Ex-Apple employee says MacBook Pro users shouldn't have "useless" Touch Bar forced on them

[midian182]

It was October last year when Apple proudly launched its all new MacBook Pro computers, some of which sported the long-rumored OLED touch bars that replace the function keys. Apple continues to be very pleased with the new feature, but not everyone, including one former employee, feels the same way.

In a blog post by Chuq Von Rospach, a writer who worked at Apple for 17 years, he complains that Apple is essentially forcing those who buy a high-end MacBook to pay extra for the Touch Bar, even though they don’t necessarily want or need it.

The current [MacBook Pro] line forces users to pay for the Touch Bar on the higher end devices whether they want it or not, and that's a cost users shouldn't need to pay for a niche technology without a future.

After Rospach moved from his 2016 MacBook Pro to a newly purchased iMac 5K, he found that he didn’t miss the laptop’s Touch Bar at all, and missed the Touch ID fingerprint sensor “a lot less” than he expected.

Is there a solution? He suggests either expanding the Touch Bar and Touch ID to the entire Mac line through a new standalone keyboard, or Apple needs to introduce more laptops without Touch Bars.

“So what’s the future of the Touch Bar? I don’t know. I’m not sure Apple does, either,” Rospach writes. “My bet is on Apple having decided they fell in love with the Touch Bar and lost sight of the fact that Apple sells solutions to problems, not technologies.”

Due to the popularity of his article, Rospach has added another blog post with more thoughts on the future of the Touch Bar and Touch ID, and reaffirms his belief that Apple will release a Touch Bar-enabled keyboard. Check it out here.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/70764-ex-apple-employee-macbook-pro-users-shouldnt-have.html

 

[MonsterZero]

Bring back the F-Keys!

 

[Uncle Al]

It's Not Useless .... Apple makes good money on that so they loooovveeee it!

 

[psycros]

Rospach is right. Anything fringe and experimental like this should be relegated to optional accessories - that's just common sense. Then again, this IS the company that gave us computers shaped like lamps and trash cans.

 

[DelJo63]

Bring back the F-Keys!

HUH? Mac has never been into Fkeys as is MS.

Rospach writes. “My bet is on Apple having decided they fell in love with the Touch Bar and lost sight of the fact that Apple sells solutions to problems, not technologies.”

And that's a major differentiator from MS vs Apple

 

[centrino207]

It's Not Useless .... Apple makes good money on that so they loooovveeee it!

Problem with touch bar is it is too ahead of the times costing way too much money. What Apple should done is bring out Mabook pro called pro Macbook pro or some similar name. Than when price comes down force it on people and other PC makers will do the same when the price comes down.

But really tell me when we have full keyboard like touch bar on all keys than my mouth with drop!!!

 

[scousekenny]

Apple is not forcing anyone to buy the touch bar its got a macbook pro for sale without one ?.
Seems to be a lot of apple haters on the net in general , no one has been kidnapped and made to hand over their wallets to apple , lots of choice with android, google ect . Me, I love the touch bar have great fun customising it , horses for courses for sure

 

[Nobina]

Apple is not forcing anyone to buy the touch bar its got a macbook pro for sale without one ?.

Son, what school you go to?

 

[scousekenny]

Apple is not forcing anyone to buy the touch bar its got a macbook pro for sale without one ?.

Son, what school you go to?

SON ? hahahaha birthdate 20/01/1952 to you if your a yank 01/20/1952 errrm think that makes me 65 years old SON indeed ......and your POINT IS .........?????

 

[scousekenny]

I know someone who has a crappy Asus H81M-K - 8GB 1600Mhz Kingston
Graphics: Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Windforce / old ASUS VH242S 1080p 24"
Audio: Genius GX 2.1 speakers, Skullcandy Ink'd 2 earphones, Philips headphones

 

[scousekenny]

Bring back the F-Keys!

HUH? Mac has never been into Fkeys as is MS.

Rospach writes. “My bet is on Apple having decided they fell in love with the Touch Bar and lost sight of the fact that Apple sells solutions to problems, not technologies.”

And that's a major differentiator from MS vs Apple

I can still get the F keys up ? on my mac ????

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Apple is not forcing anyone to buy the touch bar its got a macbook pro for sale without one ?.
Seems to be a lot of apple haters on the net in general , no one has been kidnapped and made to hand over their wallets to apple , lots of choice with android, google ect . Me, I love the touch bar have great fun customising it , horses for courses for sure

Apparently you are ignorant of apple hardware.

Yes, you can get one without a touchbar, and be resorted to the slower 15 watt chips as opposed to the 28 watt ones, and only one fan instead of two. just like I can buy a manual car, but I cant get any of the nice features without buying the automatic (looking at you ford).

Why should I have to compromise my computer's power to avoid a stupid touch bar? If it was optional, it would be fine, but as it is, if you want to avoid uselessness, you have to gimp your mac. That isnt right.

