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by baseten 2896 days ago
It seems to me the touchbar was just a clever way to get their own processor into their laptops for some large scale real-world testing before they ditch intel and build the entire thing themselves. 2020 is a good guess I'd say.
4 comments
Dunedan 2896 days ago
Maybe the Touchbar was just a "clever" way to prepare all of us for sole touch-based input, which is going to be included in the MBP in 2020. ;-)

P.S.: I don't even think touch-only input is neccessarily a bad idea. All Apple has to do to make it work is to implement some kind of really good haptic feedback which also allows to feel individual keys. I even expected that for this iteration of the MBP for the Touchbar.

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tomaskafka 2896 days ago
> Hypothesis: Apple's low-profile MBP keyboard is just a temporary stage that should prepare us for solid state keyboard.

> What is that? A non-moving keyboard where a feedback is faked convinvingly enough via localized haptic feedback.

> See iPhone home button and MBP trackpad.

https://mobile.twitter.com/keff85/status/1011350819210498050

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dj-wonk 2896 days ago
Re: your P.S.: If a touch keyboard could give haptic feedback that let us distinguish between a "correct" keypress and a missed one, it might work. Perhaps a pleasant haptic vibration in proportion to how close to center your finger strikes would work.
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thesephist 2896 days ago
I'm surprised this is the first time I've seen the "touchbar as a way to get the A-series chips into macbooks" take. It's the most sensible explanation.
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dj-wonk 2896 days ago
Sure, there are downsides to the touchbar (I get it), but I'd suggest we ask this question: where does Apple want to go with the touchbar? Instead of focusing on where it is right now, think about what it could be.

With haptic feedback and perhaps different locations/placement, it has the potential to augment or even transform the ways we interact with the computer.

Put another way, the current problems are not insurmountable. Changing habits is not easy. What if there are better options than current keyboards? All I'm saying is consider what might be in the works.

To be clear, I'm not saying that we should blindly accept anything Apple does. But we should not blindly assume that their decisions are based on the worst intentions, either.

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Dunedan 2896 days ago
Even without the Touchbar, using the T1 for securing the TouchID sensor (amongst the other duties it fulfills) would've been justification enough. So no, that's no excuse for the Touchbar.
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