About Windows:
It is not a matter of hardware (run Windows on a virtual software on ypur Mac Hardware), it is a matter of software.
On macOS, select a file, then press Return: you can then change the file name. Why not ? This have to do something !
Do the same on a Windows directory and it will open it. Is it intuitive ?
Select a word with more than one character, say this word: character), press the right arrow and the cursor will be at the right of the last selected character. Seems nice.
Do the same, but press the left arrow: the cursor will be at the left of the last character. Totally stupid. Isnt it ?
I do not care if I have to use cmd here and Ctrl there (and I know from where the cmd key comes). Having the window close button on left or right is not a matter of interest for me.
On the other hand, changing a click (on macOS) behavior in the green red light (window left) that worked the same since the colors appeared into Mac OS is .
Not everybody is ignorant as you would like to portray them. Many professional reports from reputed journalists did salute it as an interesting feature, but other, including the highly respected Consumer Reports, did regret the not so great battery life, and the somewhat underpowered performances.
You should be content with your brand new machine and its superb touchbar. Why be so angry ?
True, but taking away the Esc key as a real button wasn’t a good move as you can’t feel for a virtual button.
The Accidental Tech Podcast has been discussing all these issues in depth. They do a great job of covering all the aspects. They were under the impression that removing the real esc key was in order to keep the MacBook Pro symmetric.
I have not yet tested the touchbar, but I do not need it, I have an iPad and I do not use it because I hate touchscreen equipment, I think there are people who will love it and others like me who do not, I would not like everything to be touch only by trend, A lot of people think like me, just see that the market for Tablets decreases year after year!
The tablets market decrease is less due to people not liking touch, than to the fact that people keep them. They will change phone every two years or so, but many have tablets 5 years old or more.
As for computers with touch, such as the Microsoft Surface, they still have a keyboard and trackpad that works as ever. One can perfectly well use a Surface without ever touching the screen. But it is convenient to detach the keyboard sometimes.
Actually, if I compare an iPad Pro and a Surface, I prefer the Surface for its trackpad, and the possibility to plug in a mouse. Not to mention it is a true computer with USB and screen connection, not a toyish tablet. The pencil is cute, but not that convenient.
I am not discussing the system. I do prefer macOS. But indeed, today, there are hardware innovations around I do find very nice. And by the way, the more I go, the less I appreciate iOS. I so wish macOS never becomes the same.
If Apple had kept ESC, they would have had to add one mechanical key by itself in the corner, since the rest of the keyboard is an integrated rectangular circuitry. In terms of engineering that would have been costly, and indeed kind of awkward aesthetically.
I personally don’t see the point, but you’re right I’ve not used it. What I do go by is Photographers & developers who waited for this machine, and then realized that MS was creating some very exciting hardware and have used both for a period of time. Where the Touchscreen is far more intuitive and wins every time over the TouchBar.
If an application has a 100 and one menus buried and spread all over the place, with controls left right and center, then a redesign of the UI is probably in order.
This is the what can either make the Touchbar indispensable or seal it’s doom. What exactly is the Touchbar?
Is a fKey replacement?
Is a toolbar replacement?
Is a trackpad replacement?
Is a dialog replacement?
I would also like to know what developers here plan to us the Touchbar for in their own applications? While I personally may not see the benefit, if my customers ask for it, I would like to oblige, but I can’t decide on what on earth should be in there?
The other concern I have is perception; several years ago Samsung introduced a Phablet; people laughed, then the entire Android army adopted phablets. Apple said how stupid; but people voted with their dollars. Now consider laptops, Apple are the only company who do not make a Touchscreen laptop (not 100% fair as their is no way I know all the laptop makers in the world). As the emoji generation that Apple is so keen to woo grows up from their phones and tablets, they’re going to instantly try to use Touch on this machine and when their friends laptops can be used like their phones and tablets…
For a lot of them their phone IS their computer and they may never need a tablet or laptop since they can do everything they need on their phone (chat, text, email, surf the net, facebook etc etc)
[quote=306373:@Sam Rowlands]This is the what can either make the Touchbar indispensable or seal it’s doom. What exactly is the Touchbar?
Is a fKey replacement?
Is a toolbar replacement?
Is a trackpad replacement?
Is a dialog replacement?
I would also like to know what developers here plan to us the Touchbar for in their own applications? [/quote]
For sure just a fKey replacement. Nothing else.
Of course that can only succeed when Apple also releases a desktop keyboard with Touchbar. But this can be trivial because a wireless keyboard uses Bluetooth, the small bandwidth for Bluetooth can be a bottleneck for updating the Touchbar. One thing is for sure … it will not be cheap.
I have already one app that uses the ID Touch and two other bigger projects will have Touchbar support for the upcoming releases.
It will contain features that are normally only accessible with 2 to more mouse clicks. First tests shows it will be very useful indeed.
There are a growing number of small apps that show things in the touch bar. Of course the guy who had doom running there, and recently, Lemmings or PacMan. If I was devising games, I would surely explore that
True, until they go to College or University, where computers are necessary for all sorts of reasons, one being that a phone is quite unpractical for certain studies.
[quote=306404:@Emile Schwarz]What is the size of the TouchBar ?
Width, Heigh, and DPI.[/quote]
OLED display Retina - resolution 2170x60px (I do not know the DPI).
Width including ID Touch: 274mm (approx)
Width without ID touch : 264mm (approx)
Height : 11mm
It’s an ‘improvement’ of the oldfashioned keyboard templates used ex. for Wordstar and Wordperfect with one problem: no feedback when pushing the fake button.
However for me the biggest problem is seeing/reeding the continously changing content of the keyfunction which will need changing the way i sit behind the keyboard and refocussing from the screen to the touchbar.
[quote]2170x60px (I do not know the DPI).
Width including ID Touch: 274mm (approx)
Width without ID touch : 264mm (approx)[/quote]
Umm…
Odd to apply dots per inch to metric measures (mind you, in the UK we talk about miles per gallon, but buy fuel in litres to disguise the cost per gallon)
This is where geometrical dpi and logical dpi differ. For all intents and purposes, we tend to talk about dpi either 72 or 144 dots per inch, but in practice, the reference to actual inches was lost in the process.
At 144 dots per inch, if indeed the TouchBar is 11mm high, that would be 62.36 dots, not 60.
In practice, it makes very little difference here, but it means pixels are a tad bigger than 1/144".
