“I used a touchscreen MacBook Air to write this column. No, you didn’t misread the previous sentence,” Edward C. Baig writes for USA Today. “Rather, I’ve been testing the AirBar sensor from Sweden’s Neonode. It’s a thin and light $99, brushed-aluminum strip that converted my 13.3-inch non-touch MacBook Air display into a touch-screen computer. That meant I could pinch, zoom, swipe and tap directly on the laptop display.”
“It worked OK, but still felt a little awkward,” Baig writes. “It’s probably best for Mac users who find themselves frustrated that their Mac screens won’t respond like their phones…”
MacDailyNews Take: … i.e., no one who’s been using a Mac for more than 15 minutes.
“I was able to take advantage of common multi-touch gestures: I pinched and spread my fingers, for example, to zoom in and out of photos and webpages. And pressed two fingers against the display to scroll inside my calendar or in the Safari browser. I also used two digits to rotate an image. And I dragged a map around with a single finger,” Baig writes. “Unfortunately, the fact that AirBar works with such gestures on the Mac doesn’t necessarily translate into an ideal experience.”
“Apple’s thinking is that having you reach up or out to touch the display on a Mac just doesn’t feel right and natural. I’m inclined to agree, especially when I strained to tap the upper, side or bottom reaches of the display while using AirBar,” Baig writes. “I struggled, for example, to tap the icon for the Mac’s Notification Center, and didn’t always hit my target when I tried tapping the tiny onscreen buttons to close or maximize a window.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple does touch right and, as usual, other companies do it wrong – as we’ve been patiently explaining for many years now:
To us longtime Apple watchers, Cupertino seems to be saying, “Multi-Touch on the screen only when trackpads are not part of the device.” – MacDailyNews, November 19, 2008
Does it make more sense to be smearing your fingers around on your notebook’s screen or on a spacious trackpad that’s designed specifically and solely to be touched? Apple thinks things through more than other companies… The iPhone’s screen has to be touched; that’s all it has available. A MacBook’s screen does not have to be touched in order to offer Multi-Touch™. There is a better way: Apple’s way. — MacDailyNews, March 26, 2009
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s Craig Federighi explains why there is no touchscreen Mac – November 1, 2016
The real advantage of a touch screen is to be able to annotate with a pen, not to pinch and zoom, etc., which can be done with a trackpad. When Apple produces such a screen, I’ll be happy.
… As in the iPad Pro.
Why are visual touch bars on current Macbook Pros a “good solution” when Mac users spent decades attacking MS Windows for putting visual reference bar at the bottom? Genuine question. They seem awkward and annoying to me.
NeXT created the Dock. Apple bought NeXT and integrated the Mac GUI into OpenStep, which became Mac OS X, with the Dock. It’s default position is at the bottom of the screen. Therefore, huh?!
When I use Windows, I shove the Windows Taskbar to the top of the screen, which Microsoft has always allowed. Tada, it’s the Mac menu bar.
> “I strained to tap the upper, side or bottom reaches of the display while using AirBar,” Baig writes. “I struggled, for example, to tap the icon for the Mac’s Notification Center, and didn’t always hit my target when I tried tapping the tiny onscreen buttons to close or maximize a window.”
That’s not an inherent problem with a Mac touchscreen, but of the kludge that adds touchscreen abilities to the Mac, which can never, ever be as precise as a native touchscreen option would be.
iOS’ touchscreen is incredibly intuitive in that it usually correctly guesses what I wanted to hit when there’s a cluster of links or actionable buttons in Safari. If that were applied to a Mac touchscreen I’m sure taps would be a lot more precise than this IR-based solution, which is on par with the older-tech membrane touch surfaces.
You guys crack me up when you quote yourself multiple times to give the facade that many expert opinions are in agreement with you.
What a maroon.
I recall recent quarters like Q12016, when Microsoft’s Surface Pro range moved 275,000 units, outselling the 107,000 notched up by Apple’s iPad Pro series. So it Seems SOME people out there don’t think you’re right..
I own a 2016 touch bar MacBook Pro…..
I hardly ever use the touch bar except to turn up or down brightness or volume.
Literally, this is a addon that I would never pay for again. I actually prefer tangible function keys over the current solution.
Go ahead and down vote my comment here on mdn but this is a real owners personal opinion on using the touch bar.
I wonder how other MBP owners feel about the touch bar?
I was going to kick off a poll, myself, using the “create your own poll” link that is included with the current MDN poll. But after signing into your WordPress account, you are requested to grant incredible access privileges to poll daddy.
