The Life and Death of the Touch Bar: Revisiting the MacBook Pro
chuqui.com
chuqui.com
- there seems to be no way to dim it and it's way too bright in the dark.
- the context specific functions appearing and disappearing make it really eye catching and distracting. There also seems to be a slight lag before it updates with the latest context. (I ended up switching it to only show some small subset of default controls).
- I'm hardly using it at all, but sometimes it just stops responding. Hitting the buttons doesn't do anything.
- it's too easy to accidentally tap one of the buttons.
All in all I think it's a gimmick and I'd much rather have a physical escape key.
I've never had the touch bar malfunction, nor do I find it distracting or too bright at night, even on a lakeside dock in cottage country.
I agree, though, that occasionally I will switch the input language to French due accidentally hitting the the bar. It's too sensitive.
The biggest surprise for me, though, was that I don't miss the physical F keys nor Escape, even a little bit.
Using solely the laptop keyboard was fine. Transitioning between the laptop keyboard and an external was not.
I ended up adding a binding for "jk" to exit editing mode. Very pleased
What does annoy me is that there's no way to disable it on the fly. For example I often drag-select the paragraph I'm reading and Preview changes the Touch bar every time I do with highlighting options. It's distracting at the exact moment I'm trying to focus on what I'm reading. I've had to shift reading to a tablet.
Other than that I'm pleased with the Touch bar. I think the sound and brightness controls are easier to use than before. I appreciate the TouchID.
Enough of the hard sell, take my money!
Pro users that I know want:
- A great keyboard (yes with an actual physical Escape key)
- 32 GB RAM, with 64 GB optional
- Common ports including boring old USB and HDMI, and a headphone jack
- Good battery life at a reasonable weight compromise
I hope Apple realizes the current MacBook Pro is a flop and backtracks on the many poor decisions that went into it.
For example, it is currently not possible for anyone other than Apple to replace any part of the Touch Bar. And I've not seen a disassembly of the new MacBook which didn't result in damage to the Touch Bar -- requiring it to be replaced.
It's the same for computers. You shouldn't need to fix your computer. It should Just Work throughout its entire service lifetime. Especially if it's as well built as an Apple.
And what if you want it to last beyond its service lifetime?
You can buy specialized equipment (well, not from Apple) and learn expertise. There is a plethora of evidence that the third-party repair community of car mechanics and repair technicians have more expertise in repair products than the original manufacturers. This isn't just about "car guys" this is about being able to go to a repair shop and have your car fixed, and not requiring you to send it back to Tesla for them to fix it. Same thing for computers.
> They're great for everyone else since they need so little repair compared to cars in the past.
But they still need regular servicing. So making it less repairable is counteracting the needs of the market. All car insurance companies require drivers to have their car serviced at a particular cadence. Un-repairable cars (regardless of reliability) could be seen as a public safety hazard and/or an attempt to monopolize an industry that exists because of pre-existing laws.
> You shouldn't need to fix your computer. It should Just Work throughout its entire service lifetime.
You're confusing reliability with repairability. Of course products shouldn't break in their service lifetime, but that has nothing to do with whether it should be possible for someone to repair a product. Products _will_ break regardless of how reliable they are, and trying to side-step that by saying "they break far less these days" is not an answer.
Also, "modern" laptops make it very hard to upgrade components. If you want more memory, buy a whole new computer (RAM is soldered). If you want more storage, buy a whole new computer (SSD is soldered). If you want a newer CPU, buy a whole new computer (CPU is soldered).
Not to mention that Apple is not just applying technical measures to make it hard to repair their products, they're also trying to apply legal restrictions to make it hard to repair their products.
> Especially if it's as well built as an Apple.
Except that's not true. Apple products incredibly frequently break (usually due to thermal stress because they don't have sufficient cooling). For the past 8 years or so, every Macbook Pro version has had recalls because the GPU or nearby components die from thermal stress. The amusing thing is that Apple didn't actually know how to fix the problem, so they would sell refurbished laptops that were sent in for GPU repair that still had faulty components (the third-party repair community figured out that it was caused by Apple using the wrong type of capacitor near the hot GPU).
Oh, and Apple doesn't do data recovery at all. So if you need data recovery, you cannot get it the "official way". And remember that in new Macbooks, the SSD is soldered onto the board -- so you cannot remove it and copy the data off. By trying to create a monopoly on product repair and creating unrepairable products, they've created one of the most anti-consumer devices.
