Will the touch bar ever come back?

The replacement for the Touch Bar is sidecar-connected Apple iPad, which includes not only touch support, but Apple Pencil support.

I refused to buy a new Mac last year because I want the Touch Bar. The least Apple could do is give us the option on the MacBook Air. I don't really want that cos I love my Pro even though I don't use all of its capabilities. However, if an Air is the ONLY way to get a TouchBar, I'll buy it. I am so tired of Aple giving us these great things things then dropping them.Maybe the Pro users prefer the function bar - fine. Put that on the Pros and let the other models have the Touch Bar. BTW, I've suggested this to Apple more than once not only in feedback, but EVERY time I've contacted support about ANYTHING!

Side note: Am I the only person who misses the ease of scheduling startup and shutdown from the system settings instead of having to go into the Terminal? Wasn't Apple the leading company in making things easier with all their GUIs? Who decided it was smarter, easier, MORE user-friendly, to move that option to the Tertminal?!!!! That person should be fired and sent to a pc maker.

chdsl wrote:

There appears to be a 13" M2 MBP with the TouchBar

That link leads to an Apple page for Moldova.

It shows the 13" M2 MacBook Pro, the 14"/16" M2 {Pro/Max} MacBook Pros (labeled "New"), and at the top, an icon for macOS Sonoma that says "Preview".

Here in the United States, all of those MacBook Pros are discontinued.

• Apple replaced the 13" M2 MacBook Pro with a 14" M3 MacBook Pro that has the base M3 chip. That model gained a mini-LED backlit screen, HDMI port, SDXC card slot, and MagSafe 3 charging port, but kept the two USB-C / Thunderbolt port and one external display limitations. It lost the Touch Bar.
• Apple replaced the 14" and 16" M2 {Pro/Max} MacBook Pros with ones using the M3 {Pro/Max} chips. These MacBook Pros, like their {M1/M2} {Pro/Max} predecessors, do not have Touch Bars.

Also, here in the United States, Sonoma is out, and has been since September 2023!

_Que wrote:

I could care less about the dynamic island seeing that there's really nothing "wow" you can do with it. If they can give that a chance, certainly there's hope.

Sometimes, it's not about the "wow". Many of us buy computers to do work. It's about how well something functions versus how much it adds to the cost of the device (both initial outlay and repairs). You should nonetheless let Apple know what you'd like to see here:

Product Feedback - Apple

I suspect that only a massive feedback campaign will make any difference. And even then, probably not.

Alyssa_Alexsonshk wrote:

I agree with this post. I am very upset that Apple took away the touch bar. I would love if they brought back a MacBook Pro that had the option for a touch bar. I get it might not be some people's cup of tea, but to make the option completely unavailable is going to upset quite a few loyal Apple users. I think it should be an add-on option for those who like it and for those who wish to opt out they can.

Tell Apple:

Product Feedback - Apple

These discussions reach many users of Macintosh computers, including senior contributor Volunteers. We can talk about any issue, but Apple does not participate here except to maintain order and make sure unanswered posts are not completely ignored.

As has been said many time before, Tell Apple:

Product Feedback - Apple

chdsl wrote:

Servant of Cats wrote:

chdsl wrote:

There appears to be a 13" M2 MBP with the TouchBar

•

That link leads to an Apple page for Moldova.

I don't know why that link goes to Moldova (looks like guys in Moldova are lucky!), but the other link on specifications is in the UK MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022) - Technical Specifications – Apple Support (UK).

There's no question that the 13" M2 MacBook Pro has a Touch Bar.

It's also discontinued in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and probably most of the other places that I could check if I had all day to play with the country and region selection controls on the Apple Web site. R.I.P. Touch Bar.

I don't know if the guys in Moldova are "lucky" if they go to the Apple Web site and it tells them that M2 {Pro/Max} MacBook Pros are "new" when those Macs have in fact been discontinued in favor of M3 {Pro/Max} ones in just about every other part of the world. I also don't know if 13" M2 MacBook Pros are really available in Moldova … could be that whoever was responsible for updating that local version of Apple's Web site just dropped the ball.

chdsl wrote:

Servant of Cats wrote:

There's no question that the 13" M2 MacBook Pro has a Touch Bar.

It's also discontinued in the U.S., Canada, the U.K.,

The specifications link was from the UK, so it is still there.

Apple has Technical Specifications for many discontinued Macs on their Web site. Those Technical Specifications are useful reference material. It doesn't mean that Apple is still selling new copies of all of the Macs in question. I visited the U.K. Apple Store site. Apple is not selling any new 13" M2 MacBook Pros there. M3-family ones only.

