#Best widgets for macbook pro software#
Apple has tight control over its hardware and software and often removes the experimental, tinkering spirit from a lot of its products for the sake of ease of use. There’s a multitude of reasons you could use to justify the problem. But none of those implementations really set the world on fire. What could have beenĭevelopers beyond Apple eventually added Touch Bar functionality to their apps, just like Apple promised when the feature launched. It’s not perfect - and I’ll likely tinker even more - but it shows the promise and wasted potential of Apple’s “revolutionary” new input method.
My own personal Touch Bar setup using GoldenChaos-BTT. “I’ve found my sweet spot is having persistent tools on the left, glanceable information on the right, and contextual, app-specific buttons in the scrollable middle,” they explained to me. Then they further experimented and tinkered from there, adding Mail and Messages buttons with live updating badges and switching those volume and brightness controls to multitouch gestures. KingLucent started by making permanent volume and brightness buttons. That includes the trackpad, Magic Mouse, Touch Bar, and even the Siri Remote for the Apple TV. That’s when they turned to BetterTouchTool.īetterTouchTool (BTT) was created by German developer Andreas Hegenberg as a way of modifying what the wide variety of Apple input methods do on its various software platforms.
#Best widgets for macbook pro pro#
KingLucent used Apple’s default options when they first got their MacBook Pro but quickly realized they only covered functionality that the function keys or on-screen software buttons already handled. “What happens if you think you have a great idea six months from now, you can't run around and add a button to these things.
and they all have these control buttons that are fixed in plastic,” Jobs said. “They all have these keyboards that are there whether you need them or not. Smartphones in 2007 were littered with physical buttons. One committed Touch Bar fan who asked to go by their Reddit name, KingLucent, connected Apple’s vision for the Touch Bar with Steve Jobs’ original justification for the iPhone’s touch screen hardware. picture alliance/picture alliance/Getty Images If Apple only added utility to the Touch Bar instead of letting it rot after introduction. Intelligent function key suggestions based on what app you were using, in a more familiar touch-based package. A “revolutionary new way to use your Mac,” was how Apple described it on its website at launch. The Touch Bar was supposed to be the company’s alternative. “This is crazy! Keeping 45-year-old technology around and mapping other things to it,” Schiller said at Apple’s event. They’ve become far simpler and settled into some common uses like volume or brightness control.
The hardware feature was introduced as a sort of 21st-century replacement to the familiar row of function keys that exist on almost all laptop and desktop computers.Īs current Apple fellow and former vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller noted in his “requiem for the function key” at the MacBook Pro launch, the functionality of function keys has really changed since their appearance on early server terminals. A whole new functionĪpple added the Touch Bar to its laptops in 2016, specifically the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pros. And after speaking to some of them and experimenting with my own Touch Bar modifications - I think I might feel the same. But believe it or not, there are people who do, and they’ll actually miss the programmable, keyboard-length touchscreen now that Apple’s going another way. I really don’t think about it all that often. The closest the company has gotten to adding a touchscreen to a Mac.Īs the proud owner of a refurbished 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro, I’m a self-described Touch Bar agnostic. The new 2021 Macbook Pros don’t have a Touch Bar.Īmid news of the M1 Pro, M1 Max, and the return of glorious ports (HDMI! MagSafe! SD card!) Apple killed its last new (if misguided) vision for the future of laptop computing, a much-maligned, multi-touch strip at the top of the keyboard.