Contrary to the HN demography, most people are not touch-typists, and most don't use keyboard shortcuts. Having an interactive, contextual bar of action buttons makes actions that normally require several clicks more discoverable to them.
On top of all this, the keyboard will feel more fragile and have more complexity. I prefer reliability over unnecessary complication.
That's probably true, but isn't its success in part driven by the deluge of Linux/Unix users who were thrilled to finally have a Unix based machine with a beautiful UI that ran on Intel CPUs? Also increased sales from word of mouth by those same ex Linux users telling their Windows using friends to switch?
I happened to use LC III Macs and was a developer back then.
A few years ago I did some work related to acquiring new customers, which required creating an iOS application.
None of those experiences had anything to do with UNIX, yet I am a developer.
Personally, the only reason I am not found of the new Macbook Pro is the price, as I rather have something like the W510's successor.
Objective-C frameworks for user space and drivers, use of distributed objects, designing GUI applications via Interface Builder, productivity applications like Lotus Improv and Virtuoso, the way applications were packaged didn't had much to do with UNIX culture as such.
And in fact AFAIK the standard developer machine at Apple is an iMac (which has an escape key on its standard keyboard).
A) Has been served by Apple in the past B) Provides value to Apple in the form of developing all kinds of software solutions that it's other users directly benefit from
As a developer, i'm extremely jealous. I've actually made something somewhat similar[0] with a physical keyboard because the idea of a set of keys that I can have do useful stuff is such a nice idea.
I would love it if not only was that set of buttons on my laptop, but that it was programmable and customizable per application (half of the keys on that keyboard only work in my IDE)
It might not be for you, but it's not useless.
[0]http://i.imgur.com/jQ72mEA.jpg Cut me some slack on the button functions themselves, I actually don't use a lot of them and want to re-do the layout for a while to get rid of them, but just haven't gotten around to doing it.
I would have been much more impressed with better basic specs, and maybe a new separate keyboard with touchbar/trackpad features.
A keyboard with OLED keycaps would be awesome for creative applications and for developers, because you could see a full set of functions at the same time, and you could set them up to switch automatically as you switched applications.
Also, do people really use the regular function keys in anger ? In my java IDE the only more or less common shortcuts on the function keys are the debugger run and step over/through. Those are used in "read mode" rather than "type mode" and I would think that a proper row of debug related custom button on the keyboard would rather be an improvement compared to remembering which of F7 or F8 step into the next line. And that's it, I don't use them at all in any other application, especially not in the terminal, text editor, browser, mail applications, ...
Is the HN demographic really that much more sophisticated than me, or is it simply overblowing the issue in a similar fashion that allegedly no "real power user" would get over the loss of Blackberry physical buttons.
Ironically, a few years back, as a proper power user touch typing function keys on a mechanical keyboard (windows use and abuse function keys for about everything), my choice of mechanical keyboard included those function keys and that was seen as a weakness by the "real pro user" of the time that never left the home row and were very proud showing off their happy hacking keyboard professional.
edit: Just to avoid confusion, I touch type. Just not the function keys.
Is this still really true? I thought that touch-typing is pretty much a mandatory educational requirement in large parts of the developed world, including the United States.
I was forced to learn to touch-type properly by an older sibling when I was about 8; a quarter of a century or so later, I never look at the keyboard and can do ~120wpm if I put my mind to it (some keyboards are better than others, admittedly), though I feel like my accuracy isn't perhaps what it once was (maybe due to less practice? I spend more time talking to clients and less time typing these days...). Get 'em while they're young, I say.
Not to mention, touch typing has been taught in schools for years. I took a class in it and I am in my late 30's. My niece has taken such a class and is still a freshman in High School.
Because if we were really pandering to this wide audience then we'd be enabling touch. 2-year old children can navigate touch-native interfaces (so long as there are no context switches), but a secondary input method is beyond them.
And having become accustomed to having touch everywhere, I cannot count the times I find it more expedient to point or draw on the screen (even from home row type position to a laptop) rather than switch to the touchpad.
Kids these days are use to the whole idea of multitouch. See how many 15-16 year olds going into college know what a SD card or a USB drive is. Kids in high school are provided with chromebooks. They don't even know what .doc extension types are. It's a different time and they are targeting those kids.