Kept the 2015 version. Am waiting to see what comes next. I don't want a touch bar, and I don't relish getting a half/dozen dongles for all my peripherals.
So I'm an invisible sale they should have had, but didn't.
1. http://www.anandtech.com/show/11245/apple-to-redesign-mac-pr...
That’s the only real instance I can think of though!
Worse, the keyboard is fragile. Mine recently had its left arrow key become stiff in one corner. I couldn't do anything to get it to go back to normal nor pry the key cap off to see if a bit of dirt had got underneath. I went to the Genius Bar which told me the keyboard was unrepairable and the only way to fix it was, literally, to replace the entire top case of the computer. He did say they could try something to fix it in the back with some special tools. The first try it was fixed, but the key cap was only half attached. The second try it was basically entirely broken and only worked with extremely hard presses. At this point the Rep said it had to be sent in for repairs. I said try it one more time. This final time it was better but still terrible and worse than when I brought it in. So I took it home, dd'd the disk to another one (use rdisk!) and dropped it off for repair. Well, a few days later I am told I need to pay $99 and use an AppleCare+ incident to fix the broken keyboard that the Genius broke. I spent hours on the phone with Apple explaining what happened. Well, two weeks later I got the laptop back because their system kept saying it's not ready despite being back at the Apple Store four days after drop off. What a total joke.
I hate the new MBP, keyboard and touch bar. Give me a bit more thickness, a regular keyboard, and high repairability.
However other keys randomly feel "smushy", "not clicking" as I press them. There can't be any dirt in the keyboard, I'm very strict on keeping my keyboards clean. Until now, the issue was resolved by bashing the keys a few times on all corners. However I'm worried that the keyboard won't last as long as to be expected of a laptop.
Yay on the repairability and reliability of these new keyboards.
I don't want a walled garden of software. I don't mind a distinct authorization to run non-app store software (I break it, I own it...), but I want to run it easily. For example, I want an OS will easily let me install and run R and a current Python distribution like Anaconda.
While I want my phone, iPad, and MacBook to play nicely together, I want each to be optimized for a different set of tasks.
My Mac is in the process of dying and I am struggling to commit to buying the lower end non-touch 15" MacBook Pro. I think the feature is stupid because I am a touch typist. I don't want to be hunting for an ever changing soft key. Fortunately I have a back up machine that works okay-ish but I don't like it in the same way as I enjoy working on the Mac.
Would enjoy your input!
It's a useless gimmick that removed some major functionality for me (a physical escape key). The touchid is amazing and I wouldn't ever want to go back to a device without it. It's use is a $50 gimmick used for volume and brightness controls which is neato at best and frustrating at worst.
Other than the touchbar the laptop would have been a solid "meh" as well. I actually enjoy USB-C only, and the large trackpad hasn't offended me like I thought it would. I don't really notice a difference though, so I don't know why it needed to be bigger. The keyboard also was a step back, but I'm pretty firmly convinced it's one step in the direction of haptic keyboards for Apple as they continue to remove physical components that break. If this holds true I'll be more forgiving as I see that is interesting tech someone needs to pursue. Battery life can also be an issue, since it's now so tied to workload.
All in all a pretty disappointing extremely overpriced device that was a step back from the previous generation. If I were doing it all over again I would have picked up a 2015 rMBP (the 2012 being amongst the best laptops I've ever owned) and waited a few years to see if Apple gets it's act together again.
I love the Touch Bar. It can be unexpectedly convenient and, once you allow yourself to get used to it, going back to a keyboard without one feels very antiquated actually.
- Changing brightness or volume by swiping in a single motion.
- When you’re typing and get a dialog/alert, tapping on the Touch Bar is much quicker and requires less movement than moving your hand to the trackpad or mouse and clicking on a screen button.
- When typing and having to choose something from a list, like the label for a contact (“Home”, “Work”), it’s again quicker to just tap on the Touch Bar than to move the mouse pointer to open the dropdown box and click on an item onscreen.
- Ability to have more shortcuts with different types of controls (sliders etc.) than you can with Fn keys + modifiers, and labels/icons make it unnecessary to remember which Fn number with which modifier does what.
- Show various status items on the Touch Bar and other customization with BetterTouchTool [2].
The Touch Bar is a replacement of the Fn keys, not the keyboard. It’s a complement to the keyboard and trackpad, not a secondary screen (although you can hack it to use it as one [2]).
