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Comment by bitmapbrother | Hacker News Reader

The touchbar is a problem looking for a solution. For the premium they charge for it I fail to see how it returns its value. Perhaps this was innovation for the sake of innovation, but I don't see the touchbar having a prolonged lifespan. Sooner or later Apple is going to come to the realization that they need a touchscreen on the MacBook.

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.

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I really disagree with you about the keyboard. I was nervous that this keyboard would be annoying but I quite like it. Maybe even more than the old keyboard. Yes, they have way less key travel, but the extra click that they added more than makes up for it. I don’t have any troubles now at all with the main keyboard.

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.

After a couple of months I have actually come to like the typing experience of the new keyboard - when it works.

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.

Did you mean a solution looking for a problem? I can't think of a single problem that is solved by the touchbar.

I have a new MBP with touch bar and I am pretty neutral on it. I don't mind the keyboard, but to keep getting the laptops thinner, you have to reduce the travel. It feels fine to me now that I've gotten accustomed to it.

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 touchbar is a problem looking for a solution. For the premium they charge for it I fail to see how it returns its value. Perhaps this was innovation for the sake of innovation, but I don't see the touchbar having a prolonged lifespan. Sooner or later Apple is going to come to the realization that they need a touchscreen on the MacBook.

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...

Because touchscreen on a laptop don't make sense because they

- 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.

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