MacBook Air and MacBook Pro updated for back-to-school season

A shame they've forced the TouchBar everywhere. Perhaps it is like Sega Dreamcast and the little plugin LCD unit that controllers optionally supported - none of the games really used it because they could never guarantee that it was there, so it was never integral to game.

In this instance perhaps Apple thinks that everyone having one will encourage developers to use it.

But for me, I completely ignore it and force it to behave like function keys, although it does this very badly because I have to look down to see where the "keys" are when debugging (eg F6, F7 in xcode) because I can't feel them, and also it is completely invisible in daylight, as others have stated.

I routinely use my old 2012 MacBook instead to actually get work done because the touchpad is so useless as a keyboard (and turns itself off after a while, unlike REAL keys that don't disappear if you don't give them attention for a minute or two).

A real crying shame.

The new Macbook Air is now the go-to (Mac) laptop for developers. If I were to get a new Macbook today, I would get the Air. It's now the only laptop without the touchbar, it has a Retina display, and you can get it with 16 GB of RAM. I see no reason to get a Macbook Pro at this point. Its more expensive than the air, heavier, has the awful touchbar, and 2 unnecessary USB-C ports (I've never needed more than two).

Looks like they are doubling down on the Touch Bar... still not convinced. There are times when it is quite neat but an equal amount of times where it is inferior to real keys. Using it outdoors is one example, can hardly read it if it’s bright.

If you skip the PR, you'll notice that they killed the non-TB Macbook Pro. Really a shame to see them double down on a failed design. I am still hopeful that the next generation will kill the TB off.