[1] https://www.duetdisplay.com
[2] https://www.boastr.net/bettertouchtool-touch-bar-customizati...
One minor issue is that it's too easy to bump against the trackpad or touch bar when resting your hands on the keyboard, which is slightly frustrating.
I'm a huge fan of TouchID. It makes using a password manager way easier.
The MacBook Pro already has a headphone jack. To share a different perspective, I'd actually disagree with you on supporting old USB and HDMI. By having 2 USB-C ports on each side you can choose what side you prefer to plug stuff in. Carrying around a dongle isn't a problem for me.
Given that Visual Studio, Netbeans/Eclipse, Android Studio work with about 4GB, what would I use all that memory for?!
I now have a 2017 MBP and every day I try to hate it a little less but it's hard work. I miss the old keyboard. Touch Bar is gimmicky and I'd be happier without it. Only USB-C is idiotic. No more Magsafe stil kills me. The old trackpad was better.
For years I just wanted a better Macbook Air (ie upgraded display and specs). The 13" MBA was about perfect IMHO. Reasonably cheap and a great form factor. Yet even Apple succumbed to the fatal disease of "adding value" by changing a winning formula. Force Touch lack discovery and is terrible (this is particularly the case for the phones).
Sadly, the alternative (non-Apple laptops) is just so much worse. I have a Dell XPS 15 and it's fine I guess but it's STILL much worse than MBP/OSX.
Why does everything suck?
I also do hate the touch bar especially when it crashes.
I also like the USB-C: bought a few $80 total cables for everything (USB-C HDMI, USB-C to hard disk, USB-C to printer etc) and I no longer need any dongles either (just the respective USB-C to X cable, as I would have used a USB-A to X cable before). $80 is not much when one is talking of a $2000 / $3000 laptop. And increasingly new peripherals will come with direct USB-C support anyway.
The display and brightness and colors is also killer.
And I appreciate the Touch ID very much (1Password, lock screen, payments).
That said: new trackpad is a problem for me, because I tend to touch it as I type (since it's bigger).
And the touch strip I don't care about. I would prefer if it was individual strip of actual buttons (physical) that would light up with images and be customizable (like the Optimus Prime keyboard).
I haven't bought a new mbp yet because I'm still waiting for 32 gb (I want VMs and it's just faster working locally than using aws to work)
My biggest problem with Apple is macOS, it went from a good stable OS back in Snow Leopard to a buggy mess that crashes rather often with broken features (mission control takes more than 20s whenever I use it whereas expose was always fast and responsive).
They have literally done tons of work. They just haven't disturbed the facade.
Heck, in last 3-4 releases there has been a whole new FS, memory compression, transparent internet storage for user files (optimized storage), handoff, system integrity protection and widespread sandboxing, a whole new 3D graphics API (now in its second version, Metal 2), night shift, gatekeeper and path randomization, wide gamut color support, timer coalescing (to save battery), Notification Center, Airplay, Power Nap, etc.
With USB-C, you can't see if someone's fully charged, and you can't yank it out without disturbing the other person. The USB-C connector is actually super sticky, and you have to use both hands to get it out.
To be fair, the difference can be measured in seconds, but it's still a step backwards in convenience.
Adding to this: The USB-C cable that Apple ships with is very thick and inflexible, which is also less convenient. I don't know if other power-capable USB-C cables are like that.
So a USB-C port and cable is capable of one or more of the following:
- Providing power (at different wattages)
- Data transfer of varying speeds
- Display transport
So cables are visibly the same and have a different set of capabilities. For example, Apple's USB-C cables that come with the new Macbooks aren't capable of high speed data transfer. Some cables are capable of charging at 87W. Others much less.
How is this better?
I remember reading one description of this that went something like this: prior to USB-C nothing fit but everything worked. Now everything fits but nothing works.
But consider a practical matter: if each port needs to be capable of power, data transfer and display, it's either going to be more expensive to produce or some ports, like the cables, will have different capabilities with no indication as to why.
Honestly it's just a horrible idea.
EDIT: example of this insanity:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/08/15/psa-thunderbolt-3-...
The power issue is a minor temporary inconvenience. I did the same as OP and just got a bunch of cables from Cable Matters that cover basically everything. And the USB-C to USB 3.1 Type B on my hub means I don't have to change any desktop accessories. I just changed a single cable and it was compatible with my home setup.