There are some 13" M2 MacBook Pros in the Certified Refurbished section of the U.K. Apple Store. (Today. In that part of the store, selection is "catch of the day" and changes often.)

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/refurbished/mac/2022-13-inch-macbook-pro

The touch bar was one of the finest features of MacBook Pro machinI've never updated my 2016 15 inch Macbook Pro because Apple downgraded it into a lousy keyboard based system. When they brought it back to the 13 inch MacBook Pro I was anxiously waited for its return to the 14, 16 and the MacBook Air 15 inch. I believe Apple does not think outside the box for the benefit of its customers, but for the sake of their own egos

For me, as someone who writes in three languages, I love the predictive text and real-time spellchecks that can instantly adapt to language switches by the sentence. It also makes using the screenshot app so easy and efficient, and of course player controls and sound, as well as calls, emojis, tabs and confirmation prompts.

Perhaps a third party manufacturer could make an ultra thin screen strip to fit across the small gap between keyboard and screen connected to the laptop via cable or bluetooth. Maybe an external touchpad with programable overlays, actually I vaguely remember seeing something like that.

also perhaps apple can fuse one into their external keyboards so those who need it can get it back. And price it a little low so that people can at least afford a simple device called "keyboard" than pay hundreds of dollars for it. It's a keyboard not a device that controls the world.

MacMikeInOK wrote:

As I always use my MacBooks on my lap, I was simply pointing out that the iPad/Apple Pencil "workaround" for the Touch Bar isn't very practical for those of us who use a laptop primarily on our...lap

I get it but, sadly, there's nothing anyone here can do about it.

Just to be pedantic. Apple stopped calling them "laptops" quite some time ago, as did other manufactures. They don't recommend you use them on your lap because the device won't be properly ventilated and can heat up, thus causing...discomfort... in sensitive areas. So, all dark humor aside, Apple kind of assumes you'll be using them on a flat surface. I understand that doesn't help you but, I think it's part of the larger context for Apple's decision.

I’ve been using the touch bar since 2016. With the help of BetterTouchTool I’ve set up 100s of nested shortcuts for sophisticated text entry, complex context sensitive logins, group launches of programs, etc, etc.  It has eliminated a lot of mind numbing key pecking.   Prior to the touch bar I never found a useful day to day role for the function keys on a PC or a Mac.  I do recall  that  they were  marginally helpful in cutting out a little of the tedious typing required  to  move a group of files from one address to another using a  terminal in the mid 70s. It was that irritating line item interface that inspired a kid in the hood to ”Think Different” and lay the foundation for this blog. If Apple stays true to its roots the Touch Bar or a worthy successor will be back soon.

Because Apple is for "everyone" now and most people are not smart enough to properly optimise their workflow, one of apples greatest products of all time the Magic Mouse, full muli-touch trackpad covered mouse was a precision instrument. Apple even tried to get people to learn to use gestures and at this point most people know the basics, i.e two finger swipe to navigate web pages.

However with a third party app like better touch tool you could do pretty much anything by swiping your fingers, this over a period of years can save you days if not weeks worth of time, make your experience switching tools in photoshop for example quick and seem-less, replacing nearly all keyboard short cuts. To this day, people have no appreciation for how good that product is and even complain about it ergonomics which I never had any issue with.

The touchbar is the same kind of thing, however Apple definitely didnt realise its full potential. Firstly they decided that instead of Up, Down, volume keys there would just be a volume slide and mute button, even though you can customise the toolbar to be like the physical F keys later (Hidden behind a bunch of sub menus for some reason) people dont like this kind of change, when you have decades worth of muscle memory hitting a certain key, this kind of thing really annoys people and its just poor UI/UX design. Secondly the Touch Bar had no haptic feedback, another major fail as after installing a third party app, you realise how much nicer it makes it feel to use. There are also many third party apps that make the touch bar more generally useful like Pok etc, but Apple never tired to make something similar so it just helped extend app functionality only, where it could have done so many cool things, why not have screen saver animation for it, picture in picture type fun, cover view, its literally an OLED display but you never see animation, they should have at least tried to make it fun to help get people to play with it.

So back to the main point, people dont have the patience or knowledge to make use of this kind of technology, im sure the next generation would have been able to find the utility in these kinds of new advances in tech. I really hope Apple see that they really were onto something with the Touch Bar.