Will the touch bar ever come back?

Looks like instead of coming back, it has just gone away. Check out the replacement of the 13” MBP based on the ‘base’ M2 chip with a variant of the 14” MBP based on the ‘base’ M3 chip.

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

Specifications

in the US, Apple Certified Refurbished Macs are sold in the Certified Refurbished Store. These are NOT Used or beat up. They are indistinguishable from new, but have typically violated the commercial rules to be sold as new. Stock changes daily. Some discontinued models may be available there. at this writing the US store shows several with tochbar.

Apple replaces any parts not PERFECT, repackages, and sells them at a modest discount with the same warranty as new EXCEPT: if Dead-on-Arrival, you can not return to a Store, you must ship back.

If outside the US, check the Certified Refurbished Store in your country, available through a link in the footer on the main Apple web site.

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).

I have Sonoma 14.5 in my intel MBP, and I'm not in the US.

I wrote in my original post today that "it appears" not that I've seen one.

Here's an Indian guy showing one.

chdsl wrote:

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

this page has been updated and now shows the new m3 macbook pro with no touch bar

Why don't you try to find a used Intel MBP? I suppose you can get one made in 2020 or so with the Touch Bar. I was lucky to get a good one from 2019, 15" i7 2018 model with dual GPUs, which was the top end when it was first sold. There might be some practically unused ones still somewhere.

Yes, I wanted an MBP with the Touch Bar, and also wanted use the in-built trackpad. Then, I bought myself both Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad. And, they too work will that "old" Intel MBP! The Touch Bar is quite nice with its software. 

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.

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 thing is, we even don't know if Apple has permanently abandoned the Touchbar because there has been no communication whatsoever. Not a single word.

cijun wrote:

Indeed, would love Apple to continue its innovations in future editions of MacBook Pro.

And they will. But that doesn't mean the Touchbar will come back.

refusenick wrote:

The thing is, we even don't know if Apple has permanently abandoned the Touchbar because there has been no communication whatsoever. Not a single word.

In other words, Apple continues to behave as Apple always has.

MacMikeInOK wrote:

• I feel your pain regarding the Touch Bar, as I used it quite often on my 2016 MBP. I've since moved on to a 2023 15" MBA, which doesn't have one. Once in a while I miss it, but I'm slowly getting over it.

While none of us here can speak for Apple, as only Apple knows the reason for leaving it off new Macs, I can guess some of Apple's reasons:

Added cost (when compared to standard function keys)

• Software developer support wasn't as universal as Apple had hoped when it was first introduced.

• The most frequently used Touch Bar keys (for me) were the volume keys, which are standard function bar keys (though not as polished as the Touch Bar keys)

• For quite a few users, the Touch Bar required some input changes. (And, although everyone wants progress, nobody seems to want change).

My guess, though, is the added cost was the primary driver of Apple's decision.

I think there was also the issue of the added cost of repair if it failed. I think there were customers who didn't like that.

It's always sad when a very cool feature like that doesn't catch on. I was heartbroken when Jobs discontinued the Newton. But, a few years went by and there was the iPhone. And, after another few years, the iPhone was as cool as the Newton.

PJHoppy wrote:

I've just logged on to see how many people share my feelings about the Touch Bar.

This thread is unlikely to be any sort of representative sample.

Tell Apple how you feel:

Product Feedback - Apple

JessDelgado wrote:

... please bring back the touch bar!! I refuse to upgrade to the new mac book pro without it. :(

Apple does not read here for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

No one reading here has any vested interest in what computer you buy so threatening not to upgrade is kind of a waste of time and bytes.

Apple does have a history of bringing back hardware features - after making improvements, obviously.

For example, MagSafe came with the 2006 MacBook.

Then it was improved with MagSafe 2 in MacBook Pro (2012–2015 Retina models) and MacBook Air (2012–2017).

After a hiatus, in 2021, MagSafe made a comeback to Macs (14" and 16" MBP) with MagSafe 3.

So, certainly, one can expect the touch bar to make a comeback in future Macs with certain improvements.