The ability to "upgrade" an accessory just by switching from a 5Gbps cable to a 40Gbps cable is incredible.
Other manufacturers are already following. A year from now the fact that this was ever an issue will seem silly.
I just wish they would scrap Lightning and the 3.5mm and just go 100% USB-C.
Just buy the high speed/high charge capable ones and you're set. That's how it's better.
>I remember reading one description of this that went something like this: prior to USB-C nothing fit but everything worked. Now everything fits but nothing works.
Yeah, I read the same. That's why I stopped reading such things. Now everything works, with USB-C, and I don't have to worry about some writer's hysteria to drum up views.
That would seem to be true except for connecting a Thunderbolt 3 monitor. From the parent's linked article:
> Thunderbolt 3 runs longer than 18-inches can be passive or active. The passive ones have lower speed, with the max data rate hitting about 20Gbit/second at two meters of cable length. However, active cables contain transceivers to regulate the data transfer through the cable. At the same two meters, speed is still at the maximum of 40Gbit/second. Passive cables maintain USB 3.1 type-C compatibility. Active ones do not. [emphasis added]
That seems like a valid issue to me, not "hysteria".
Still sounds better that what it was to me.
Not to mention that if there's a cable that's stationary and stays at home/office it's the monitor desktop. Unless one regularly takes their 24/27" monitor with them, they can just buy ONCE, the appropriate cable, and live it connected for ever.
It's not like people will mess their monitor cables up while on the road.
Because I have a hard time imagining a cat would push enough to bring down a 2kg laptop on a desk.
Except if a dog was hunting it...
Biggest complaint I see, though, is that it doesn't have USB C yet; which I guess you don't care about.
I sold the other, and the new owner reported that it often woke up for no reason while closed, resulting in massive battery drain and a warm backpack. Also a known issue with no fix, and Microsoft support apparently didn't help either. (They decided to just "wait it out"; I sold it to them without unboxing it so I didn't know it had issues)
Also, touching on the touchscreen while in "laptop" mode was almost as bad as trying to touch the old Surfaces with the touch keyboard - the hinge strength is quite weak and the top is heavy, resulting in a significant amount of wobble. (Cue "it's not supposed to be used like that").
You get good experiences and bad ones, but the Surface Books have been more aggravating than not in my case.
I would expect a Surface Book purchased today to work without all those launch issues.
To me, I've used Windows for >20 years and it is the devil I know. Windows 10 is fantastic.
My attempt to convert to a Mac / OSX machine was just a confused mess that I abandoned. Like they go out of their way to do things different. [I'm not sure if they 'they' in the last sentence is Apple or Microsoft]. One thing I never got used to was that the mouse scroll wheel detection was reversed between the two OSes. And I had lots more crash problems on the Mac than I ever did on Windows.
I have a mag-safe-like magnetic power port, it's great. I have 10 hour batter life that is incredibly freeing. I have a dedicated GPU, which just seems to make the fan blow. The keyboard is fine except that silver keys are shit dim light compared to black keys. I also have a touch screen which I use a lot and a stylus that gets used occasionally.
The MBP used to be the clear winner for a laptop. Now there is no perfect solution. You aren't wrong that other laptops aren't the old MBP. I don't have the newest one, so I'm not sure if the Surface Book is better or worse, but I'm generally happy in my daily use, but occasionally wish I had a faster and more powerful version of the old Macs.
Maybe we are in the same boat. Or maybe I am just getting old.
I was also tempted by the XPS, but the badly placed camera was a dealbreaker for the number of teleconferences I do.
This thing charges with USB-C, which means I can use the same charger for both my laptop and my Pixel, but it also has two USB-A connectors, so I can still plug my yubikey in for logins, plus HDMI for presentations, a second USB-C for charging my phone or plugging in the VGA adapter, and finally a mini-ethernet (which I have only ever used once to test that it works, I have good wifi everwhere).
It has a 4G modem which works fine with a SIM card. The only thing maybe you could claim is lacking is the screen resolution, but the low resolution saves battery and works more nicely with Linux's awful high resolution support. Silver lining.
Finally this thing has a decent keyboard with good key travel, which is really lacking in a lot of laptops these days. I'm pretty happy.
1) No haptic feedback if I hit a key - did I hit it? just terrible for touch typists
2) Context switching according to an app - now you expect me to remember another whole new way to interact in addition to on-screen and keyboard short cuts - WHY?
