I wanted to love the MacBook Touch Bar, I truly did. I thought the raft of people complaining about it just weren\u2019t ready to see the big picture. Even if there were some teething problems, Apple would fix them, right?<\/p>\n
No. I was wrong.\u00a0The MacBook Touch Bar fucking sucks. Sorry, people I doubted.<\/p>\n
First off, a little bit\u00a0of context and history. The MacBook Touch Bar (first unveiled in October 2016) is basically\u00a0a touch display in place of the old function keys. This means that rather than having a stationary button for, say, changing the volume, there\u2019s a customizable strip that alters depending on the app you\u2019re using.<\/p>\n
[Read:\u00a0A love letter to my beloved NAS Drive, the WD PR2100]<\/em><\/p>\n You probably know exactly what I\u2019m talking about, but here\u2019s a useful breakdown in case you don\u2019t:<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yoyFmA78pWs<\/a><\/p>\n If you\u2019ve got this far, I assume you have one question: Why? Why now?\u00a0Well, I recently got a new MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar \u2014 meaning I\u2019ve been using it every day. In those simpler, pre-Touch Bar days, my experience with the technology was just messing about on other people\u2018s machines.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s cool,\u201d I\u2019d say tapping at the Touch Bar with a filthy finger, \u201cit\u2019s basically a tiny touch screen\u2026\u00a0on a MacBook \u2014<\/em>\u00a0what a world!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, but it\u2019s annoying and doesn\u2019t work well. Also please stop touching that,\u201d I\u2019d hear from someone who actually used the MacBook Touch Bar, before ignoring them and continuing my life in blissful ignorance.<\/p>\n There are two main reasons: Usability and reliability.<\/p>\n Since the MacBook Touch bar has been in my pathetic, needy life, it\u2019s forced me to consider what I used the old function keys most often for. Predominately, changing screen brightness and volume. It was a feature I rarely thought about, as I could alter either with a single click. But, obviously, my life was too good back then.<\/p>\n With the Touch Bar, there are only four anchored options. This means you can select four functions (such as lock screen, play, or pause) that remain on the strip. The rest of them change depending on the app that\u2019s currently in use.<\/p>\n What does this mean in reality? Well \u2014 dependent on your set-up \u2014 it now can take two or three clicks on the MacBook Touch Bar to change my fucking laptop\u2018s volume.<\/p>\n This can be changed, but requires a dive into some settings. What this doesn\u2019t change though is how often I brush against that touch strip and press something I didn\u2019t mean to.<\/p>\n If, somewhere deep in the basement of Apple\u2018s headquarters, a crack team of headphone jack-removing, lightning cable-creating monsters tried to come up with a lowkey way of making my life shittier, this is the exact sort of thing they\u2019d do.<\/p>\n So, uh, congrats?<\/p>\n Have you ever thanked a button? Take a moment, right now, to lean towards your nearest physical switch, caress it with your fingertip, and whisper \u201ccheers for your help, bud.\u201d Feels good, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n I don\u2019t wanna sound like a boomer \u2014 which, of course, means that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m going to sound like \u2014 but you know where you are with a button. It\u2019s a constant, like the sunrise and turtlenecks.\u00a0You click a button and, more often than not, the thing you want to happen, happens.<\/p>\n Now, don\u2019t be alarmed, but touch screens aren\u2019t buttons. And while some of them are reliable (I rarely have issues with my iPhone, for example), the MacBook Touch Bar is most definitely not.<\/p>\n Since getting the laptop a couple of weeks ago, the Touch Bar has become unresponsive on a number of occasions \u2014 meaning I\u2019ve had to reset it. A reset that happens after I\u2019ve tried tapping the stupid thing a thousand times, leaving it alone in the hope it\u2019ll fix itself; repeating these two steps until I lose patience and open up Activity Monitor.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a huge issue, but it is annoying.\u00a0<\/em>I\u2019m on my laptop all day, the last thing I want it to do is annoy me. I\u2019d like it to sit quietly and politely do what I ask. Not crash hinder me from making my screen brighter.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the thing: The technology has potential. But people have been saying that for the past three years. At this point, we should be in the peak of its use, the kinks and issues should be ironed out, and we should be surfing the internet using the MacBook Touch Bar as some sort of water-based board \u2014 I\u2019ll get back to you on the name.<\/p>\n Instead, it seems that playing Doom<\/em> on it is\u00a0about the limit. That\u2019s cool and everything (who doesn\u2019t like Doom<\/em>?), but I\u2019d prefer it if my laptop was still easy to use. Currently, all the company has done is make virtual buttons that are worse than normal buttons.<\/p>\n To me, it all comes back to Apple\u2019s focus.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve written before of my wish that the company would whole-ass its MacBooks, but that\u2019s unlikely to happen, especially when its revenue is concentrated elsewhere. At the very least, I feel the MacBook Touch Bar could be made more reliable, or some dev time put in to make it as useable as, you know, normal buttons are \u2014\u00a0but don\u2019t fucking bet on that happening.<\/p>\n The situation is almost a dystopian joke: A company replacing perfectly functioning normal buttons with virtual ones because\u2026 it\u2019s the future?<\/p>\n Truly, I wanted to love the MacBook Touch Bar, I really did. Instead, I\u2019m going to spend the next five years complaining about it. Occasionally, I\u2019ll write an article like this, something begging for Apple\u2019s attention. You know, like a digital Oliver Twist, but much more depressing \u2014 because he didn\u2019t pay for a $2,000 laptop with virtual buttons.<\/p>\n For more gear, gadget, and hardware news and reviews, follow Plugged on \n Published February 17, 2020 \u2014 14:35 UTC\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nSo why does the MacBook Touch Bar suck so much?<\/h2>\n
And what about its reliability?<\/h2>\n
![\"macbook](\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/02\/macbook-touch-bar.png\")
So Apple should just remove the Touch Bar?<\/h2>\n
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