Are you guessing that they won't? Phones and game systems still use SD cards and usb drives. Any kid that has a 3DS or a Wii U probably knows what an SD card is, or at the very least has seen one and knows how to use it. Flash drives are still commonly used (not sure what makes you think they aren't, have you tried to share a 5gb+ file with someone who is right beside you?)
You're being pretty unfair to those 15-16 year olds you're talking about. They're not stupid.
To put it in perspective the first iPhone came out in 2007. A 15 year old now was 6 at that time; that's first grade. iPads came out in 2010. They were 9, fourth grade.
And you're seriously misjudging how often a teenager needs to share a 5gb+ file... basically never. The days of pirating, ripping CDs, ripping DVDs and sharing them are basically over. If it's not on Netflix or Amazon, it's not worth sharing. And in the rare case, Dropbox does the trick.
Sure most teenagers are aware of flash drives and SD cards, in the same way teenagers 10 years ago were aware of floppy disks. They used them when school required them to, and haven't seen one since.
Better go buy an apple mouse, a Thunder capable monitor, and a new wifi enabled printer.
All of them, they are on sale on most electronic stores and big supermarkets in Germany.
> Kids in high school are provided with chromebooks.
Here zero of them know what that is.
Yeah and they also sell cassette-to-3.5mm adapters. It doesn't mean they're exactly culturally relevant.
I'm not convinced that a tiny slice of super-reactive real-estate is going to be anything but another menubar item fiasco for the OS. These sorts of things only scale when the ecosystem is rather limited.
And it bears repeating: if Apple really cared about this they'd make multitouch available on every screen and start retooling their OS to support it the way Win10 has.
I'd say the closest analog would be the Mac menu bar, and even that works because it is largely consistent across apps.
So far the only benefit I can see is that it's a touchscreen in an ergonomically better position (although, is even this true? How much better is this than touching a bar at the bottom of the main display itself?)
Watching the DJ do stuff on that narrow strip was painful. About the only decent demo was the photoshop one, but why wouldn't photoshop not simply include similar touch controls on the screen for windows devices, which have complete touch screens
It's the gap where you still have a full-time job to do along with those expectations that I fall down. :( Maybe it's to late for me?
That aside, I have never had any problem with productivity as a developer. As a "typist", yes, but not as an author of software. It just never comes up. Do I feel less "cool" when I am in a room with people looking at me type? Hell yes. But am I actually getting things done slower? Probably some things. Typing commands, yes. I could be faster there. Typing code? Maybe.
Just adding the perspective of a long time 6 fingered typist (occasionally 7).
Huh? Don't most of the exercises and games start with rule 1: "don't look at the keyboard"? "I can do all of the exercises, play all of the games, but I have never been able to make the leap from looking to not looking at the keyboard."
Huh? The exercises and games I did all start with "don't look at the keyboard"?
Find a method that starts with having you type nonsense sequences of letters on the home row (these typically start with repeats of "asdf jkl;", changing to random sequences once you got the hang of that), extends that by adding qwer and uiop, moves to words containing those letters (moving to words is essential as it trains you to do the common sequences faster), etc.
If you find you cannot not look at your fingers, place a tea towel or other light cloth over your keyboard and hands and try again.
Resign yourself to typing with a cloth over your hands for a month or three. Plan for being a dog-slow typist. If you have been typing for 30 years, you have what you need cognitively. You just need to force yourself to perfect the final bits of the skill. You don't need more training, you don't need perfect Home Row Placement (I can do 110 and my form is a mess!), you just need to power through that horrible period.
I haven't completely given up hope. I may still do it yet! :D
There are many kitchen tools being marketed to casual home cooks, and not professional chefs. The solution isn't for everyone to become a professional chef to stop those products coming to market, it's for professional chefs to recognise those products are not meant for them. Even if the manufacturer used to tailor to their needs before, markets change.
My sister's boss at her first internship took her to her desktop and gave her a keyboard which had absolutely no markings on it. Her first task was to force herself to learn to touch type.
And she still credits that to saving so many hours in college, simply while typing out esssays, and has obviously been tremendously useful in her professional life.
I spend much more time thinking about what I'm going to code than I do typing it out.