Sometimes the UI elements are too small even for my mouse cursor. They will need to change the UI to make it work with touch. Remember Windows 8? Even without a touch screen we suffered horribly due to it being touch focused.
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Apple's Work on Touchscreen Macs: What We Know So Far
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are they late or are they on time. You dont always have to be first to something.
Because one UI can't be used for both. Windows 8 was a far far FAR better touch UI than 10 and even 11. But Windows 8 was HORRIBLE for traditional PCs and why it was so hated. Now, even Windows 11, is not good on Surface devices. It can't be both. Microsoft has been trying for a decade now.
When you use the touch screen that way, do you use the device as laptop (upright screen) or as tablet?
I notice, for example, that whenever my iPad Pro is attached to the Magic Keyboard I don’t touch the screen, except in rare circumstances where a website or app doesn’t properly function with the trackpad.
The muscles controlling the shoulder and elbow joints simply don’t have the same fine motor precision as the wrist and fingers. Everybody who’s ever had to use a touch screen interface in a car can attest to that.
Agreed on your iPad use case. Any new MacBook + touch screen product should be driven by ergonomics. That means very often that the device becomes a transforming hybrid which is what Apple was against for so long.
Put one finger on my screen and I will cut it!
Mostly because adding touch increases the price of the MacBook so you are essentially paying for something you'll never use... forced to pay if you want that MacBook.
So no it isn't bad thinking... plus I know many people who have touch Windows computers and after the novelty wore off they have pretty much stopped using it. I dunno this all seems so unnecessary.
Adding to your thoughts, if they come out with a touch-screen Mac and a non-touch-screen option at a lower price then yeah sure, no problem. Viva la choice.
Too expensive and too limited in functionality for the cost
I know this isn’t the point of the article, but this is seriously so annoying. I hate how many devs have opted out of this. Typically it’s because they’re wanting us to purchase the Mac version too. $$$
I'm a digital artist too and absolutely find it needed to have pencil support. it's great on ipad but IOS has awful file management and most apps are cripple ware.
what is needed is MacOS for iPad. a big iPad 16'
Agreed. Although after using my 1st iPad (gen 3 non pro) I did tend to reach out to my Mac screen to resize a picture, the action is so intuitive. I wouldn’t be willing to pay more to have that occasionally useful functionality on my MBP though.
Because sometimes it's much easier (and less RSI injuries) to use the touchscreen over a trackpad. Sometimes it's easier to use the trackpad, just depends on what position I'm in and where my laptop is relative to my position. Taking it a step further, if you have a tablet or a 2-in-1 then touchscreen works well when you take the keyboard/trackpad away.
It's all about choice, it's just a shame that Apple users seem to be about less choice and being forced into a certain work pattern that Apple dictates.
I’m all for it as long as it doesn’t mean paying more for the ‘feature’, as it usually does.
And if the pencil worked on a TrackPad that would be acceptable. Finger touch is not accurate enough except for the most basic of functions.
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“Gurman says that the first touchscreen Macs are likely to use macOS, the operating system that runs on the Mac.”
So a a touchscreen Mac will use Mac OS? What a forward-thinking genius.
So a a touchscreen Mac will use Mac OS? What a forward-thinking genius.
I highly doubt that Apple plans on converting the ENTIRE line to touchscreen.
If Apple goes ahead with this it will probably be a standalone model or you'll be able to add a touchscreen as an option.
It's not something for everyone, but here is my perspective as an artist.
I work in the movie / TV business and storyboard my projects. Basically I draw boards for every shot and then make an animatic in Premiere/Final Cut set to music or a temp dialog recording.
Currently I have to carry around a MacBook Pro AND an iPad Pro.
I plug my MacBook Pro into my monitor, where I run Final Cut and then draw the boards on the iPad. Since this is a creative process you end up going back and forth many times, tweaking the edit and either redrawing boards or creating new ones, as the cut changes.
Working on a separate Mac and iPad is a PIA and really inefficient.
I draw the board on the iPad, then airdrop it to the Mac. On the Mac I have copy it from the AirDrop directory to the NAS where the bin for Final Cut project lives. Data management is a disaster as you are basically working on two separate computers instead of a single system/NAS etc.
Could I cut it on the iPad? Of course, but in my experience jumping back and forth between programs and sharing data on the iPad is a lot more awkward and difficult than on a Mac.
There are other issues like not having access to programs on the iPad like full Photoshop, Poser etc
On a big project I used to run out of storage on the iPad, but since have upgraded to a model with more RAM.