3) Should I look at the keyboard or not - if not then why do the glowy keys on the keyboard keep distracting me? If yes then WTF is the screen for?
4)Do all Apple products have this or not? Why is there no external keyboard with TouchBar?
Complete misfire on Apple's part (Reference : Currently use MBP 15 latest version for work)
I think context switching buttons is poor UX, you shouldn't need to look at the keyboard when you're using it.
I miss the days I could quickly adjust the volume or brightness of my MacBook with the touch of a physical key who's position doesn't move (navigating a touchscreen for these controls is wholly unnecessary).
1. when taking a screenshot touchbar shows an option to toggle between the various destinations (desktop, documents, clipboard) -- nice because these keyboard shortcuts are really hard to type and often I don't make up my mind about where I want the picture to go until I'm in the middle of selecting the region
2. Scrubbing between safari tabs is a pretty nice feature -- I find myself using it a lot.
1) An equivalent interface to the Android snackbar which is a contextual "more options" menu to the most recent interaction
2) Global hirerachy and navigation
I got the version without, but is it universally bad..?
I expect the opposite. They will continue to iterate and fix the issues with the touchbar which many users already like and appreciate. The obvious change to make is the addition of haptic feedback.
Yeah they are called physical keys, no need to make a NASA pen... didn't Apple buy out some company making keyboards out of tiny e-ink dipslays, that would actually make sense. Making keys out of a touchscreen when the only reason to look at it is because there are no physical keys on the other hand is ridiculous.
> no need to make a NASA pen
The "NASA pen" urban legend (often used to comment on the contrast between American over-spending on innovation and Russian common-sense) is actually a myth. Both NASA and the Soviets used pencil-based technology originally -- NASA used ordinary sharpening-based pencils (later moving to mechanical pencils), while Soviets used more crayon-like "grease pencils". There were flaws with both technologies, and a private American company (Fisher) created a pen they claimed could work in space which was later adopted by both NASA and the Soviets. NASA only paid $4.00 per pen, nowhere near the "millions of dollars" often cited as the cost of development.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-n...
The Touchbar has many clear benefits over physical keys (in addition to drawbacks). Adding haptic feedback doesn't make the TouchBar equivalent to hardware keys. It makes it a better Touchbar. The fictitious NASA pen had no benefits over a pencil. Touchbar has benefits.
As is frequently trotted out whenever someone reaches for this analogy, http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp (tl;dr: pencils aren't great in space, another company invented the pen on their dime and sold it to NASA). There's definitely UX headroom when iterating on user input; the first gen touchbar has been undeniably meh, but that's not to say another iteration or two can't be a marked improvement over a 150 year old technology.
Really? Who? I haven't heard a single opinion on this that's stronger than lukewarm.
Also touch screen for volume, brightness, and video scrubbing === better than keys.
Have you ever tried to type on a touch keyboard without looking at it?
But it works for iPhone thanks to a combination of changes in habit and autocorrect and plenty of typos, whereas no matter how much I have tried I have never made typing work on a tablet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_Iconia_6120
As someone who can actually type without looking at the keys, I would never buy a laptop without a real physical keyboard.
However after several months:
- The touchbar is borderline useless. When i rapidly switch between various apps, sometimes the touchbar doesn't realize that hey i am in a different app.
- Numerous times i have had the touchbar freeze and become completely unresponsive. This is extremely frustrating, when i am trying to esc out of something, or i am trying to do some normal work. I also had a time where i unplugged my headphones, and itunes decided to play through speakers, and no amount of spamming mute on the touch bar would make itunes shut up.
However my biggest issue is with USB-C, which i thought would be the greatest thing since sliced bread.
- I have seen some TV's/projectors, where USB-C <-> HDMI just flat out does not want to work on these devices. Then i need to fumble and pray that i got lucky and packed my VGA cable. Even worse is when it does work, for whatever reason with the dongle i have seen some cases where i am locked to stupidly low resolutions like 1024x768 or lower. Yet my coworker can plug his mini DP into his older macbook and has 0 issues.
- Numerous times i have wanted to take control of a big screen and plug my laptop into it. Unfortunately i didn't bring the dongle. Instead i have been forced to do a hangouts and screenshare my desktop while a coworkers laptop is connected to the big screen.
- The lack of actual quality dongles, i have 2 highend 4k monitors, that do not support USB-C, they support display port. Unfortunately i have tried almost a dozen of these cables, and i cannot get a solid dongle that gives me proper 4k at 60hz like my coworkers older macbook laptops can do.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MRU0O0T/ref=oh_aui_deta...
