Touch bar for minimalists
I didn’t want the touch bar, but there it is, glowing above my keyboard. The only way to get the fastest MacBook Pro, with the biggest harddrive, and the most ports is to also get the touch bar. So let’s learn to live with it.
It’s fascinating that Apple has pitched the touch bar as a pro feature. I’ve personally found it to have no value[0]— it’s far simpler (and more “pro”) to learn the keyboard shortcuts for common commands than shift focus down, find a button (that doesn’t feel like a button), and then shift focus back up to the screen. And navigation, for example, by tiny-scrubbing in Photos.app, is more complicated than scrubbing or scrolling with the trackpad; a part of the laptop you’re probably already touching (and is much easier to hit without looking).[1]
That said, the touch bar is a brilliant addition for non-pro users. For example, my mother will never learn how to flag a message in Mail.app via a keyboard shortcut (or even hunt for it through menus or notice it up in the menu bar), but that function is now clearly revealed, beautifully, in color. I guess there’s something intuitive about that. Same for Photos.app and photo editing. Currently, the touch bar seems to best operate as a replication of the most useful interface elements…
