One of the best technical MacBook Pro Touch Bar reviews I’ve yet read. Lots of detail, pictures, along with the Touch Bar video embedded in the main post.
Nice job by Andrew Cunningham. Lots of little details, especially useful if you are comparing 13″ and 15″ or Touch Bar, non-Touch Bar models.
Want to get a sense of the game? Go here. And be sure to click the arrows on the side of the screen. There’s lots of content here, all designed to whet your appetite for the game.
This is a bit of a long post, too multi-faceted to do it justice with a few call outs. But this one paragraph resonates big time:
To me, an iPad in notebook mode — connected to a keyboard cover — is so much less nice than a real notebook. And the difference is more stark when compared to a great notebook, like these MacBook Pros. There are advantages to the tablet form factor, but no tablet will ever be as nice as a notebook as these MacBook Pros. I also prefer MacOS over iOS for, well, “doing work”. I think I’m more productive on a Mac than I am on an iPad. I can’t prove it, but even if I’m wrong, the fact that I feel like it’s true matters. I always feel slightly hamstrung working on an iPad. I never do on a Mac (at least once I’ve got it configured with all the apps and little shortcuts, scripts, and utilities I use).
I love the idea of the Touch Bar, happy to have more functionality on my Mac. But the key element that keeps me on my Mac is the idea of a pointer I can leave in place. I move my mouse cursor to a spot and it stays there, marking time, at that exact same location, until I move it. Selecting and manipulating, copying and pasting text is another element I find superior in macOS.
I love my iPhone and iPad, use both every day, but for creating content, nothing compares to sitting down at my Mac.
This is one of my favorite iFixit teardowns. More humor, and more surprises (like step 13, where we learn something interesting about the speaker grills, no doubt a basic difference between the 13″ and 15″ models).
Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:
Earlier this year, Apple promised it would clean up its iOS App Store by removing outdated, abandoned apps, including those that no longer meet current guidelines or don’t function as intended. That great App Store purge now appears to be underway, according to new data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The company found that app removals increased by 238 percent in October 2016, with mobile games seeing the most deletions.
Apple had originally stated that the deadline for developers who wanted their outdated apps spared was September 7, 2016. However, Apple didn’t take immediate action during the month in terms of large-scale removals.
That seems to have changed in October, when 47,300 apps were removed from the App Store, Sensor Tower discovered.
And while it’s true that Apple does delete apps on a regular basis, this figure is around 3.4 times higher than the monthly average of 14,000 for the months of January through September.
Apple sent out a letter to developers on September 1 hinting that this day was coming.
Steven Aquino, who writes a lot about accessibility, writing for The App Factor:
As I reported last February, the initial version of Apple Music was mired by a confusing design and, more importantly, less than stellar accessibility. These issues weren’t severe enough to drive me away from the product, but they certainly put a damper on an otherwise solid experience.
Then came good news. With the advent of iOS 10 came an all-new, totally redesigned Apple Music that addressed both of my biggest gripes about 1.0. Streaming and downloaded music are now clearly marked, but the big win for me is the app is much more visually accessible.
And:
From an accessibility perspective, it’s the bigness and boldness that make Apple Music shine in iOS 10. First and foremost, the Dynamic Type is pervasive throughout the app. Headers are ginormous. Whereas previously I had trouble reading Editors’ Notes and track listings, I now can read them fine. The larger text is boosted by the higher contrast, as areas such as the Now Playing screen eschew form for function. It may not look pretty, but the plain background of the Now Playing screen coupled with the large type makes text jump off the screen. This lessens eye strain and fatigue, which happens fast, because I don’t struggle to find things.
There’s lots more to this, both in terms of size (bigger icons are kinder to people with limited vision), and in terms of basic interface improvements (adding demarcations to make it easier to find your way around).
As always, solid insights from Steven Aquino.
Wallpaper.com, on the new book, Designed by Apple in California:
This is a comprehensive and objective portrait of Apple products produced over the past 20 years. ‘It is a book with very few words,’ writes Sir Jony Ive in the foreword. ‘It is about our products, their physical nature and how they were made.’ The pages that follow trace two stratospheric decades of product design with the effortlessness that’s become synonymous with the company.