That's aside from the fact that I have to carry both and iPad and MacBook Pro when I do this outside of my office. When I have to go through TSA at the airport I have to keep track of two devices etc. It's a lot of weight, bulky and a serious annoyance. It's also expensive. I had to buy a MacBook Pro AND an iPad Pro for another $1000
At one point I was so aggravated with the whole process that I almost switched to something like a Microsoft Surface or one of the other Windows laptop convertibles. But I can't really do that, because my whole company is based on the Mac and so is the rest of Hollywood.
What I really want is a MacBook Pro with a detachable screen that functions as a tablet/iPad that I can draw on.
That way I can have the main body plugged into a big monitor running Final Cut and I can just draw on the detachable screen like it's an iPad. AND I get to run full Photoshop and have access to all the other software that is not always available on the iPad like Poser.
I can see the logic behind Apple's thinking. The ergonomics of poking at a laptop screen are awkward, as it's tipping over etc. I get it.
But that's the wrong way to look at it.
If the screen is detachable it suddenly becomes two separate devices. Basically it separates into an iPad AND a MacBook Pro. Heck you could even run your favorite iOS drawing program on the detached Mac screen, essentially turning it into an iPad. The screen has a battery pack and can also be powered via USB-C or a MagSafe type connector for long sessions.
With that design you are working in two different modes.
Most of the time you are treating it like a traditional laptop and not poking at the screen. Why would you? You have a trackpad or mouse.
Or you're working the same way as you would with a separate MacBook and iPad, except you have the convenience of them sharing ONE file system and it obviously is a single machine.
When you're done they recombine into one neat little package.
If Apple goes ahead with this it will probably be a standalone model or you'll be able to add a touchscreen as an option.
It's not something for everyone, but here is my perspective as an artist.
I work in the movie / TV business and storyboard my projects. Basically I draw boards for every shot and then make an animatic in Premiere/Final Cut set to music or a temp dialog recording.
Currently I have to carry around a MacBook Pro AND an iPad Pro.
I plug my MacBook Pro into my monitor, where I run Final Cut and then draw the boards on the iPad. Since this is a creative process you end up going back and forth many times, tweaking the edit and either redrawing boards or creating new ones, as the cut changes.
Working on a separate Mac and iPad is a PIA and really inefficient.
I draw the board on the iPad, then airdrop it to the Mac. On the Mac I have copy it from the AirDrop directory to the NAS where the bin for Final Cut project lives. Data management is a disaster as you are basically working on two separate computers instead of a single system/NAS etc.
Could I cut it on the iPad? Of course, but in my experience jumping back and forth between programs and sharing data on the iPad is a lot more awkward and difficult than on a Mac.
There are other issues like not having access to programs on the iPad like full Photoshop, Poser etc
On a big project I used to run out of storage on the iPad, but since have upgraded to a model with more RAM.
That's aside from the fact that I have to carry both and iPad and MacBook Pro when I do this outside of my office. When I have to go through TSA at the airport I have to keep track of two devices etc. It's a lot of weight, bulky and a serious annoyance. It's also expensive. I had to buy a MacBook Pro AND an iPad Pro for another $1000
At one point I was so aggravated with the whole process that I almost switched to something like a Microsoft Surface or one of the other Windows laptop convertibles. But I can't really do that, because my whole company is based on the Mac and so is the rest of Hollywood.
What I really want is a MacBook Pro with a detachable screen that functions as a tablet/iPad that I can draw on.
That way I can have the main body plugged into a big monitor running Final Cut and I can just draw on the detachable screen like it's an iPad. AND I get to run full Photoshop and have access to all the other software that is not always available on the iPad like Poser.
I can see the logic behind Apple's thinking. The ergonomics of poking at a laptop screen are awkward, as it's tipping over etc. I get it.
But that's the wrong way to look at it.
If the screen is detachable it suddenly becomes two separate devices. Basically it separates into an iPad AND a MacBook Pro. Heck you could even run your favorite iOS drawing program on the detached Mac screen, essentially turning it into an iPad. The screen has a battery pack and can also be powered via USB-C or a MagSafe type connector for long sessions.
With that design you are working in two different modes.
Most of the time you are treating it like a traditional laptop and not poking at the screen. Why would you? You have a trackpad or mouse.
Or you're working the same way as you would with a separate MacBook and iPad, except you have the convenience of them sharing ONE file system and it obviously is a single machine.
When you're done they recombine into one neat little package.
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Every modern UI is now flat thanks to windows 8.
Windows 8 is the last windows I owned and it’s by far my favorite.
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Really? I’ve been using Macs since my SE-FDHD, and I would like a touchscreen Mac.
Copy? Apple was working on a touchscreen Mac 30 years ago with a PowerBook Duo based tablet. Apple sold that tech to another company who released one or two models under the Mac Clone program.
