Had Apple had the good sense to introduce it without removing an entire row of keys used heavily by the developers tasked with writing software for it it might have actually worked out.
Instead, they saddled every one of their users with this thing, where it has remained at best in limbo between “occasionally useful” and “worse than the original”. I can say without a doubt that the only reason I finally broke down and bought a new laptop is because (1) they finally came to their senses with the physical Esc key, and (2) BetterTouchTool exists.
Or you know, shipping a touch screen like almost every other $2000 laptop on the market.
Every part of this UI would be better without it--physical keys to play the samples, a big touchpad to use slider controls with, the hi-def screen to see it all happen.
(It's a really neat demo)
If there was any trackpad to pull that off its the macbook trackpads.
It feels super nice on iPad and if you're running a Catalyst app or such on macOS that's designed for it, it could be cool to be able to toggle between the cursors.
Because it's an iPad.
> on macOS
That's a desktop OS with an entirely different ... well, everything. Including precision positioning of the cursor.
I can only see it as an accessibility option (in this case it might work well).
I would only want it as an option, I would in no way want it to be the only option. I just think the different cursor types could benefit different types of applications.
Alternatively Macbook already has big touchpad, add a screen like Asus ScreenPad.
There's one part that wouldn't be possible with keys since it loops the part of the sample between two fingers (41-48s).
> a big touchpad to use slider controls with
That'd be the iPad version of Samplr.
TouchBar MacBooks are much the same. If you press the Fn key, the TouchBar shows F1-F2.
Essentially an extra input for use with the thumbs. Bit shorter than the touchbar but also more focused on just extra application specific things and not all media/F-keys
Probably couldn’t get things like palm rejection right.
One example interaction is similar to the iOS keyboard: swiping along the space bar will move the cursor. Being able to type and very quickly swipe underneath the space bar to reposition the cursor could be great. And so much more useful with specific buttons or “swipe stops” to jump to opening or closing bracket when for example working on code
The point is, for me the placement of the Touch Bar always meant that only very deliberate And manual actions should be triggered through a touch on the opposite side of the keyboard. Everything that is to happen often or quickly is better served with a normal keyboard shortcut
So essentially the bar is placed in a way that prevents it from being integrated into normal, productive processes and this leaves it as an expensive and unnecessary toy (with a handful of exceptions in creative applications)
I use better touch tool and I get more use out of the touch bar than someone who doesn't use btt does, and placing the touchbar between the touchpad and keyboard makes a load more ergonomic sense, but it's also likely it would accidentally be triggered a LOT in that position.
I only want the Escape key and it’s back. I’ll trade in my 2013 MBP for an ARM laptop next year.