It is a quiet and elegant work, a high-quality piece of book design, typography and production. It is far from a show-off vanity project. Great care, time – and money – has been spent on making it a paean to good, useful design and manufacturing. It is also of course a paean to Steve Jobs. In the five years since his death, Apple has forged on without him. Designed by Apple in California is a tribute both to him, and to the products that have shaped our future.
What follows is an interview with Sir Jony. Well worth the read.
Coinciding with Apple’s new photo book, “Designed by Apple in California”, Jony Ive did an interview with Japanese design firm Casa Brutus.
Here’s a link to the interview (in Japanese). If anyone knows of an English translation, please tweet me a link and I’ll update this post.
Embedded in the main post is a video Casa Brutus posted this morning, Jony Ive talking about the design process.
Steven Levy, Editor of Backchannel:
Fortunately, I do not have to make guesses at what’s going on in Apple’s mind. Perhaps motivated by the grumbling in rainbow-fruit land, Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller came to the phone last week to decode the company’s motivations, and stridently counter the cavils of the doubters.
And, from Phil Schiller:
“If we were to do Multi-Touch on the screen of the notebook, that wouldn’t be enough — then the desktop wouldn’t work that way.” And touch on the desktop, he says, would be a disaster. “Can you imagine a 27-inch iMac where you have to reach over the air to try to touch and do things? That becomes absurd.” He also explains that such a move would mean totally redesigning the menu bar for fingers, in a way that would ruin the experience for those using pointer devices like the touch or mouse. “You can’t optimize for both,” he says. “It’s the lowest common denominator thinking.”
And:
“This notebook design has been with us for 25 years and that fills a need for many people,” he says. “Having an interactive place where your hands are down on the keyboard is celebrating what makes a notebook a great notebook.”
And:
Another key variable is whether web services will be able make use of the bar. Schiller says only, “There is opportunity for that.” As for now, the Touch Bar pushes you to use Apple’s own browser, Safari. Writing this review now on the Medium online platform, I get word suggestions when using Safari, but not on Chrome.
And, to sum up, from Steven:
I am still not totally convinced that this innovation — and yes, I will call it that — is really transformative, and not just a cool way to save a few seconds here and there.
Lots more to this, a great read.
Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. is weighing an expansion into digital glasses, a risky but potentially lucrative area of wearable computing, according to people familiar with the matter.
While still in an exploration phase, the device would connect wirelessly to iPhones, show images and other information in the wearer’s field of vision, and may use augmented reality, the people said. They asked not to be identified speaking about a secret project.
Apple has talked about its glasses project with potential suppliers, according to people familiar with those discussions. The company has ordered small quantities of near-eye displays from one supplier for testing, the people said. Apple hasn’t ordered enough components so far to indicate imminent mass-production, one of the people added.
If true, it’ll be interesting to see what Apple does differently than Google did with Glass. This is an area where subtlety of design will make all the difference.
My favorite part of this article is the set of Touch Bar screen grabs at the very top. Nice job by Jordan Kahn.
From Apple’s news release:
Apple today announced the release of a new hardbound book chronicling 20 years of Apple’s design, expressed through 450 photographs of past and current Apple products. “Designed by Apple in California,” which covers products from 1998’s iMac to 2015’s Apple Pencil, also documents the materials and techniques used by Apple’s design team over two decades of innovation.
The book is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs.
And:
“The idea of genuinely trying to make something great for humanity was Steve’s motivation from the beginning, and it remains both our ideal and our goal as Apple looks to the future,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer. “This archive is intended to be a gentle gathering of many of the products the team has designed over the years. We hope it brings some understanding to how and why they exist, while serving as a resource for students of all design disciplines.”
The book is available in two sizes:
Twenty years takes us back to 1996, the year CEO Gil Amelio made one of the most important decisions of his tenure, starting the process of bringing Steve Jobs back to Apple. The NeXT deal was finalized on February 9, 1997.
Apple news release:
Apple Pay is making it easier and more secure to donate to your favorite nonprofit organizations with just a touch. Apple Pay support for charitable donations kicks off today with nonprofits ranging from global organizations such as UNICEF to startups like charity: water, and more nonprofits will offer Apple Pay over the coming months so their supporters can make easy, secure and private payments.
