Apple No Longer Sells a MacBook Pro Without a Touch Bar | Hacker News Reader

Apple No Longer Sells a MacBook Pro Without a Touch Bar

macrumors.com

28 pointstomduncalf12 comments

The biggest thing that bugs me about the Touch Bar is the fact that I can't turn its backlight off.

I use my computer late into the night, with the display brightness set just so that the backlight doesn't go completely off. I use the "invert screen colors" accessibility feature to make everything dark. In this situation, the Touch Bar is by far the brightest thing in the room.

(I also don't like the way errant finger movements mess with my Spotify tracks and volume settings, but I'm learning to work around that.)

The reason that I bought the Touch Bar model in the first place is that I need to be able to charge from either side of the computer, and TouchId is too useful to live without.

Why not just remap escape to caps lock? The real issue is the trash keyboards that break themselves.

The touchbar itself is also annoying. It regularly hangs for me when I switch between browser tabs with video, just when I want to adjust the volume. It doesn't have tactile feedback and after 2.5 years, I still sometimes touch it by accident.

I can't get over the frustration with the whole hardware situation. The usb ports are loose, the touchbar is annoying, the keyboard is made for the trash, my screen has orange clouds and for service I have to go in a shop because calling Apple or chatting with them is apparently not possible if your device is older than 2 years and your company didn't purchase AppleCare (which shouldn't be needed because you pay already good money for the device and 2.5 years is not old for such an expensive device).

All of your complaints are valid except perhaps the last — I have had no problem talking to Apple support about 3+ year old laptops. Every time they've been incredibly helpful.

Every time they've been incredibly helpful.

I just spoke to Apple Support, and they didn't help me. Rather, if I had listened to them, they would have had me delete my data from my MacBook Pro. Instead, I eventually found the answer myself.

This is a pattern: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K98JYRBGyrg

How did you reach them? When I go into the online store for my country the site asks me for the serial-nr and then offers me calling, chat or store. Choosing the call and chat options tell me that my device is not eligible for that kinda support but I could make an appointment in the store (which then tell's me that it's not possible at this time and I just should show up).

Then how do you enable CAPS lock?

Just remap caps lock to caps lock!

Ctrl-Caps would be workable. Apple needs to just make that a checkbox.

Maybe I’m just passive or don’t frequently declare constants, but I never need it. As a vim user, though, I love prophylactically mashing the caps lock esc.

By holding Shift. I find it less confusing than the stateful Caps. I never get surprised with having typed in the wrong case because Caps was on or off when I expected otherwise. Just put that pinky on Shift while you type. Release when you're done with upper case letters.

Call me crazy but I actually find the touchbar to be really useful.

I don't use vim often, though.

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