )
I can see a few issues with the touch bar:

• It takes away my physical function keys (Wouldn't be Apple without taking something away)
• Not every Mac has it.
• Apple charges a premium for it on an already overpriced lovely piece of external work (excluding keyboard) but junk internal design compromises.
• Repair costs at a Apple suck.
• There is limited space on it. What icons will a developer show.

But I spent some time in the shop playing with it and have to admit I would like one of those on my new dell that I bought last week to replace my dead 2012 rMBP. I can see a lot of utility out of it.

 

[xorjo]

Again: you seem to be looking at the wrong app.

Look at Rocket: http://julianthayn.com/rocket

It fits _10_ apps and is "invoked using a keyboard shortcut"

No, I have the app so I know what I'm talking about. You have to click on the menu bar to enable it.

In order to activate the app, I need to move the cursor to the menu bar and then click on the rocket and then apps appear on my touch bar. That's a hassle. It would be cool if I could have the rocket in my touch bar at all times say in lieu of the silly Siri icon. And touch that rocket to show the app I want to launch. In other words, a sock I have access to regardless of the app being open or not without having to go the menu bar. That would be neat but of course Apple closed that portion of the touch bar to media controls, Siri, Mute, etc.

 

[dilbert99]

The vast majority of computer users are regular people who don't even know what a Function Key is, so a Touch Bar would appeal more to them. The only bad news is that it took a "pro" computer to introduce the Touch Bar in the first place, but I thought you could just enable virtual function keys anyways.

Touch typists want physical keys (I can touch type a little but only letters)

 

[Pakaku]

Touch typists want physical keys (I can touch type a little but only letters)

Most touch-typing doesn't involve the function key row, unless I've just been doing it wrong this whole time.

 

[dilbert99]

Most touch-typing doesn't involve the function key row, unless I've just been doing it wrong this whole time.

Just because you don't use function keys doesn't mean that others don't.
I use them all the time but have to look down to use them.
I try to use the keyboard only as much as possible to speed up my work and thus try not to use the mouse or trackpad but it's hard when apply forces you to use the mouse sometimes, e.g in dialog windows.

 

[Pakaku]

Just because you don't use function keys doesn't mean that others don't.
I use them all the time but have to look down to use them.
I try to use the keyboard only as much as possible to speed up my work and thus try not to use the mouse or trackpad but it's hard when apply forces you to use the mouse sometimes, e.g in dialog windows.

Can't you just tab through dialog windows? Or maybe not anymore. I remember trying out 10.11 and getting annoyed that I couldn't tab through everything like I could on 10.8, and not being able to find any options to re-enable that. So that was enough to make me roll back to my older OS.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Disagree, the touch bar isn't that far from the screen. And the slider functionality works just fine without looking at it once you have your finger down. I'm a fast typist that doesn't have to look at the keys to type, but I still have to look at the function row for any of those keys anyway (I can't blindly hit F6 or something every time I want it). I don't see a difference there with the Touch Bar (except now I get a context sensitive hint at what the F key actually does in the app).

I never used function keys to begin with accept to manage the volume or display brightness. The touchbar in Safari is amazing. The touchbar even works with this MacRumors input box.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

…and the TouchSwitcher app must be restarted to make it re-appear in the control strip. To manually regain access to the default media control button, users can long press on the TouchSwitcher app icon to quit it.

Rather than live in the system control strip on the right though, Rocket is a standalone app that can be invoked using a keyboard shortcut, whereupon it displays a list of app icons along the left side of the Touch Bar.

Article Link: 'TouchSwitcher' and 'Rocket' Apps Let You Switch and Launch Apps From the Touch Bar

While I seem to be one of the few who actually think the Touch Bar is a good thing, these two seem completely pointless. Both have massive downsides. Rocket seems pointless, since you have to trigger it with a keyboard shortcut first - why not just use Spotlight to launch apps at that point?

And having to re-launch Touch Switcher regularly because other apps overwrite it? Dumb.

I'm sure both are limited by what Apple allows developers to do with the Touch Bar, though. If they could each take a "System Control Strip" place officially, they would probably both be decent.

 

[__dontpanic__]

News Flash: Apple does not build computers to cater to certain individuals expectations. If you don't like the touch bar feature, don't buy the touch bar Mac. Real simple.

It's actually pretty far from simple. Most of the people complaining here are those that use the MacBook Pro for professional use. They are the type of users that rely on the function keys on a regular basis (for instance Adobe After Effects). Those users simply cannot downgrade to the non touch bar version. The MBPs are underspecced as it is and the non touch bar versions simply won't cut it.

These are also users who have invested a lot of time and money in the Apple ecosystem (software, plugins, workflows, hardware) so switching to Windows or Linux isn't simple either.