Giving has never been so simple — by eliminating the need to enter billing and contact info, create an account or fill out long forms to check out, Apple Pay gives nonprofit supporters a way to donate instantly.
What’s most interesting about this article is that the most innovative company (Apple) is not even on the list of top 10 in R&D spending. Number one on that list? Volkswagen AG, followed closely by Samsung.
Glenn Fleishman, Macworld [AUTOPLAY, grrr]:
When I tested disabling and re-enabling iCloud sync, as Joe’s wife did, I was told I didn’t have enough storage at iCloud, even though I had nearly 90GB free and my library is about 115GB. That library was already stored in iCloud in identical form.
Instead of first comparing photos in iCloud with those on my system, I wasn’t able to proceed without upgrading my storage and then later downgrading it. (Apple lacks automatic pro-rated refunds, and even though it says you can email to obtain such a refund, I received no response to my email.)
There’s some sense in this: Apple doesn’t want you to start an operation that will fail. But it could also predict whether it would work or not.
Glenn digs in to a real problem, an edge condition with iCloud sync when you hit the limits of storage on a very temporary basis.
[VIDEO]: Jason Snell, Six Colors:
To balance out the design, the Touch Bar’s OLED screen doesn’t extend all the way to the left edge of the glass. As a result, the Touch Bar always appears inset from the rest of the keyboard. It’s a bit weird. Fortunately, it appears that touch sensitivity extends a bit past the end of the display itself—when I tapped the corner of the Touch Bar, reflexively reaching for the Escape key, my touch would still trigger that key—even though my finger wasn’t actually touching the part of the Touch Bar displaying the virtual Escape key.
(It took me a few days to get used to the presence of the Touch Bar. Until then, I found that my pinky would slide off the carat key and make contact with the Touch Bar, triggering the virtual Escape key. I’ve trained myself not to let my finger stray up into the Touch Bar accidentally, but it was an adaptation.)
And:
The Touch Bar is an animated interface through and through. Items don’t just fade in and out, but also slide smoothly back and forth. The arrow pointing from the Touch Bar to the Touch ID sensor during a request for an unlock grows and shrinks, practically begging you to put your finger down. There’s a lot more personality here than I expected.
This is a good read, with lots of pictures and the video embedded in the main post. A review worth reading.
Walt Mossberg, The Verge, reviewing a 13-inch Touch Bar MacBook Pro:
Apple is realigning its familiar laptop line, dramatically reshaping and in some ways merging the favorite options for both heavy-duty “pro” users and everyday customers. And the poster child for this more muddled future is the pricey new MacBook Pro
And:
The Pro, once mainly aimed straight at people who do especially taxing work like professional video editing or serious design, is now being stretched to suit a much larger audience.
Thus the term “tweener”.
Walt noted that the MacBook Pro’s battery life was wildly inconsistent:
On my rigorous test, which I’ve used for years, the machine actually exceeded Apple’s claim of up to 10 hours of battery life. The test involves setting the screen at 100 percent, keeping it on and undimmed constantly, playing an endless loop of music, and leaving Wi-Fi on to collect email, tweets, and Facebook posts in the background. Result: 11 hours and 38 minutes.
But then:
I ran a second test with all of Apple’s default energy-saving settings on, the screen at 75 percent and a perfectly normal (for me) mix of tasks like web browsing, email, a few short videos, Twitter, Facebook, some light writing, and Slack. The Pro died at 8 hours and 22 minutes.
To make things worse, Apple’s built-in prediction of how much time the battery had left before dying fluctuated a lot and was mostly wrong (Apple says this is a known problem caused by the fact that modern processors can power up and down rapidly over a much wider range than in the past, making estimates much more difficult.)
Interesting. Hopefully, this will get better over time as Apple collects usage data, gets their arms around the problem.
Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition is, basically, an emulator in a box, emulating the original Nintendo Entertainment System, with 30 of the original games, including favorites like the original Metroid and Legend of Zelda. The retail price is US$59.95.
The system goes on sale today but, at the moment, is only available in stores in limited quantity. It’s not yet clear if it will ever be available online. If you want one, I’d suggest heading over to your local Target, Best Buy, Walmart, etc. today.
Here’s a review of the unit and games.
And here’s an article talking about the best way to get your hands on one.