 

[scousekenny]

Ok so buy something else , as I said b4 , no one forces a mac on anyone , if I listened to that argument we would not have an I-phone , when that came out some people said" oh that's crap it supposed to be a PHONE not a PC" ,
no one has to compromise anything, buy a chrome book or a windows machine or buy an older model you can upgrade, your missing the point here, chose your weapon and be happy with that is all I'm saying , of course macs are not perfect, lots of PCs beat the hell out of them , Any way by the time you buy a macbook pro now ,the next one is out and makes yours/mine obsolete , it's called progress .......

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

"Apple sells solutions to problems".
Now that's one helluva broad, sweeping statement if I've ever seen one.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Apple is not forcing anyone to buy the touch bar its got a macbook pro for sale without one ?.

Son, what school you go to?

SON ? hahahaha birthdate 20/01/1952 to you if your a yank 01/20/1952 errrm think that makes me 65 years old SON indeed ......and your POINT IS .........?????

And I thought Captain Cranky and myself were the oldest forum users. Welcome to the club... ol' geezer. ;D

 

[scousekenny]

Anyway 15 watt chipper, 28 watt chipper , most ppl when they lift the lid on a laptop are not interested what "chip" "ram" "fans/or fan" is inside their machines, all they want to know is......... QUOTE "can I get on facebook, twitter, instagram and so on, having built "HACKINTOSH'S" for quite a while now (I bought my property on the on the proceeds ) I can honesty say if it works it works, end of.... oops I forgot I am ignorant of mac software ,Sheesh I'm glad some of these guys were not around when they invented the wheel they would say "that's no good it hasn't got an core i7 quad core processor in it " have a nice day ya'all

 

[scousekenny]

Apple is not forcing anyone to buy the touch bar its got a macbook pro for sale without one ?.

Son, what school you go to?

SON ? hahahaha birthdate 20/01/1952 to you if your a yank 01/20/1952 errrm think that makes me 65 years old SON indeed ......and your POINT IS .........?????

And I thought Captain Cranky and myself were the oldest forum users. Welcome to the club... ol' geezer. ;D

many thanks , can draw our old age pension togerther haha

 

[scousekenny]

This discussion re-touch bar makes me laugh, it's the same with USB-C ports, ya know I have a 15 inch macbook pro 2016 (among many others) and I have not got ONE DONGLE (tell a lie, I have one for ethernet hook up ((in case)) all my external SSD hard drives are USB-C and my monitors are USB-C ,I have a power cord that parts if ya pull/trip on it , also I have a lightning to USB-C for I-phone 7plus and iPad pro , they were already here when I bought the 12 inch macbook , and everyone seems to be moaning about them , but a lot of android phones/laptops now use USB-C ports, if I get fed up of the touch bar I promise to use gaffa tape to cover it ok

 

[Nobina]

I know someone who has a crappy Asus H81M-K - 8GB 1600Mhz Kingston
Graphics: Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Windforce / old ASUS VH242S 1080p 24"
Audio: Genius GX 2.1 speakers, Skullcandy Ink'd 2 earphones, Philips headphones

At least you seem to know some cool people

 

[Nobina]

SON ? hahahaha birthdate 20/01/1952 to you if your a yank 01/20/1952 errrm think that makes me 65 years old SON indeed ......and your POINT IS .........?????

I mean if you're really 65 years old and you behave like a 13 year old mentally ill child then sorry if I tried to make fun of you, you must have much bigger problems in your life, my 65 old disabled son.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

many thanks , can draw our old age pension togerther haha

What I really wanted to say is welcome to the elitists (us old timers) and the rest of the club (the exuberant youth)

 

[Someone8MyPosts]

1) Consider the source
2) Apple isn't forcing anyone to buy their new machines

 

[scousekenny]

1) Consider the source
2) Apple isn't forcing anyone to buy their new machines

yes the clue is in the EX part was he sacked or did he jump ? could be an ex-employee with a grudge.
or maybe he's just pissed off with apple who knows

 

[scousekenny]

many thanks , can draw our old age pension togerther haha

What I really wanted to say is welcome to the elitists (us old timers) and the rest of the club (the exuberant youth)

thank you but it looks like the others are ganging up on me here omg , do I care ? not a bit

 

[scousekenny]

SON ? hahahaha birthdate 20/01/1952 to you if your a yank 01/20/1952 errrm think that makes me 65 years old SON indeed ......and your POINT IS .........?????

I mean if you're really 65 years old and you behave like a 13 year old mentally ill child then sorry if I tried to make fun of you, you must have much bigger problems in your life, my 65 old disabled son.

SON ? hahahaha birthdate 20/01/1952 to you if your a yank 01/20/1952 errrm think that makes me 65 years old SON indeed ......and your POINT IS .........?????

I mean if you're really 65 years old and you behave like a 13 year old mentally ill child then sorry if I tried to make fun of you, you must have much bigger problems in your life, my 65 old disabled son.

no problems that I cant handle matey apart from bad bowels , loss of hearing , all the crap that comes with old age and yes I feel young at heart maybe 18 not 13 but close