AMaterialGuy t1_j41p2sj wrote on January 12, 2023 at 3:54 PM

Reply to comment by MrMark77 in Apple Reportedly Working on Touchscreen Macs, Including MacBook Pro by Avieshek

Touch Bar on my 2017 MBP... :(

Touch Bars have existed for decades. However, I never saw one replace the F keys. And guess what? Half the time when I boot my Touch Bar doesn't. No amount of terminal wizardry fixes it, it simply refuses to start.

I'm totally with you about not wanting some stupid gimmick that we get charged for.

Apple is wasting R&D and engineering time on this.

Iintl t1_j41vcvm wrote on January 12, 2023 at 4:34 PM

The touchbar was bad because it was replacing physical keys with something worse. Adding touchscreen doesn’t replace anything nor does it remove functionality, it simply adds a new feature.

And I’m sure there’ll still be traditional non-touch optimised UI as well, to cater to existing Macs without touchscreens (and the Mac Mini/Studio/Pro who will probably never have touchscreens) . It’s not like an Intel to Apple Silicon transition where Intel is getting totally abandoned and obsoleted

AMaterialGuy t1_j42027l wrote on January 12, 2023 at 5:03 PM

I'm not so sure that theyll have separate UIs.

Apple's MacBook pros and iOS devices have been converging, and MacOS dock is pretty clearly designed for touch screens. I almost never use it to access apps since spotlight is way quicker and more convenient. Same goes for my iPhone - I no longer look for the app icon, I just search and open it from there.

As far as touch screen or no touch screen, I don't care as long as they're still producing high quality computers connected to their ecosystem, but they really could put engineering effort more useful places - such as improving testing and quality of their operating systems, making more robust hardware (they've been getting there with their phones, to the point where they literally advertised the iPhone 13 as able to handle a fall from a table), and countless other things.

Honestly, apple needs to be leading the way with conversion from electronics to optics. I led some of that research in the 20-teens and we have long been at a point where we could be replacing plenty of "bulkier" electrical components with optical ones.

That would be a way better use of their brain capital and workforce than adding a touch screen.