If anyone gets one, please tweet at me with details. Where’d you get it? Is it a holiday gift? Have you had the chance to try it out?
My prediction? This will be a scorchingly hot holiday gift. Ebay resellers will make a mint.
Thomas Grove Carter, the video editor whose review of the MacBook Pro was highlighted in this previous post, tweeted this animated GIF showing off the Touch Bar sliders interacting with Final Cut Pro X.
The video first shows a volume slider, so make sure your sound is on. The second half shows the insertion of key frames in a video sequence. As you watch that part, keep in mind that his left hand is on the track pad, moving the mouse cursor, while he uses his right hand on the Touch Bar slider to adjust the key frame.
As Carter said in his review, the whole interaction is “buttery smooth”.
Thomas Grove Carter, video editor at Trim Editing in London:
On the 27th October Apple unveiled their new line of MacBook Pros. Since then half of what I read online seems to be “Professionals” (those guys), telling me it’s not Pro at all, not Pro enough or not the right kind of Pro. How many of these people have even touched the new devices?
Very few.
I’ve been using the new 15” MacBook Pro (with Touch Bar) for the last week or so for actual work, so here’s my “Professional” opinion.
And:
First off, It’s really fast. I’ve been using the MacBook Pro with the new version of FCP X and cutting 5k ProRes material all week, it’s buttery smooth. No matter what you think the specs say, the fact is the software and hardware are so well integrated it tears strips off “superior spec’d” Windows counterparts in the real world.
And:
The version I’ve been using is powerful enough on the graphics front to power two 5K displays, which is an insane number of pixels.
And:
I was very skeptical about the addition of the Touch Bar. It looked like the result of an incestuous fling between a keyboard and an iPad mini (with Retina display). But I also felt skeptical about insert tech you use all the time now originally too. Once you begin to use it, you’ll see. Your cold heart will soften.
The first revelation for me was the potential of sliders. Gradual, precise and fast inputs.
Clearly, Carter loves his new MacBook Pro, appreciates the Touch Bar functionality and, most importantly, sees the new MacBook Pro as a technological step forward.
I’m looking forward to the coming wave of videos showing the Touch Bar in action.
Juli Clover, MacRumors:
The first 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models equipped with a Touch Bar will soon be making it into the hands of customers, as initial MacBook Pro orders have shifted into the “Preparing for Shipment” stage.
Customers who ordered a MacBook Pro right when it became available for purchase on October 27 received shipping estimates ranging from November 17 to November 25, and with orders ready to go, it appears customers will begin receiving their machines next week.
Here they come. Looking forward to a wave of video reviews, getting to see what Touch Bar can do in real life.
Sam Shead, writing for Business Insider:
Apple is looking to increase the size of its Siri team in Cambridge, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
In a bid to make Siri that bit more useful to iPhone, iPad and Mac owners, Apple intends to hire at least half a dozen software engineers in Cambridge in the coming months.
And:
Apple’s Cambridge office is home to many of the employees from VocalIQ — a voice recognition startup that was spun out from the university and acquired by Apple in 2015 for up to $100 million (£80 million).
Notably, one of Apple’s open job requisitions is for a Siri Operations Engineer in Cambridge.
Dan Goodwin, writing for Ars Technica:
For almost five months—possibly longer—the Spotify music streaming app has been assaulting users’ storage devices with enough data to potentially take years off their expected lifespans. Reports of tens or in some cases hundreds of gigabytes being written in an hour aren’t uncommon, and occasionally the recorded amounts are measured in terabytes. The overload happens even when Spotify is idle and isn’t storing any songs locally.
And:
Spotify officials hadn’t responded to Ars questions more than two days after they were sent. According to comments left in the Spotify forum in the past 24 hours, the bug has been fixed in version 1.0.42, which is in the process of being rolled out. The update remains unavailable to many users, this reporter included. And that means Spotify’s drive-assaulting behavior continues unabated for many.
Sounds like, if you use Spotify, get the update or disable it.
I found this year’s guide much simpler than last year’s. Interestingly, the MacBook is listed, but not the new MacBook Pro.
Jason Snell, writing for Macworld:
I can’t imagine a future Mac laptop with an iPad where the keyboard should be, but with a few additional bits of technology, it seems a lot less wild an idea.
