Review: Apple's 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

13

Comments

  • Reply 41 of 80
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member

    Why wasn't anything mentioned about the MacBook Pro not coming with extension cord? All previous MacBooks came with one and this is the first time Apple is making you buy such a simple part? It should come free like it always has. 
    Because its a non-issue....
  • Reply 42 of 80
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member

    xixo said:
    dcgoo said:
    What? ...not a word about the massively fast SSD?  I came from an early 2013 MBP, the storage performance is incredible! 
    nor a word about the total lack of upgradability of the SSD, or general lack of serviceability / repairability
    https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Touch+Bar+Teardown/73480

    if there turn out to be engineering errors, great sadness will ensue
    https://www.google.com/search?q=mbp+2011+gpu+failure&ie=UTF-8

    consumer value: one star
    shareholder value: five stars

    My god give it a fucking rest already! Don't buy it then! Bitching in a forum isn't going to make Apple all of a sudden stop making these and re-engineer the logic board to fit a removable SSD. If Apple doesn't sell these then they'll go back to the drawing board and try again, but judging from initial sales people don't really care and I don't think they really have for quite some time now. People don't want to screw around with a computer...they just want to use it and do work. 

    I bet 0.00000001% of people repair their own computer if it does happen to have an issue. This isn't the 90's anymore where everything is removable/repairable. A lot of things are going that way, TV's, cars, computers, printers, etc. Its the world we live in now so deal with it! There's this thing call an Apple Store you can take your Mac to if something happens. They can fix it for you. Cool huh?

    The Google link is absolutely worthless. If the GPU fails in a laptop you have to replace the entire logic board anyways. That would be true of ANY laptop, Mac, Windows, Linux, etc with the exception of a gaming laptop that "may" have a removable video card. I don't get what you're trying to prove with that link. 

    Why don't you complain that the iPad doesn't have removable storage? Its a computer too...just a computer in your hands. Hell, why not put a 7200 RPM hard drive in the next iPhone just so you can upgrade/remove it whenever you feel like it! 

    edited November 2016 anomewatto_cobraStrangeDaysadmiral.ashik
  • Reply 43 of 80
    xixo said:
    dcgoo said:
    What? ...not a word about the massively fast SSD?  I came from an early 2013 MBP, the storage performance is incredible! 
    nor a word about the total lack of upgradability of the SSD, or general lack of serviceability / repairability
    https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Touch+Bar+Teardown/73480

    if there turn out to be engineering errors, great sadness will ensue
    https://www.google.com/search?q=mbp+2011+gpu+failure&ie=UTF-8

    consumer value: one star
    shareholder value: five stars
    When the logic board fails, then you'll bring your Macbook to an authorized service provider or Genius Bar. You won't disassemble your computer first and slide the removable SSD in your pocket, right? Do you leave your car to the service by disassembling first to keep the critical components? Since you use Google so cleverly perform a search for this too: "back up a computer".

    Besides, Apple really thought about that and to prevent the ones like you from pulling the soldered SSD apart they have conceived a special port to rescue SSD data.
    edited November 2016 macxpressStrangeDaysadmiral.ashik
  • Reply 44 of 80
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Soli said:
    paxman said:
    Having only played with this for some minutes in the Apple Store so this is an observation made on that, and not an 'opinion', but Mych as I like the touch bar I find it automatically sends my finger to the screen. I would make an adjustment on the bar and then go to move the image or cancel a command on the screen. There is a very natural connection between the touch bar and the screen. 
    1) You mean with the Touch Bar Control Center? I did that exactly once, today, when setting up a new MBP for my roommate. I don't expect that to be an issue or a common occurrence as the Touch Bar icon settings will altered less often then I alter my toolbar in Finder. Set it and forget it.

    2) I found the Touch Bar instantly useable and natural. In Safari it was great to tap the Address and Search Bar area of the Touch Bar and type in text instantly without having to move my hand down to the trackpad to then run the mouse to the top of the screen. This would be even worse if I had to lift my entire arm up to take a narrow bar at the top of my display so I can then bring it back down to type in text. I can't wait to get my own MBPwTB.
    I find that the touch bar enters 'touch' into the equation and without thinking I touched the screen to complete a command. First time was when I did some editing in Photos and decided to cancel, There was a prominent 'Cancel' button on the screen and I just intuitively went for it. Obviously it didn't work. When i couldn't find its equivalent on the toucher I used the trackpad and cursor. Then later I did something similar to bring focus to a window. The toucher is great and like you I found it instantly useful and intuitive, but I wonder if it is just a precursor to a touch screen. anMBP would not be anything 'less' with a touch screen, on the contrary. And even though OSX is not optimized for touch I see it as the difference between using a mouse and a trackpad. The trackpad is great but a pain for quick accurate moves such as in Photoshop or Excel. 
  • Reply 45 of 80
    k2kwk2kw Posts: 2,075member
    They should have taken this model and offered it as the new MacBook Air in two options
    1. 256GB with i3/8 GB RAM and 2 type C ports, MagSafe (or the smart connector from the iPad Pro for power) and 1 lightning port 

