- #Touchbar in video games for mac pro
- #Touchbar in video games for mac software
- #Touchbar in video games for mac mac
Of course, the blame doesn’t entirely rest at Apple’s feet. Third-party developers need to step up too Apple
#Touchbar in video games for mac software
Apple’s in a unique position because it designs both hardware and software the Touch Bar is a good example of where it should be combining them to great effect.
#Touchbar in video games for mac mac
This kind of functionality would mean there’d be no need to keep switching between devices - your Mac would become a kind of control center for everything. And here, the Touch Bar can make it even more rewarding.įor example, what if the Touch Bar displayed text messages and reminders as they pop up as a ticker scrolling across the OLED strip? What if those apps could be chosen exclusively by you? Or what if it gave you a place to see the battery level on all your connected devices and quickly enable Low Power Mode on one of them if necessary? This is already one of Apple’s strengths - things like Handoff and Continuity make it genuinely worthwhile to have several Apple devices all hooked up together. This is the kind of functionality that makes the Touch Bar useful, not just yet another place for the same old standard buttons.Īnother way Apple can improve the Touch Bar is by emphasizing its ecosystem. In Preview, highlight some text and you get quick options to highlight it in one of many colors. In QuickTime, you can scrub through a video to find a specific frame. In Photos, you can use the Touch Bar to quickly swipe through the pictures in a folder. And Apple seems to be aware of this, because in some apps it’s made the Touch Bar really useful. The Touch Bar doesn’t just have to be a place for simple buttons that you can access anyway in the app you’re using. In too many apps, Apple is constrained by this way of thinking. Why repeat this functionality that’s already easy to get to? If anything, the Touch Bar is fiddlier to use because you have to take your hand off your mouse or trackpad.
Look at what happens when you open Pages and select some text: The Touch Bar displays options for text styling and formatting - which are already available in the app’s menus. Other than that, I barely go near those buttons on my 2015 MacBook Pro, so I can see why Apple thought it could do something more useful with that space.īut the problem with the current state of the Touch Bar is that, in many cases, Apple still thinks of that strip as an area for buttons. Maybe Fn+F11 to show the desktop, but that can be done with a swipe instead. How many of the Function keys do you use on a daily basis? Perhaps F10, AKA the mute key, when your neighbors start banging on the walls and telling you to stop playing the Spice Girls so loud. What exactly should it do? Well, I have a few ideas. But Apple needs to lead by example to show people how it should be done. It’s not entirely Apple’s fault - for the Touch Bar to be truly useful, third-party developers must build in good functionality in their apps. Instead of spreading its wings, it just kind of half-heartedly flapped them a bit, then gave up.
In the years since its debut, the Touch Bar has been stuck in a kind of development hell, never really taking off in the way we hoped it would. To all outward appearances, the Touch Bar looked like it could become another example of Apple’s famous innovation.īut as you probably know, it didn’t quite turn out like that. App-specific shortcuts! Programmable buttons! A Touch ID sensor! The functions Apple showed on stage, from quick-access palettes in Adobe Photoshop to scrubbing through a video in QuickTime, looked useful and well thought out.
That’s a shame, because it has the potential to be so much better than it is.īack when it first made an appearance in 2016, I was excited. Apple’s OLED control strip has been divisive to say the least, and it was something I decided I could live without.
#Touchbar in video games for mac pro
When I decided to buy a four-year-old MacBook Pro rather than a new one, one of the things I deliberately gave up on was the Touch Bar.
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