Doesn't change the fact that you have to look at it to use it - muscle memory is useless then.
Reprogrammable keys with icons on top would be much better and combine the best of both worlds.
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Why does everyone hate the Touch Bar?
- Thread starter Seanm87
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Reprogrammable keys with icons on top would be much better and combine the best of both worlds.
This is nonsense. What is there to learn? It‘s still less efficient than shortcuts or keys with haptic feedback.
Clearly you are not a touch typist... it's not about "lazy" or unwillingness to "learn" there's nothing to learn... you just have to locate the pseudo buttons without looking (or slow down your workflow do you can constantly look down at the row of imaginary and arbitrary buttons.
After a bit more than an year with the MBP 13" 2020, I can safely say that 95% of my usage of the touchbar is sliding my fingers over it to control brightness and volume. I'm using BTT with a profile which lets me change those values by sliding two fingers for volume, three fingers for screen brightness, and four fingers for keyboard backlight brightness. The cool thing about it (which is not native to the touchbar) is that this works when you slide ANYWHERE on the bar, and also in any app which is also supported by the BTT profile (you can force it to work anywhere if you want to).
I really like how it looks but am not entirely convinced it's worth it for just this tiny bit of functionality. The rest of the time my attention is directed towards the screen and using all those little things the bar can offer for each app is just not something I feel is intuitive to do.
The only thing I'd miss about it is those looks (the laptop stands out from anything else) and the sliding control - which admittedly feels much nicer than pressing keys.
I suppose another cool way to use it is to have a list of apps on it, which you can quickly open. I'm also sometimes using some things like starting a recording or taking a fullscreen screenshot through the bar as these things are present in my BTT profile.
Maybe Apple can figure out a way to make a touchbar which is much smaller and is only used for sound/light control. I'd really dig that but it would also be an even worse gimmick than the current touchbar.
I really like how it looks but am not entirely convinced it's worth it for just this tiny bit of functionality. The rest of the time my attention is directed towards the screen and using all those little things the bar can offer for each app is just not something I feel is intuitive to do.
The only thing I'd miss about it is those looks (the laptop stands out from anything else) and the sliding control - which admittedly feels much nicer than pressing keys.
I suppose another cool way to use it is to have a list of apps on it, which you can quickly open. I'm also sometimes using some things like starting a recording or taking a fullscreen screenshot through the bar as these things are present in my BTT profile.
Maybe Apple can figure out a way to make a touchbar which is much smaller and is only used for sound/light control. I'd really dig that but it would also be an even worse gimmick than the current touchbar.
while I dont have a hatred for the Touch Bar I do find it largely useless. 95 percent of the time the only way I use it is for brightness or volume. Even when in photos or editing I have to remind myself that there are shortcuts and features on it and even then keyboard shortcuts are faster and more efficient than touching. initially when I got my MBP in 2016 I thought that it was a little gimmicky but would eventually take off and man was I wrong. I wouldn't mind a Touch Bar on my next machine but I can just as easily go without one.
The touch bar never really interested me, which is why in 2016 I got the non-touch bar model, which I am still using as my daily driver today. I'm sure it's fine and has its use cases, but as a touch typist I just didn't want to mess with it. If the rumors are true, it looks like it might be removed in the next MBP iteration, and I personally don't think it ever took off as Apple intended.
I know that this is a while ago, but you can actually revert to that in settings and it will display the function keys if you want it to. You can also customise the function keys that you want and get rid of the ones you don't want. Unlike the majority, I actually find the touchbar quite innovative because there are more customisation and functionality to just what you are stuck with traditional function keys. I am fine with the keys too, but I don't find myself using some of the keys since they are not useful for me, and I cannot change them to something else that are useful for me, so I personally find the touchbar very useful. The only thing lacking is the haptic feedback...if that was added, it would be a perfect gimmick. I think that a lot of people hated it because they don't really go into settings much and see how to customise it to something they want. They are used to being stuck with what they've got, and not used to being given the option to choose and change. Since that is the case, Apple took this option away.
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