    2. 512GB with i5/16 GB and 2 type C ports, MagSafe and 1 lightning port, 1 3.5 headphone jack.

    Otherwise it's underpowered and overpriced.  I agree with the numerous comments about this not meeting the definition of Pro.

    TB is the consolation price for the fact that Apple can't do a full multitouch UI Mac.   There should be no price premium for it.


    edited November 2016
  • Reply 46 of 80
    k2kw said:
    They should have taken this model and offered it as the new MacBook Air in two options
    1. 256GB with i3/8 GB RAM and 2 type C ports, MagSafe (or the smart connector from the iPad Pro for power) and 1 lightning port 

    2. 512GB with i5/16 GB and 2 type C ports, MagSafe and 1 lightning port, 1 3.5 headphone jack.

    Otherwise it's underpowered and overpriced.  I agree with the numerous comments about this not meeting the definition of Pro.

    TB is the consolation price for the fact that Apple can't do a full multitouch UI Mac.   There should be no price premium for it.


    Lightning is already a stripped down Thunderbolt. So USB-C plus lightning doesn't make sense since Thunderbolt 3 already includes USB-C.

    Apple has never used i3 before, are you joking? Even the entry level Retina Macbook comes with mobile i7 (m7).

    There will be no more Macbook Air because it is not Retina. Its substitute is the Retina Macbook.

    Apple can do full multitouch UI Mac better than anyone because it has the Force Touch patents. Thanks to Force Touch, real point and click is possible on a touchscreen. But point and click is not everything, the finger is too cumbersome to replace the mouse pointer in precision data selection. You cannot do AutoCAD with your finger. Touch, mouse and stylus interfaces date back to 1960s, of all those interfaces only the mouse interface has survived.
    edited November 2016 admiral.ashik
  • Reply 47 of 80

    paxman said:
    Soli said:
    paxman said:
    Having only played with this for some minutes in the Apple Store so this is an observation made on that, and not an 'opinion', but Mych as I like the touch bar I find it automatically sends my finger to the screen. I would make an adjustment on the bar and then go to move the image or cancel a command on the screen. There is a very natural connection between the touch bar and the screen. 
    1) You mean with the Touch Bar Control Center? I did that exactly once, today, when setting up a new MBP for my roommate. I don't expect that to be an issue or a common occurrence as the Touch Bar icon settings will altered less often then I alter my toolbar in Finder. Set it and forget it.

    2) I found the Touch Bar instantly useable and natural. In Safari it was great to tap the Address and Search Bar area of the Touch Bar and type in text instantly without having to move my hand down to the trackpad to then run the mouse to the top of the screen. This would be even worse if I had to lift my entire arm up to take a narrow bar at the top of my display so I can then bring it back down to type in text. I can't wait to get my own MBPwTB.
    I find that the touch bar enters 'touch' into the equation and without thinking I touched the screen to complete a command. First time was when I did some editing in Photos and decided to cancel, There was a prominent 'Cancel' button on the screen and I just intuitively went for it. Obviously it didn't work. When i couldn't find its equivalent on the toucher I used the trackpad and cursor. 
    Escape is the equivalent of Cancel on the Touch Bar.
  • Reply 48 of 80
    Here's the problem. If anything goes bad on the motherboard, it's a replacement. Yea it doesn't happen often but the biggest issue is the SSD. What's the expected life of these? From Phil's comments, you should be upgrading every 3-4 max. If you're outside the one year warranty and SSD goes bad, new motherboard at the cost of what? 1k? When I could pick up a Samsung SSD for $150 on Amazon?

    Point is, who hasn't had a hard drive/ssd fail on them? If it does, it's a throw away device at that point. Just to re-iterate, it's not about the backup or data itself, it's about the cost of fixing an SSD failure.
    mainyehc
  • Reply 49 of 80
    "But you should know that if you're the type of person who shuts down your computer on a daily basis, you'll still be required to enter your password every time you reboot, negating at least some of the convenience of Touch ID."