The problem not the touch bar per se, it's that they've sacrificed the Fn keys to add it. The touch bar is a solution to a problem no one really had. It would be a great addition, sure, but not at the expense of existing functionality. I had a play around with one recently and just couldn't see how it would speed up my workflow. It always seemed to require extra key presses to achieve the same tasks that could be achieved via the keyboard. As far as I could tell, it was mostly eye candy.

 

[i.mac]

Again, they're trying to solve a problem that isn't there.

Like when apple reinvented the mobile phone and created the iPad... absolutely pointless.

 

[Mike Oxard]

I actually found the touch bar very useful and practical. Again, something you don't think is useful but when you try it you can never go back (What Apple is really good at)!

Yep, I found the same with force touch on the iphone.
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But it does add a challenge to "usability" in terms of eyes-free keyboard usage. Now, eyes are required for the most part, at least for initial finger placement.

The number of kids and young adults that can touch type on a featureless iPhone keyboard is getting greater all the time. I think in a few years this won't be an issue.

 

[dilbert99]

Can't you just tab through dialog windows? Or maybe not anymore. I remember trying out 10.11 and getting annoyed that I couldn't tab through everything like I could on 10.8, and not being able to find any options to re-enable that. So that was enough to make me roll back to my older OS.

Not sure (don't think so), I have lived with some features of OSX for over 10 years and when I had a grump on here, someone pointed out I could partially configure the thing I was grumping about.

 

[djcerla]

Macrumors Luddites Brigade in full swing today.

 

[i'mnewhere]

I like it. I don't love it but it's an improvement over what it replaced

Do you 2-3 hours worth of battery life like it?

Granted theres other factors (smaller battery, extra fan etc) but at the end of the day thats what your losing in the 13in TB.

I'm not mad at you early adapters, but so far its not an improvement for basic stuff that I use. eg - i just know that "volume up" is the second key from the right without looking.

That said, I *think* I could map the volume keys to Command + - , and i'll be happy to see an improved touchbar in a laptop with 12+ hours battery, but at this stage its mostly drawbacks (for me).

 

[BulkSlash]

I had a go on a new MacBook with the TouchBar for the first time today. From what I could try I thought it was pretty good, although I do wish Apple would install Xcode in-store with some example projects to see a) how the latest model performs and b) what custom buttons Xcode has on the TouchBar to make coding more productive.

 

[0098386]

I just realised what this reminded me of. In the 2000's a dev suite I used replaced numbered groups (of objects) with named groups. And each group now had a little icon beside the name. I guess it was intended to make this feature easier to use for newcomers but for all us already using the suite we had to spent extra time trying translating this as we coded. Soon after they added the option to toggle between the two. Hurray! Apple could learn something here.

I don't have a problem with offering users alternative ways of achieving the same thing. Apple has always done this. Complainers just don't like that other people prefer other ways of doing stuff.

Yes this is a very Facebook-Motivational-Meme quality post, but as someone else pointed out - this was introduced in the Pro line of hardware built for professionals who rely on function keys.

I don't have a touchbar MBP and I really don't want one for other non-touchbar reasons, but can you change the touchbar to just display function keys as they had before?

I hope they keep the touchbar but just reintroduce the F keys. The removal of ESC for example! Are there no programmers at Apple?
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I'm not mad at you early adapters, but so far its not an improvement for basic stuff that I use. eg - i just know that "volume up" is the second key from the right without looking.

That's exactly it. Part of what makes touchtyping works is knowing the boundaries of keys and the mini-strokes across the keyboard that help confirm where you are. Eject, for example, I know is to the left of the first big gap and the volume keys are next to that.

(The lovely thing is if this becomes Apple standard then I'll be okay because I just use pro apps available on Mac and PC now. And each mistake they make pushes me more towards dropping them entirely from my studio)

 

[SSandy]

Great, now I installed this stupid thing and can't remove the blank spot after I uninstalled.

You're being humorous, correct? That blank is the fingerprint and on/off for the MBP.

 

[AppleNewton]

Allows the dock to reside primarily on the touch bar would be great to have a better full screen experience that and menu items can adjust per app as well.

Dock or launch pad would suffice and think would make it a tad more functional. There is definitely room for innovation and improvement just needs to be implemented right.

 

[kildraik]

I think it's a great idea, especially since I don't like the dock to be displayed on-screen.

 

[colorfuel]

Like when apple reinvented the mobile phone and created the iPad... absolutely pointless.

Except that after their presentation everyone wanted those things...

 

[Mike Oxard]

Except that after their presentation everyone wanted those things...

Not the iPad, everyone said it was just a big iPod touch and couldn't see the point.

 

[magicschoolbus]

The touch bar is so exciting

 

[Borin]

I hope they keep the touchbar but just reintroduce the F keys. The removal of ESC for example! Are there no programmers at Apple?

Programmers still use the ESC key in the function row?