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Thunderbolt-Dual-Display...
I don't understand the USB-C hate. Especially complaints about applereplacing it in 5 years with a new port anyway. With displayport 1.4 over USB-C we will soon be able to drive 8k montors at 60hz with a single USB-C cable. USB-C is truly the "last port".
I've found that the Touch Bar will freeze up sometimes and make it impossible to regulate volume (though muting still works). But this seems to be part of the general neglect of OS X rather than a drawback of the hardware.
On a related note, I was trying out the MacBooks at an Apple store and couldn't believe how bad the keyboards have become. The key travel was nearly non existent. Perhaps this is Apple's way of slowly conditioning their users to a keyboard with no physical keys, but rather touch keys powered by force touch. It certainly seems like the next evolution as they keep reducing the key travel lower and lower. The sensation of typing on the keyboard, IMO, was so bad that I would never purchase or recommend one. I would, however, still recommend the previous generation with a proper keyboard.
The keys need constant cleaning. Simple dust/dirt particles that don't really affect the old keyboards are the nemesis of this keyboard.
I have to literally blow into keys to get rid of dust/dirt particles every single day.
Just recently the smaller up/down keys have simply stopped registering presses (unless you press they keys quite firmly). Many other people have this issue too; here is one thread discussing it:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7769526
It's so bizarre to have to remap some unused modifier keys to up/down because of a likely design flaw on a flagship product like this.
IMHO the Surface Book from Microsoft is a great idea with a beautiful design but poorly executed [1]
I would have expected Apple to come up with this kind of product and phase out both the Macbook Air and the ipad. The Macbook + touchbar seems so half baked I'm not sure why Apple thought it was a good idea.
1: http://www.thespectrum.com/story/life/features/mesquite/2017...
- Unbalance the weight of the laptop.
- Lead to finger print smudges all over the screen.
- Take your hands off the home row
- And tap areas need to be far bigger than mouse areas. You either get too tiny tap areas that make interfaces harder to use, or you get too large areas that are a waste for scrollpad/mouse users.
As far as touch screens go, I don't care for them at all. If nothing else, it gets fingerprints all over the screen which distract me to no end.
The thing I don’t like about it is the new arrow layout. The full sized left and right keys make it really hard to find the arrows by feel. It’s been months and months and I still can’t reliably find the arrows without looking, and I had no problems with the previous MacBook keyboard.
I wrote up a quick explanation here: http://www.joshualyman.com/2017/08/find-hidden-apple-refurbs...
For me the touch bar isn't vital, but I really wouldn't want to go back to not having it. In fact, I wish the external keyboard also had a touch bar. It's fantastic for any scenario where their are no controls on the screen, such as full screen video. It also makes a fantastics scrubber for emojis, photos, etc. And the ability to change the function keys based on context, while not something you use every day in every application, actually makes a lot of sense and it's pretty bewildering that this didn't change a long time ago. It's always annoying when function keys no longer do what their icon suggests because they have been replaced, moved, or the OS has changed that functionality. And for things like brush size or changing the tool your using in a video editor, it actually is a lot more convenient. There are these things you start to realize that you always wanted physical keys for, and now you have them.
The only problem that I have with the new MPB is the way the keyboard sounds. The clicks on each key are different depending on where they are and how hot the chassis is. If you haven't noticed this, I'm sorry you're reading this because once you notice it you won't be able to not. Certain keys click more than others. They do all sort of break in a bit and start to sound the same, and since the travel is so short it doesn't actually impact typing at all, but it does sound and feel a bit weird when the "A" key acts slightly differently from the "F" key. They keys along the exterior tend to be more "clicky" than the keys on the interior. It's just weird.
You can even execute a shell script and put the results in there.
- Faster CPU 3.1GHz boost to 3.5 vs 2.3GHz boost to 3.6, but more power-hungry
- Four Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C ports vs two on no touch model
- Faster GPU -- Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 vs 640 -- does this matter?
- Two fans vs one (but more power consumption)
- 49.2-watt-hour battery (MBP) vs 54.5-watt-hour (no touch MBP is better here)
- Shorter battery life for touch bar model, but by how much?
Which one is a better value? Does anyone have experience of the real difference in battery life? Is the no touch model too weak? Two days ago I ordered and paid the touch bar model with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD, but cancelled the next day (first time doing that). For general development and some video/music editing, is the no touch model sufficient?
