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by minimaxir6 hours ago |
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upvoteby AndroidKitKat6 hours ago|
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The hands are also almost in the exact same image Steve Jobs had on a slide during the iPad keynote showing touch on a laptop is not ergonomic. It's poetic, almost.
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upvoteby gizajob6 hours ago|
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Soon, if they attach an alternator to Steve’s coffin, they’ll be able to run the Apple campus off it.
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upvoteby btmiller2 hours ago|
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I think you’d need to attach it directly to Steve, rather than his coffin, if we’re following the allegory of the colloquialism to the letter ;)
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upvoteby snowwrestler3 hours ago|
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Jobs routinely shit-talked product features and categories that Apple later went into, including both phones and tablets. People complained about it when he was alive, but now we’re asked to fondly recall how consistent he was?
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upvoteby lysace6 hours ago|
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"We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work," Jobs said at the company's "Back to the Mac" event in 2010. "Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical. It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off," Jobs continued. "It doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible."

https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/apple-intelligence/articles/ergono...

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upvoteby solarpunk_enthu6 hours ago|
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Maybe users changed over the span of 16 years, while being daily exposed to touch screens? Remember, in 2010 the idea of using a finger was novel.
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upvoteby threetonesun5 hours ago|
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Well my arms didn't get longer, that's for sure. Also MacOS and software made for MacOS doesn't optimize for touch targets unlike something that will be distributed on iOS/iPadOS.
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upvoteby kps5 hours ago|
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It's not the finger, it's the arm. Remember light pens?
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upvoteby cedilla4 hours ago|
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Not that novel. The first ergonomics studies on touchscreens were done in the seventies. In 2010, touchscreens were already sophisticated technology and well established in many settings.

I got my first laptop with a digital pen and touchscreen in 2008 or so. They were rare back then, but nothing groundbreaking new. The touchscreen did suck though.

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upvoteby benoau6 hours ago|
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That was looking at it as a usability problem.

Now it's a "how will you still need an iPad" problem, that they have solved perfectly because it's a usability problem.

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upvoteby Y-bar6 hours ago|
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I agree that a piano demo seems like a bad idea. But damn if I don’t daily long for the iOS 6 days where buttons and tappable areas were well defined and there were some fun and whimsy to the interface. As compared to the flat unintuitive desolate landscape of recent years. I would rather have a big animated cassette deck in my music player than the current overly polished full page advert I get every time I open the app. At least Forstall and his team cared enough.
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upvoteby SirMaster6 hours ago|
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Their demo is also mobile app development using touchscreen for testing apps in the simulator.
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upvoteby glaslong2 hours ago|
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This is the one thing I'm rather excited to use the touchscreen for. Would be genuinely useful to me right now. Beyond that though...... I can't see using Touch much.

I hope this sells well enough that they might later go the EXTRA step to a Pencil supported 360-hinged MBP.

I'm a hardcore iPad Pro + Pencil lover. And I'm very tired of carrying both a MacBook for the full OS + keyboard, PLUS a whole separate tablet for sketching, illustration, annotation, etc.

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upvoteby nicoburns5 hours ago|
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Testing touchscreen experiences for other devices is the main thing I can imagine actually using this for.
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upvoteby dsego6 hours ago|
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Pretty useless, it's easy to simulate touches and gestures already.
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upvoteby iainmerrick6 hours ago|
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Not multi-touch gestures.
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upvoteby dsego6 hours ago|
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I think there was a modifier key + click and drag to simulate a pinch, so at least some gestures can be simulated. But since one is developing for the mobile device, it makes sense to tether the device and send builds to test out on the target device itself.
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upvoteby xandrius1 hours ago|
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Yap, you can do that too
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upvoteby sllewe6 hours ago|
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Seems like a slim use case, no?
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upvoteby Groxx5 hours ago|
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From past experience (not for quite a few years, but some at least): oh heck no. I loved simulating locally, but the deeply limited touch handling made it infeasible a lot of the time. The dev -> install -> run -> dev cycle is dramatically faster in the emulator, and you don't need to have multiple devices nearby if you're building custom UI for each size.
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upvoteby freeone30005 hours ago|
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Macbook Pros attempt to cater to every slim use case simultaneously, with the idea that if they can handle a use case someone else can’t, they’ll sell another laptop.
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upvoteby 4 hours ago|
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upvoteby hectdev6 hours ago|
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yea but if the company is footing the bill...
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upvoteby Slow_Hand6 hours ago|
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As a longtime laptop musician, using the QWERTY keyboard to play notes in the absence of a MIDI controller is infinitely preferable to this goofy demo.

Apple better have some better use examples than THAT.

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upvoteby oefrha6 hours ago|
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Reminds me of that stupid DJ demo of the touch bar. Did any DJ actually use that in practice? Well if they do they better hold on to their now vintage MacBook.
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upvoteby dabinat5 hours ago|
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Yeah, piano playing was a bad example. There’s a reason MIDI keyboard manufacturers try so hard to replicate the weighted feel of a real piano. Your fingers need feedback.
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upvoteby Lio4 hours ago|
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An interesting aside here, there is no one, true style of action for keyboard instruments and no one, true type of feedback.

I have a good 88-note hammer action stage piano. I love it for acoustic pianos and it's OK for electric pianos (Rhodes, Wurlitzer) but it sucks a bit for organ, clavinet and synths.

I've seen people play Hammond really, really well on a weighted keybeds but it's much easier to just plug a second cheap(er) synth action controller in for organ parts.

I've never met anyone that really liked playing a tablet screen though. :P

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upvoteby andrethegiant5 hours ago|
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Reminiscent of the DJ who performed a DJ set on the TouchBar...
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upvoteby 6 hours ago|
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upvoteby 4 hours ago|
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upvoteby 6 hours ago|
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upvoteby samatman6 hours ago|
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Yes it is. I mean, you’re not going to play Chopin on it, obviously. But for selecting notes into a DAW? Hella convenient.

Repliers: stop pretending you make music. You don’t and it shows. Producers are going to love this.

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upvoteby dsego6 hours ago|
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How is it convenient? A pro workflow is not holding your arm with the finger up in the air trying to avoid accidental taps, when you can get a small 25 key akai midi controller for a 100 usd. And it's easy to carry around and comes with velocity-sensitive keys and pressure-sensitive pads.
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upvoteby Lio4 hours ago|
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Yeah that's a much better use case. Now you mention it I could see it being useful for soft synths, mixing, arranging, effects, etc.

I don't think I'd every want to "play" on it except as a last resort but it could definitely be handy for other virtual interfaces.

Imagine a knob per function synth or a modular setup being able to go straight the control in question would be useful.

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upvoteby officeplant6 hours ago|
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we have computer keyboard playing mode in nearly every DAW under the sun. It's useless
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