    What type of person is that?  Do they exist?  Ever since Apple made it so sleep was close to "free" in terms of battery drain, I've stopped shutting down except when taking something apart.  And besides, shutting down and rebooting is so much slower than sleep/wake, why would such a person care about having to enter their password?
    daekwan said:
    I dont know any MacBook user who shuts down their notebook, instead of just closing the lid and opening it again when they need to use it later.

    I always shut down my Mac before stuffing it in my bag to change locations. It doesn't seem like a good idea to leave power applied to something that's being hauled around.
    why? 
  • Reply 50 of 80
    drewyboy said:
    Here's the problem. If anything goes bad on the motherboard, it's a replacement. Yea it doesn't happen often but the biggest issue is the SSD. What's the expected life of these? From Phil's comments, you should be upgrading every 3-4 max. If you're outside the one year warranty and SSD goes bad, new motherboard at the cost of what? 1k? When I could pick up a Samsung SSD for $150 on Amazon?

    Point is, who hasn't had a hard drive/ssd fail on them? If it does, it's a throw away device at that point. Just to re-iterate, it's not about the backup or data itself, it's about the cost of fixing an SSD failure.
    In four years your whole computer already becomes obsolete, except California and Turkey where the obsolescence period is seven years. As to expected life, the life of the iPads and iPhones should give you an idea. Apple's motherboard replacements never cost the price of a whole computer, but a third party removable equivalent SSD on NVMExpress may cost so.
    admiral.ashik
  • Reply 51 of 80
    netroxnetrox Posts: 1,415member
    Looks like there's so much confusion about the "USB-C ports" - they are NOT USB-C ports. They are Thunderbolt 3 (TB3) ports that uses the same USB-C interface. Unlike the standard USB-C protocol, the TB3 supports several protocols such as older Thunderbolts, HDMI, DVI, and USB. 

    You cannot have a Thunderbolt 3 device working on a USB-C port. It must have a TB3 port that just happens to have the USB-C interface. 





    avon b7chiaadmiral.ashik
  • Reply 52 of 80
    I imagine that I am not alone in that my MBP is usually connected to a large display and external keyboard, making the touch bar superfluous. It's a shame that it evidently adds $300 to the model I would want to buy. As for the serviceability, Apple does in fact provide excellent service to hardware. Over the years, I have had several screens replaced, all for very reasonable prices. Last week, I checked in for a battery replacement on my mid-2012 Retina MBP. The battery failed after 615 cycles, though 1000 cycles were expected. The result: Free replacement. While they were there, Apple decided my logic board might be bad. The result: Free replacement. Note that this machine has been out of Apple care for well over a year. Kudos to the company for supporting their hardware, even if the service is hard to perform. That being said, RAM and SSD prices surely will drop. It would be nice to imagine that I could upgrade my computer to extend it's life cycle.
    macplusplusadmiral.ashik
  • Reply 53 of 80
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    drewyboy said:
    Here's the problem. If anything goes bad on the motherboard, it's a replacement. Yea it doesn't happen often but the biggest issue is the SSD. What's the expected life of these? From Phil's comments, you should be upgrading every 3-4 max. If you're outside the one year warranty and SSD goes bad, new motherboard at the cost of what? 1k? When I could pick up a Samsung SSD for $150 on Amazon?

    Point is, who hasn't had a hard drive/ssd fail on them? If it does, it's a throw away device at that point. Just to re-iterate, it's not about the backup or data itself, it's about the cost of fixing an SSD failure.
    I don't know where people are getting these SSD failure thing from. Its never really been an issue with iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads, or previous Macs with SSD's in them. 

    To give you an idea, an Early 2013 Retina 15" MacBook Pro logic board replacement is $310, Apple flat rate fee (Includes Parts and Labor). So its not the cost of the entire laptop, not even close. 
  • Reply 54 of 80
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member

    mscohen said:
    I imagine that I am not alone in that my MBP is usually connected to a large display and external keyboard, making the touch bar superfluous. It's a shame that it evidently adds $300 to the model I would want to buy. As for the serviceability, Apple does in fact provide excellent service to hardware. Over the years, I have had several screens replaced, all for very reasonable prices. Last week, I checked in for a battery replacement on my mid-2012 Retina MBP. The battery failed after 615 cycles, though 1000 cycles were expected. The result: Free replacement. While they were there, Apple decided my logic board might be bad. The result: Free replacement. Note that this machine has been out of Apple care for well over a year. Kudos to the company for supporting their hardware, even if the service is hard to perform. That being said, RAM and SSD prices surely will drop. It would be nice to imagine that I could upgrade my computer to extend it's life cycle.

