[jamesfmilne]

As others have noted, you can press and drag on the volume icon to change the volume without two presses.

You can also remove the Siri icon and add a Play/Stop icon to the default icons on the right. Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Customise Control Strip. You can then move your cursor down off the screen onto the Touchbar, drag Siri out of the way, then drag a Play/Stop icon down into the Control Strip.

Then it will always be there even if the control strip is contracted rather than expanded.

I don't like the Touch Bar, but I've grown to hate it less. However it does register unintentional presses regularly. And no, I'm not "using it wrong".

[paublyrne]

However it does register unintentional presses regularly.

I concur with this. iTunes has on several occasions simply begun playing without me even touching the keyboard.

After a few weeks with the new MacBook the Touchbar is really the only thing I vehemently dislike about it. I especially dislike that it wants to display the Siri icon despite Siri being disabled on the machine.

[jamesfmilne]

You can remove the Siri icon. I did that because I was tired of my Mac constantly asking me if I wanted to enable Siri.

Now I just accidently pause or mute my music instead.

[glhaynes]

I don't have one so I can't confirm, but I think I remember removing the Siri icon while playing with it at the store.

Like this, maybe? http://www.imore.com/how-customize-control-strip-touch-bar-m...

[jslatts]

I don't like the Touch Bar, but I've grown to hate it less. However it does register unintentional presses regularly. And no, I'm not "using it wrong".

If these are truly unintentional touches, as in, you were not touching the bar at all and it registered a key press, then you probably have a hardware issue. I just replaced a machine that would self press the touch bar on the right side when putting any sort of pressure (like resting your palms) to the right of the track pad.

[jamesfmilne]

I don't have a hardware issue, it's just very easy to brush the touchbar and set off a button when you didn't intentionally press it. If you overshoot one of the keys on the top row slightly you can end up pressing one of the touchbar buttons.

Maybe they should have come up with a way of requiring a press to active buttons on the touchbar.

[clarkdave]

Agreed! The bar is incredibly sensitive. I run it in customised mode and often when hitting backspace I'll brush against the bar and activate something.

It got so frustrating that I gave up and added loads of whitespace to the far right side of the bar. It looks weird having a big chunk of empty space there, but it has dramatically reduced my accidental activations.

At this point though, almost two months in, I'm just apathetic towards the bar. I tried to get used to the 'app contexts' but it felt too forced for me. So now it's just a function bar with a bad UX. I rebound Caps to escape and got used to it because the touch escape, even with the extended hitbox, feels extremely unpleasant to use.

I'm hoping someone figures out a way to run an app that takes over the bar even when not in focus. I'd quite like, for example, to have a mini version of iStat Menus on it, the currently playing track, or some other cute widget.

I know the above is not how Apple intend the touch bar to be used (as a second screen), but I'd sure find it more useful than what it does now!