Hacker News Reader

Comment by vr46 | Hacker News Reader

I think Macbook Pros should be quite advanced machines with slightly out-there features, so I would love to see the touchbar back as a power user option but above function keys. I absolutely loved it on my 2019 MBP and it represented a bunch of new ways of doing things, but it was gone too soon to really mature. Most Mac users clearly don't need it, but there's a certain group of obsessive users that will hack on stuff like this.

View on HN

I'd much prefer a display underneath the trackpad. It would be so much more flexible in terms of which UI you can implement, and it would not necessitate any extra real estate.

If they could add the tactile feedback of the mousepad maybe. But the touchbar in its last incarnation as just a screen was absolutely awful for function buttons.

It was no substitute for function keys, but being able to get close to the screen while editing pictures and using the touch bar to adjust sliders with my finger without looking at the control on screen was A+, so much nicer than cursor keys.

Having a secondary display that was context-sensitive (thanks Better Touch Tool) was super cool.

My point was that power user hackers will find interesting ways to use interfaces and controls. I’m not really interested in the people who tell me it’s useless for them or don’t need it, that’s fine, but I do want to see stuff that isn’t immediately understood or with a predefined purpose, just because it’s cool.

So let's go with a touch screen replacing the whole keyboard/trackpad surface, but with vertically controlled extruding/pressable pixels and haptics, so we get a physical keyboard of whatever dimensions and arrangement we like, and any other types of controllers.

I wouldn't mind a "physical" touch scroll bar on the right side of my keyboard, controlling vertical scrolling on the screen with more accuracy, less swiping.

If the tops of the pixels can roll, it could actually have a physical "thumb" button that you slide up and down. I.e. pixels going up and down to "move" the thumb. The rolling making it feel smooth and frictionless when you "move" it.

Games and other tools could create some. awesome interfaces. Swipe down to get your keyboard sliding back.

That's kind of cool, maybe each key could be a mini apple watch screen. A digital crown mounted fairly flush into the side could handle small, precision movements with haptic feedback, and perhaps an iPod wheel.

Keen to see more of these PopTouch buttons on flat screens!

The touchbar was and will always be useless. Chromebooks have shown that touchscreens are good for productivity, for everybody but especially for mobile application developers, while simultaneously doing away with any need for a tablet.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com