    I wouldn't think the majority of users connect to a display. Apple knows this stuff more than we do through. They know they're market far better than we can ever imagine. 
    StrangeDaysadmiral.ashik
  • Reply 55 of 80
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member

    "But you should know that if you're the type of person who shuts down your computer on a daily basis, you'll still be required to enter your password every time you reboot, negating at least some of the convenience of Touch ID."

    What type of person is that?  Do they exist?  Ever since Apple made it so sleep was close to "free" in terms of battery drain, I've stopped shutting down except when taking something apart.  And besides, shutting down and rebooting is so much slower than sleep/wake, why would such a person care about having to enter their password?
    daekwan said:
    I dont know any MacBook user who shuts down their notebook, instead of just closing the lid and opening it again when they need to use it later.

    I always shut down my Mac before stuffing it in my bag to change locations. It doesn't seem like a good idea to leave power applied to something that's being hauled around.
    why? 

    I wouldn't trust it either. It could wake itself up and then overheat it your bag. I have a teacher that had this happen to their Early 2013 MacBook Pro Retina. Needs a logic board replacement now. 
  • Reply 56 of 80
    Soli said:
    I always shut down my Mac before stuffing it in my bag to change locations. It doesn't seem like a good idea to leave power applied to something that's being hauled around.
    1) Define changing locations.

    2) Why don't you think it's a good idea when there has been so much effort put into reducing the power draw when it's not in use, especially with the lid closed. Do you also shutdown your iPhone or iPad when you're going to changing locations because "it doesn't seem like a good idea to leave power applied to something that's being hauled around"?
    I also always shut down my MacBook(s) when changing locations. I manage IT security for my organization and this is simply good practice from that point of view. Some of the benefits of using Filevault are negated by leaving your computer in a non-powered off state. To answer your questions (not addressed to me ;) ):

    1. For me changing locations means leaving one site and going to another (work to home or vice versa, for example), or anytime that I may find myself leaving my computer out of my sight when it's not in my office. If I'm using it at home and I leave the house, it also gets turned off then. 

    2. (Two part question): 
    a. There are methods to access storage and memory content if a computer is hibernating. It is *very* unlikely that a run of the mill thief would be interested in (or able to) do such a thing, but if my computer(s) go missing then I am answerable for the potential exposure of sensitive information. It is *far* better to be able to say, "The computer was encrypted and there is no known way to access the information on it" than, "It is encrypted, but the information on it could be access, but it's unlikely that the person who has it would do such a thing." 

    b. I turn my iOS devices off if they're likely to be out of my possession. In particular, I do this when going through security checkpoints or crossing borders. 

    As I said, I do IT security for a living, so my view of reasonable behaviour may seem paranoid to normal and well adjusted people ;) On the other hand, these are best practices in my circles and I recommend them to my user community so I make sure that I practice what I preach. 
  • Reply 57 of 80
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    paxman said:
    Soli said:
    paxman said:
    Having only played with this for some minutes in the Apple Store so this is an observation made on that, and not an 'opinion', but Mych as I like the touch bar I find it automatically sends my finger to the screen. I would make an adjustment on the bar and then go to move the image or cancel a command on the screen. There is a very natural connection between the touch bar and the screen. 
    1) You mean with the Touch Bar Control Center? I did that exactly once, today, when setting up a new MBP for my roommate. I don't expect that to be an issue or a common occurrence as the Touch Bar icon settings will altered less often then I alter my toolbar in Finder. Set it and forget it.

