2. You can set it to permanently show control keys.
3. It's optional. You can buy the model without it.
4. Some of us actually like it. I use IntelliJ every day and it's great to be able to have dedicated refactor/debug keys instead of having to remember arcane key commands.
You can set it to permanently show images of control keys, on a flat surface. If I wanted a tablet I'd buy a tablet; keys have boundaries between them, push down and spring up, and otherwise respond to fingers in ways that a tablet doesn't.
some people seem to think that apple is in the business of personally catering to their every whim.
i totally get why you wouldn’t like the touch bar, but you don’t have to buy that model. in fact, you don’t have to buy a macbook at all.
it’s also pretty astonishing to me how many people vehemently hate this thing they’ve never even tried to use.
I'm yet to meet a single person who likes the touch bar after 1 month.
How many Macbook Pro users have you surveyed ? And how do you think that compares to Apple who clearly did some product marketing work before adding a very expensive new feature.
The only problem is the lack of ESC key really, but after you remap it to Caps Lock everything is good again.
https://arstechnica.com/video/2016/11/the-2016-13-and-15-inc...
https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/
And for more money you can spec them identically.
And not the same CPUs. Max CPU speed without Touch Bar is 2.5Ghz, while the Touch Bar models begin at 3.1Ghz.
Different GPUs as well: Iris Plus 640 v Iris Plus 650.
It's a downgrade: the pre-touchbar MacBook Pros (and the touchbar ones) have 3x3 MIMO wifi/BT chipsets.
It's like 10 years ago when first MacBooks came out with chiclet keys, while all other manufacturers used previous design (most of them finally shifted to chiclet by now). Typing on a regular laptop now feels like masochism.
As to your strange preferences, I cannot understand them. Buckling spring keyboards are far more tactile and I resent that I cannot get them on "premium" products any more.
That would make too much sense, Apple haven't done sense for a while now - people have called Apple form over function for a long time except now it's actually true, at least WRT their laptops.
Curious - what makes them so "amazing"?
Speaking only for myself-- going back to the 80s, there has only ever been one keyboard that I've ever used that I couldn't get used to (Surface Pro Touch keyboard). For all the others, once I got used to them, I never really felt like one was better than another, just different.
I know that one hurts my fingers after typing for a few hours, and the other one is pretty comfortable after that same time.
Their second generation, butterfly keyboards are amazing once you get used to it and aren't some indication that they are abandoning content creators.