The touch strip maybe. Touch ID not at all -- you only missed it "a little" because you already have an Apple Watch to automatically unlock your Mac.
For everything else it doesn't work because it switches meaning based on the context and thus makes it close to impossible to apply muscle memory to.
The power brick is super slippery and I dropped it onto the screen, which shattered immediately as if it was sprung/under constant tension.
The “b” key is intermittent or repeats randomly. There is no dirt under the keys.
The touchbar is flipping useless and I always select the volume slider accidentally rather than mute. The buttons at either end of the slider don’t mean mute or full volume they mean increment and decrement which is clearly wrong.
The screen replacement cost £724 but very very luckily it was within my 90 day accidental damage insurance on my credit card!
My understanding is that the newer version is looking within your finger, rather than surface fingerprints, which could be lifted. From their presentation "scans sub epidermal skin layer".
Conveniently, it maps key combos like ctrl+1 to make the screen dimmer it ctrl+2 to make the screen brighter. Definitely would prefer real keys though if they made a 15 inch with them.
I tried it out in the store and I decided that using keyboard shortcuts will always be faster than using the touchbar which the article linked from this one mentions.
The audience for touch bar is non-touch typists and those who use the mouse so are happy to move their hand and gaze away from the active zone. A group probably disjoint with HN readers.
Then all MacBook Pros should have the touch bar if they're going to keep it (no 13 inch two port version without one).
It's strange to me that the Airs and the MacBook Pro without touch bar exist.
IMO, the cheaper models still exist so they still have some chance of selling into education.
There's a reason the 13" two port weaker version is so popular.
I'm fine with the touch bar being a premium feature, I just don't want to pay that premium.
Because the MacBook is substantially slower than the MBA, has fewer ports, and a higher starting price?
I'd love to replace my aging MBA, but the MacBook is too much money for not enough machine. (And I don't love the expensive new MBPs.)
It's not going anywhere. In five years, every laptop will replace their function keys with something similar.
imo, it's a nice incremental improvement, and it's actually slightly more functional than the F-keys.
* When a login form is shown in Safari, it takes 2-3 seconds before the username and password are prefilled. Safari just hangs (beach ball) in the meantime.
* Searching in Keychain Access is horribly slow. After a search term has been entered, it takes 4-5 seconds before the search results are shown. Keychain Access just hangs (beach ball) in the meantime. And it is made worse as searching also starts during typing, so you can type... but the text won't show up. And Keychain Access simply hangs. And after the 4-5 hang is over, it starts hanging again as you've entered additional search terms.
* In Keychain Access when you've finally gotten to the entry you wanted, copying the password to clipboard is another 2-3 seconds wait. With appropriate hang (beach ball).
This has been going for many users on this machine. Apple doesn't confirm that this issue exists, keeps suggesting to reinstall their machines and offers replacements to others -- which obviously doesn't help. Users testing macOS High Sierra beta's report small improvements, but still nothing significant.
[speculation] I suspect the Secure Enclave is to blame here, some design issue with the hardware. High Sierra appears to do heavy caching of the Keychain, to work around this hardware issue. [/speculation]
[edit] Issue #2 with this machine is that Spotlight randomly stops working. You can open Spotlight (CMD+Space), but you can't type your query -- it doesn't respond to key pressed. You have to `killall Spotlight` from the Terminal to fix this.
Issue #3 with this machine is that the keys are too close to the screen when closed. You can see an "imprint" of the keyboard when opening. This will probably cause damage to the screen's coating in the long rung and thus reduce the machine's lifetime (damaged screen).
Issue #4 is flaky Bluetooth radio. Multiple times throughout the day my Apple Magic Mouse, Apple Wireless Keyboard and/or Sony headset will disconnect.
Issue #5 is slow wake from sleep. I've had multiple wakes from sleep taking over 20 seconds -- leaving the screen black while resuming. The repair center blames high memory usage (paging). However my previous 2013 MBP (also 16 GB) didn't have the same issue, and my use hasn't changed.
Issue #6 is that the machine sometimes crashes when plugging in the Apple USB-C HDMI Multiport adapter. That's a great start of a presentation having a room full of people.
- Keep smudges off your bright new screen.
- Keep your hands on the home row.
- Keep tap areas in the OS sized to cursors, not fat fingers.