    2) I found the Touch Bar instantly useable and natural. In Safari it was great to tap the Address and Search Bar area of the Touch Bar and type in text instantly without having to move my hand down to the trackpad to then run the mouse to the top of the screen. This would be even worse if I had to lift my entire arm up to take a narrow bar at the top of my display so I can then bring it back down to type in text. I can't wait to get my own MBPwTB.
    I find that the touch bar enters 'touch' into the equation and without thinking I touched the screen to complete a command. First time was when I did some editing in Photos and decided to cancel, There was a prominent 'Cancel' button on the screen and I just intuitively went for it. Obviously it didn't work. When i couldn't find its equivalent on the toucher I used the trackpad and cursor. Then later I did something similar to bring focus to a window. The toucher is great and like you I found it instantly useful and intuitive, but I wonder if it is just a precursor to a touch screen. anMBP would not be anything 'less' with a touch screen, on the contrary. And even though OSX is not optimized for touch I see it as the difference between using a mouse and a trackpad. The trackpad is great but a pain for quick accurate moves such as in Photoshop or Excel. 
    1) I didn't experience your Photos issue. There certainly could be bugs with this new and complex tech. Remember it's being controlled by a T1 chip that is running another version of OS X based off of watchOS.

    2) I don't think it's a precursor to a touchscreen Mac as Apple could have done that years ago. A touchscreen display for a WinOEM is easy because it requires no complex synergy between the OS and HW on their part, much less a specially designed chip with it's own OS, additions to macOS to support the Touch Bar options, inclusions in every app, and developer APIs to unleash its potential. While Apple may eventually release a Mac with a full touchscreen, the Touch Bar is its own wonderful creation. My desire going on a decade now was for the trackpad to be an OLED display (imagine a calculator or audio equalizer on it) but my hands would usually be covering that up. The Touch Bar is overall a much better solution to a dynamic keyboard/trackpad element that you can easily manipulate.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 58 of 80
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member

    Soli said:
    I always shut down my Mac before stuffing it in my bag to change locations. It doesn't seem like a good idea to leave power applied to something that's being hauled around.
    1) Define changing locations.

    2) Why don't you think it's a good idea when there has been so much effort put into reducing the power draw when it's not in use, especially with the lid closed. Do you also shutdown your iPhone or iPad when you're going to changing locations because "it doesn't seem like a good idea to leave power applied to something that's being hauled around"?
    I also always shut down my MacBook(s) when changing locations. I manage IT security for my organization and this is simply good practice from that point of view. Some of the benefits of using Filevault are negated by leaving your computer in a non-powered off state. To answer your questions (not addressed to me ):

    1. For me changing locations means leaving one site and going to another (work to home or vice versa, for example), or anytime that I may find myself leaving my computer out of my sight when it's not in my office. If I'm using it at home and I leave the house, it also gets turned off then. 

    2. (Two part question): 
    a. There are methods to access storage and memory content if a computer is hibernating. It is *very* unlikely that a run of the mill thief would be interested in (or able to) do such a thing, but if my computer(s) go missing then I am answerable for the potential exposure of sensitive information. It is *far* better to be able to say, "The computer was encrypted and there is no known way to access the information on it" than, "It is encrypted, but the information on it could be access, but it's unlikely that the person who has it would do such a thing." 

    b. I turn my iOS devices off if they're likely to be out of my possession. In particular, I do this when going through security checkpoints or crossing borders. 

    As I said, I do IT security for a living, so my view of reasonable behaviour may seem paranoid to normal and well adjusted people On the other hand, these are best practices in my circles and I recommend them to my user community so I make sure that I practice what I preach. 
    1) Thanks for the detailed answer, but I still don't get how turning off your Mac from "work to home" but not your iOS devices when these things are still in your possession is efficient. If I'm traveling a long distance without using the machine or crossing borders I will turn it off, but I assume when you say "work to home" you're not talking about international or even interstate travel.

    2) One thing I've been wanting since Touch ID came out is a poison finger option. One Touch ID print that when used will lock down the device until the passcode has been successfully used. Touch ID on the new MBP will now allow you to create your own poison finger solution. Since it will auto-switch accounts with Touch ID, you create a fail sake account, assign it a special fingerprint, and then scripts that will auto-launch that will force shutdown the Mac. I haven't gotten mine yet so I haven't used Automator to write the proper commands, but it might be as simple as the Terminal command:

    sudo shutdown -h now


    edited November 2016 Eric_WVGGStrangeDaysadmiral.ashik
  • Reply 59 of 80
    Soli said:

    Soli said:
    I always shut down my Mac before stuffing it in my bag to change locations. It doesn't seem like a good idea to leave power applied to something that's being hauled around.
    1) Define changing locations.