That sounds way too much like Google. No thanks!
Most of the problems the reviewer had could be just that the Airbar (which just sort of ‘fakes’ a touch screen) is not a good device, not responsive etc.
Still I suspect that MacBooks are not very suitable for touch. The position of the screen which is flexible is not ideal.
On an iMac where you can rest your elbows on the table it might be different.
I’m typing this on a 27 inch Cintiq which although is the cheaper ‘pen’ version (still around $2000 !) and not the ‘touch’ one I find that I can work on it for hours drawing with a pen etc without getting tired. Like I said my elbows are often on the table and I have a flexible ergortron arm.
I still use the mouse a lot as the problem with Mac touch usefulness is that most programs and most MacOS functions are not geared to touch. With ‘mouse’ or ‘touchpad’ designed programs way easier to input into small dialog boxes or point at buttons with a mouse (on a Macbook most menu , dialog etc items would be way too small for fingers ) …
I think there is a place for a touchscreen Mac and Apple has again let someone else get out ahead of them.
Sorry, but that’s an extremely niche use case. Windows (OEM) hardware has AWLAYS filled niches and has nothing to do with what Apple should or shouldn’t do to stay “ahead”.
It’s ridiculous to think Apple is somehow falling behind because Microsoft made a touchscreen computer. Did Apple fall behind when they refused to create a tablet PC for all those years? Or refused to create a netbook? No they didn’t and netbooks were in fact fairly popular.
Apple sells more computers every quarter now than they used to sell in an entire year. Apple doesn’t need to go on some wild goose chase so that some of their “fans” can gloat and brag about being “innovative”.
The creative market used to be owned by the Mac and now it is not because Apple abandoned many long time users for the Facebook and SnapChat crowd.
A touchscreen Mac cold still be used with a mouse or with stylus. If Apple built the iMac Pro with a touchscreen and tilting mechanism like the Surface Studio I would order one today. Doubt I wold be alone.
Apple, masters of modem design: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MGQM2LL/A/iphone-6-6s-smart-battery-case-white
And there’s:
Gorilla Arm
Gorilla arm” is when someone who is using a vertical or standing touchscreen experiences fatigue or their arm starts to hurt, because of the awkward and not very ergonomic positioning that is required. It is called “gorilla arm” because of the similarity to the way a gorilla or other primate might interact with these vertical screens. Understanding gorilla arm and its use in the context of ergonomics reveals a lot of design elements that have driven new consumer products like tablets, two-in-one laptops, and other kinds of new touchscreen devices.
Gorilla arm is also known as gorilla arm syndrome.
The term was coined in the 1980s after release of the earliest touch screen devices.
Here’s a classic Wired article from 2010 specific to Macs laptops and touch screens:
WHY ‘GORILLA ARM SYNDROME’ RULES OUT MULTITOUCH NOTEBOOK DISPLAYS
“We’ve done tons of user testing on this,” Steve Jobs said in Wednesday’s press conference, “and it turns out it doesn’t work. Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. It gives great demo, but after a short period of time you start to fatigue, and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off.”
When I use my SP4, I use a combination of touch, mouse and pen. And it works well. You don’t necessarily need all or nothing.
all i want is a trackpad for a system that runs iOS on apple iPad Pro 10.5″
i also don’t want to actually touch the screen.
i just want the trackpad, ala Surface Pro.
i understand that the above involves changing the system dramatically.
but apple can do it and make it a fantastic device.
apple doesn’t want convergence at this point, until it can define and market more advanced features to ensure revenue per device stays the same as what it makes on macbooks currently.
My personal experience using the iPadPro is touchscreen is better than mouse and considerably better than trackpad. Just take the simple action of clicking a button after typing on keyboard (I use the iPadPro Smart Keyboard) – with MacBook you have to first move your finger to trackpad, then find location of curser on screen, move it to location of button and click. With touchscreen I just reach for screen and click in one smooth movement in half the time, doing something which is intruative as we do from being a baby.
Since I had iPadPro, my Mackbook has only come out for the few things where the software prevents me doing on iOS. Really, current software is the only thing that limits use of touchscreen.
Apple does make a touch screen “Mac”. It is called the iPad Pro. It comes in two sizes (for now).
Not a Mac. Not even close. Don’t let the Pro moniker fool you.
Airbar is a revolutionary invention in tech world. It gives you the same touch and feel as you are using from years with your iPhone. Use it to experience the difference.