The biggest downside for me of this Touch Bar gimmick is not that I have to look at it. I can touch type, but I'd rather have this than a menu bar. You have to look up to the menu bar anyway, and reach for the mouse. Noone is complaining that menu bars are still there. This is like the Office "ribbon" in hardware form. It's fine, stop whining.
The problem for me is that my laptop is usually in "clamshell" mode. If I'm at the office, I have an external monitor. If I am at home, I have an external monitor. So the touch bar would be used for Starbucks and Planes? Meh. If at least the external Apple keyboards had it...
I too have been considering other alternatives. And that's mostly because I am feeling fed up with having multiple machines. I want a machine with a decent GPU, which you can't have in Apple land, no matter how much money you are willing to throw at Apple.
They could have used those speedy thunderbolt connections to power external GPUs, much like Razer and Dell are doing. Even Microsoft is kind of doing it, with the GPU in the Surface Book's keyboard. If there's a company that knows how to do this video card switching thing, it's Apple. I can never tell when the MBP is changing GPUs.
The Surface Book not having Thunderbolt was a surprise to me. I guess that's out then.
> The problem for me is that my laptop is usually in "clamshell" mode. If I'm at the office, I have an external monitor. If I am at home, I have an external monitor. So the touch bar would be used for Starbucks and Planes?
I'm sincerely curious (this isn't some veiled criticism or w/e): what do you like about having it in clamshell mode with an external monitor? I use my MBP with an external at work every day, but I always keep it open for the extra screen.
At this very moment, I have 3 monitors in front of me (2 30", 1 27"). Space is at a premium, I don't gain much with the laptop screen. In clamshell, I can tuck it below the monitors.
Sometimes I will have the laptop open. But then the screen is not properly positioned vs the other(s) monitor. And then I put it in a stand. Which means I no longer have easy access to the keyboard.
This is why, in fact, I bought my first magic trackpad. I caught myself reaching for the laptop's trackpad to use gestures or scroll.
Get me an external keyboard with a touch bar and I'm on board! I don't think that's going to happen though, because right now it is what makes the MBPs stand out.
Makes sense. I use a magic trackpad myself, for the same reasons.
Although I actually disagree -- I think a touchbar standalone keyboard is inevitable. They want people writing touchbar-aware apps, and the only way that's going to happen is to make the touchbar available to the broader installed base. Whether or not it happens right away is going to come down to how efficiently they can drive down the cost.
The problem for me is that my laptop is usually in "clamshell" mode. If I'm at the office, I have an external monitor. If I am at home, I have an external monitor. So the touch bar would be used for Starbucks and Planes? Meh. If at least the external Apple keyboards had it...
I too have been considering other alternatives. And that's mostly because I am feeling fed up with having multiple machines. I want a machine with a decent GPU, which you can't have in Apple land, no matter how much money you are willing to throw at Apple.
They could have used those speedy thunderbolt connections to power external GPUs, much like Razer and Dell are doing. Even Microsoft is kind of doing it, with the GPU in the Surface Book's keyboard. If there's a company that knows how to do this video card switching thing, it's Apple. I can never tell when the MBP is changing GPUs.
The Surface Book not having Thunderbolt was a surprise to me. I guess that's out then.