    I also always shut down my MacBook(s) when changing locations. I manage IT security for my organization and this is simply good practice from that point of view. Some of the benefits of using Filevault are negated by leaving your computer in a non-powered off state. To answer your questions (not addressed to me ):

    1. For me changing locations means leaving one site and going to another (work to home or vice versa, for example), or anytime that I may find myself leaving my computer out of my sight when it's not in my office. If I'm using it at home and I leave the house, it also gets turned off then. 
    1) Thanks for the detailed answer, but I still don't get how turning off your Mac from "work to home" but not your iOS devices when these things are still in your possession is efficient. If I'm traveling a long distance without using the machine or crossing borders I will turn it off, but I assume when you say "work to home" you're not talking about international or even interstate travel.
    It's not impossible that I have to run an errand on my way home from work and that may mean my leaving my computer in the car (locked in the trunk) while I go to the store or some such thing. Even if I carry my computer bag with me, there is always a chance that it can be put down and left behind (at a restaurant, for example). I just make it a habit to shutdown my computers when I'm moving from site to site; that way there is never, ever a question of what state they were in should they be lost or stolen.

    My iPhone tends to be on my person or beside me pretty much 100% of the time, so the times when it's "necessary" to shut it down are far less frequent. Also, the iOS devices have a few more safeguards that make data recovery much more difficult than on Macs (even with Filevault). They also tend to have better network connectivity which makes remote wipe far more reliable. 

    You (and I) may think that it's highly unlikely that we'd ever lose a computer, but in an organization of any size, that happens a non-insignificant number of times. It's happened several times at my workplace during my tenure as the ITSO, which is why I recommend that computers be powered down when in site to site transit. If I recommend it for others, then I do it myself. 

    Edit to add: Powering down and starting up my computers takes about 20 seconds each way, so it's really not much of an inconvenience to me. Your mileage may vary, of course. 
    edited November 2016 roundaboutnow
  • Reply 60 of 80
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Soli said:
    paxman said:
    Soli said:
    paxman said:
    Having only played with this for some minutes in the Apple Store so this is an observation made on that, and not an 'opinion', but Mych as I like the touch bar I find it automatically sends my finger to the screen. I would make an adjustment on the bar and then go to move the image or cancel a command on the screen. There is a very natural connection between the touch bar and the screen. 
    1) You mean with the Touch Bar Control Center? I did that exactly once, today, when setting up a new MBP for my roommate. I don't expect that to be an issue or a common occurrence as the Touch Bar icon settings will altered less often then I alter my toolbar in Finder. Set it and forget it.

    2) I found the Touch Bar instantly useable and natural. In Safari it was great to tap the Address and Search Bar area of the Touch Bar and type in text instantly without having to move my hand down to the trackpad to then run the mouse to the top of the screen. This would be even worse if I had to lift my entire arm up to take a narrow bar at the top of my display so I can then bring it back down to type in text. I can't wait to get my own MBPwTB.
    I find that the touch bar enters 'touch' into the equation and without thinking I touched the screen to complete a command. First time was when I did some editing in Photos and decided to cancel, There was a prominent 'Cancel' button on the screen and I just intuitively went for it. Obviously it didn't work. When i couldn't find its equivalent on the toucher I used the trackpad and cursor. Then later I did something similar to bring focus to a window. The toucher is great and like you I found it instantly useful and intuitive, but I wonder if it is just a precursor to a touch screen. anMBP would not be anything 'less' with a touch screen, on the contrary. And even though OSX is not optimized for touch I see it as the difference between using a mouse and a trackpad. The trackpad is great but a pain for quick accurate moves such as in Photoshop or Excel. 
    1) I didn't experience your Photos issue. There certainly could be bugs with this new and complex tech. Remember it's being controlled by a T1 chip that is running another version of OS X based off of watchOS.

    2) I don't think it's a precursor to a touchscreen Mac as Apple could have done that years ago. A touchscreen display for a WinOEM is easy because it requires no complex synergy between the OS and HW on their part, much less a specially designed chip with it's own OS, additions to macOS to support the Touch Bar options, inclusions in every app, and developer APIs to unleash its potential. While Apple may eventually release a Mac with a full touchscreen, the Touch Bar is its own wonderful creation. My desire going on a decade now was for the trackpad to be an OLED display (imagine a calculator or audio equalizer on it) but my hands would usually be covering that up. The Touch Bar is overall a much better solution to a dynamic keyboard/trackpad element that you can easily manipulate.
    I too, have thought the trackpad the ideal touch screen accompaniment to a Mac. In my mind it still would be but I have spent too little time with the touchbar to make a proper assessment. I look forward to hearing what users and pro users (as in people for whom the computer itself is a creative tool), rate it in the future. 
    roundaboutnowadmiral.ashik
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