markbriton

A lament for the Touch Bar

markbriton

October 2023

I’ll miss the Touch Bar. I totally understand why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I wish it could remain as an optional extra for the small number of people who love it like me.

As others have said, the slider controls for volume, brightness and scrubbers are what I use most often, but I also like the share button to quickly airdrop, and the ‘OK’ ‘Cancel’ etc for dialog boxes - that’s the only one I’ve got some muscle memory for, probably because it’s one of the few features that’s system wide.

Plus I still smile at the ‘Unlock With Touch ID’ animation as it points me to the touch key; it reminds me of the magic when I held the first iPhone and saw that (then) futuristic ‘Swipe to Unlock’ animation. Beautiful.

Great article. It wasn’t all your fault Touch Bar! Now I guess it’s back to hammering the old ‘volume up’ and ‘volume down’ keys.

RIP Touch Bar -- Apple sends the 13-inch MacBook Pro to the grave

markbriton

October 2023

I’m a member of the Touch Bar Fan Club, but admittedly not many people signed up for our Halloween Social this year. That crazy Touch Bar had so much potential, but she never got the care and attention she deserved. She died so young. Gone but not forgotten, rest in peace.

Apple's 'Mother Nature' sketch was a complete dud, and didn't belong in the iPhone 15 even...

markbriton

September 2023

mike eggleston said:

When I was watching it live, I thought the skit was out of place initially only because it seemed weird to have during the product announcements. Then Apple started using it during the product announcements as a way to show that they were going to be hitting all of their carbon neutral goals on or before 2030, including some NOW.

And that was the big takeaway here. That they are already meeting not some far-off plan of "we will get there". No, it is the here and now, and moving forward. That is the takeaway. They are stating that Apple Watch is 100% carbon neutral. That is a huge step forward! There are 18 Tech/Software companies that are already 100% Carbon Neutral, and none of them are from the major players. (Link: https://www.climateneutral.org/certified-brands?industry=Software%20%2B%20Tech)

If all you saw was people trying to be funny about a serious discussion, you were not paying attention at all. 100% clean energy usage in every Apple store, office, and data center is an AMAZING accomplishment. If you have never worked in a data center, they gobble up electricity much like what would happen if an entire Kindergarten class could consume sugar if they had unfettered access to Willy Wonka's factory. I think it is safe to assume that Apple has a much larger data center than that of your standard data center. Not to mention reduction of water, using cleaner modes of transportation, and other aspects that they did (reforestation is not a small accomplishment).

Sure, we could all be snide about this, and ask why they put this in there. I think the better question should be, why doesn't anyone else?

I agree, Apple has every right to shout about those achievements. I’m not sure it was the best way to shout about them, and I think some people missed the point of it; Apple was throwing serious shade at its competitors, suggesting that they’re greenwashing, whereas Apple is actually taking action. I found it a bit jarring, but then again if the aim was to get people talking about, it seems to have worked.

Everything Apple Sherlocked in macOS Ventura, iOS 16, and iPadOS 16

markbriton

June 2022

I’m just jumping in to show some love for the Touch Bar! I totally understand why it’s not for everyone, but I was really pleased to see it survive. I’m someone who hardly ever used function keys in the first place, so the Touch Bar is a nice little feature for me that I use occasionally, certainly more than I ever used that row of keys before. I wish developers would show it a bit more love, but now that it seems banished to the 13” MBP only, I fear it’s days are numbered. Personally I think it should be an option on all the MBPs, I’d happily pay a little extra for it, but it sounds like I might be the only one!