As someone who enjoys typing on a physical keyboard, I’m vaguely nauseated by the idea of a keyboard that’s just a sheet of glass–but the travel on the MacBook Pro keyboard is so small already, would it be that different to remove it altogether?
And:
You can’t operate a touch-screen keyboard by feel, because the act of feeling it causes it to react.
Unless you built in pressure sensitivity that would allow that surface to react differently to hard typing taps.
By a long, long shot, I prefer a physical keyboard to one presented on a sheet of glass. As Jason says, it’s all about feel. Is it possible to use taptic feedback to improve a touch keyboard to the point where it approaches the feel of a physical keyboard?
Interesting read.
Tim Cook sent out the following email to all Apple employees last night:
Team,
I’ve heard from many of you today about the presidential election. In a political contest where the candidates were so different and each received a similar number of popular votes, it’s inevitable that the aftermath leaves many of you with strong feelings.
We have a very diverse team of employees, including supporters of each of the candidates. Regardless of which candidate each of us supported as individuals, the only way to move forward is to move forward together. I recall something Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said 50 years ago: “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” This advice is timeless, and a reminder that we only do great work and improve the world by moving forward.
While there is discussion today about uncertainties ahead, you can be confident that Apple’s North Star hasn’t changed. Our products connect people everywhere, and they provide the tools for our customers to do great things to improve their lives and the world at large. Our company is open to all, and we celebrate the diversity of our team here in the United States and around the world — regardless of what they look like, where they come from, how they worship or who they love.
I’ve always looked at Apple as one big family and I encourage you to reach out to your co-workers if they are feeling anxious.
Let’s move forward — together!
Best,
Tim
Good words.
[VIDEO] In this video, Apple Senior VP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, talks about the new MacBook Pro, with a deep dive look at the Touch Bar and the reason Macs don’t have a touch screen.
Take a the time to watch this video. It’s not too long, and Craig does a terrific job conveying his passion for this new interface.
Jason Snell, writing for Six Colors:
In the end, the low-end 13-inch MacBook Pro turned out to be a pretty fine traveling companion for the past ten days. As a loyal Air user, it’s been a delight to bring a Retina display with me and have the ability to pack a single brick (plus one cable) to charge my Mac, iPad, and iPhone. I’ve just had to remember to keep my adapters close by—it’s always smart to be prepared.
Would I choose this model over the new MacBook Pro models with the Touch Bar and Touch ID? If money was no object, probably not. But if you’re a MacBook Air user (or were considering buying a MacBook Air), money will probably be relevant.
If you are considering one of the new Macs, this post is worth your time.
New York Times:
Hundreds of fake retail and product apps have popped up in Apple’s App Store in recent weeks — just in time to deceive holiday shoppers.
The counterfeiters have masqueraded as retail chains like Dollar Tree and Foot Locker, big department stores like Dillard’s and Nordstrom, online product bazaars like Zappos.com and Polyvore, and luxury-goods makers like Jimmy Choo, Christian Dior and Salvatore Ferragamo.
And:
“We’re seeing a barrage of fake apps,” said Chris Mason, chief executive of Branding Brand, a Pittsburgh company that helps retailers build and maintain apps. He said his company constantly tracks new shopping apps, and this was the first time it had seen so many counterfeit iPhone apps emerge in a short period of time.
Amazing to me that these have made it through the oversight processes of the App Store and the various retailers being spoofed. This the new normal?
Jean-Louis Gassée:
You start with a basic Application Processor from Mediatek or one of its competitors. This gives you an ARM processor, a pared-down embedded Linux software engine, and a network stack — everything you need for Internet connectivity, with and without wires. Add your choice of sensors and drivers, hire a manufacturing contractor to assemble your security camera according to your own specs, and you’re in business.
And:
Your computer module suppliers have sold millions of identical building blocks to your competitors and other Consumer IoT dreamers: DVRs, smart locks, weather stations, lighting systems… Finished products are sold to technically unsophisticated consumers who ignore updates or forget their logins and passwords. The module makers have anticipated this predicament and designed in a backdoor, a login/password combination that allows tech support to remotely take control and make the user happy.
Yikes! A fascinating read. Jean-Louis does a nice job making this problem easy to follow. And he embeds one of my all-time favorite Joy of Tech cartoons to boot.