Apple macbook pro 2018 no touchbar mac#

When Apple debuted the Touch Bar on its new MacBook Pro laptopsВ five years ago, I was willing to give the technology giant the benefit of the doubt. What do you say? As ever, please take our poll and share your thoughts in the comments.The MacBook Pro's Touch Bar, introduced in 2016. So is the Touch Bar a gimmick? I say yes.

Which is the very definition of a gimmick: something which is technologically impressive but actually adds zero value. So, would I pay a single penny extra for a MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar versus the exact same machine with physical function keys? Honestly, no. Besides, Apple will replace that with Face ID in the next major upgrade.

Apple macbook pro 2018 no touchbar mac#

And, speaking personally, Touch ID on a Mac is largely irrelevant to me as I use my Apple Watch to unlock it automatically. Touch ID is nice, but thatвЂ™s a separate button, so you could have that without the Touch Bar. If I counted all of the false Siris and back buttons, IвЂ™ve probably lost a day of my life. Site owner Seth Weintraub thinks that, for him, itвЂ™s worse than that.

If I balance out the times when it has been of some tiny benefit вЂ“ like the slider controls for volume and brightness, which I prefer вЂ“ to the times when it has slowed me down in some way, IвЂ™d actually guess that itвЂ™s probably a wash. I then have to touch it again to close the window. I canвЂ™t count the number of times IвЂ™ve reached for the backspace key and either hit the Siri button instead, or caught it with the edge of my finger so I get both the backspace and Siri popping up. Or if the bar is expanded and I instead want to mute the machine, itвЂ™s again two touches in two places. For example, if I want to use the music controls, and the Touch Bar isnвЂ™t expanded, itвЂ™s two touches in two places rather than one keypress. There are a number of ways it can slow me down. That brings me to the second thing: there are times when it the Touch Bar is actively counterproductive. IвЂ™m never going to reach awkwardly across my desk to use the Touch Bar, so the tech is entirely wasted for the majority of the time.Д«ut what about the times when IвЂ™m using the built-in keyboard? ThatвЂ™s still 10-20% of the time вЂ“ in other rooms in the apartment, when working away from home, and when travelling. So the built-in keyboard with its fancy tech is over there to my left. Number one, some 80-90% of my usage of the machine is sat at my desk, using a separate monitor, trackpad and вЂ¦ keyboard. In fairness, all of the minor benefits I described are still valid today.В But after using the machine on a daily basis for 22 months, two things strike me. In fact, individually, they are all really trivial, but they do add up to a feature which is beginning to make sense to me.

And there are a few things I like about it. However, glitches aside, I havenвЂ™t yet found any downside. That impression wasnвЂ™t helped byВ me consideringВ that many of its uses wereВ either gimmicks вЂ“ like auto-correct (pointless as youвЂ™re looking at the screen, not the keyboard, while typing) вЂ“ or downright silly, like microscopic Safari or photo thumbnails. I did initially wonder whether Apple hadВ done the same thing with the Touch Bar : invented a cool piece of tech and then tried to figure out what itвЂ™s for. Perhaps, like the Apple Watch, it will demonstrate its value when IВ actually use it.ДЄ week in, I wasnвЂ™t exactly sold, but I could at least see some small benefits вЂ“ and I could get the thinking behind it. Again, the screen and trackpad seem a more natural way to do things than to be moving myВ hand back-and-forth between two different touch surfaces and myВ eyes up-and-down between the Touch Bar and the screen.Д«utВ IвЂ™ve been wrong before, and IвЂ™m quite prepared to be proven wrong again. IвЂ™m also not terribly convincedВ about the idea of using them for toolbars. Why on earth would I want to swipe through microscopic photo thumbnails on a tiny strip that IвЂ™m covering with my fingers when I could be doing the same thing in a decent size on that lovely display without obscuring anything? The video timeline example struck me as even more ridiculous. However, some of the demos Apple gave seemed to be rather silly. I tried to keep an open mind when I first saw it.ДЇrom a gadget perspective, itвЂ™s impressive. But today I go further and wonder whether it adds any value at all вЂ¦ ? Last time I discussed this, I concluded it wasnвЂ™t worth the premium it likely adds to the price of the machine вЂ“ and the majority of you agreed with me. One of the questions a lot of people had when Apple first announced the current incarnation of the MacBook Pro design was: is the Touch Bar a gimmick?