“The Touch Bar was a controversial addition to the MacBook Pro, and it’s a feature many Mac users ignore,” Kris Wouk writes for MakeUseOf. “A lot of people tend to forget that it’s there at all—until they curse the missing Escape key.”
“But it doesn’t have to be this way,” Wouk writes. “You can transform the Touch Bar from a forgotten strip above to keyboard to a useful tool you use every day. All it takes is a few tweaks.”
“With the arrival of the Touch Bar, the MacBook Pro keyboard lost its physical Escape key. If you’re a keyboard-heavy computer user, you might find the lack of tactile feedback a problem. Fortunately, there are ways you can fix this,” Wouk writes. “One of the simplest options is to use the app “Haptic Touch Bar” [$5]. This is a simple app that vibrates the MacBook’s trackpad whenever you press a button on the Touch Bar. You can control exactly how much this vibrates, as well as whether to play a sound or not.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s there, so you might as well make good use of it!
If only Apple would put the Touch Bar on their standalone keyboards, so every desktop Mac could also have it, maybe more developers would make use of it.
SEE ALSO:
The fundamental problem with Apple’s Touch Bar – November 28, 2017
MDN should get a royalty on the idea, along with all the great ideas posed here,
I think they do. So far, $0 paid.
Agreed They are just an advertisement
The touchbar is called a “psuedo innovation”, much like Microsoft’s ribbon and Cook’s forcetouch.
It’s really only there to differentiate price between products and allow Apple to boost margins on top end Macbook Pros.
Pipeline is so committed to the superiority of the touchy gimmick bar that he implemented it on zero desktop Macs. He licensed it to zero 3rd party keyboard makers. He convinced about 25% or less of software makers to leverage whatever advantage the ever-changing MS Ribbon ripoff is supposed to offer.
Is there anyone managing product or tech at Apple anymore?
The way to make it more useful get rid of it altogether a waste of money
I never thought the concept was fully thought out, but also never realized the ESC key was missing–that’d pretty much cement it in my mind as a bad idea. Feel that ESC is one of those keys I’d have a hard time not being able to press “blind”. Seems like something I use a lot to clear dialogs, force-quit apps, use it more heavily in a Windows terminal I suppose. So now it’s like finger-twister to show the standard function row and press a key? Whatever. So, so frustrated at what’s been happening. Haven’t been delighted, or seen something where I thought–“that’s a great idea–why didn’t anyone think of that before?” for a long time now. More often I ask myself, “Why did they do that?”
There are desktop macs?
The touchbar is a prime example of how feckless Apple is under Pipeline’s “leadership”. The Mac has truly suffered since Jobs has left us. It leaves me very sad as nothing in iOS is as useful to me as the Mac. Nothing. Not even close.
Mac Mini is more pro than MacBook Pro, because it has a way more of THE DAMN PRO PORTS. MacBook Air is more pro than MacBook Pro, because it’s BATTERY LASTS MUCH MUCH LONGER. The new MBP should be renamed to PVT – Pro Vanity Toy.
If Apple had got it right, people would lust after a MacBook Pro. Do you? I don’t.
I have a MacBook, on its second keyboard ( it’s better than the first kn but still crap) but the battery is dying and it’s too expensive to fix.
What to,replace it with? Certainly nothing in the current Apple line-up and definitely NOT a MacBook Pro…
I mourn the loss of Apple. It’s just a money machine now.