The MacBook Pro's Touch Bar Solves a Nonexistent Problem

I have no idea what Apple is trying to do with its MacBook Pro lineup. Instead of merely making the most powerful machines possible, Cupertino is just fixing what is not broken.

In this case, I mean the keyboard. The top row, which is normally home to the function keys, is replaced by what is called the Touch Bar; it can be programmed for all sorts of chores.

MacBook Pros with the new Touch Bar ( at Amazon) do have one thing going for them—an outrageous and gorgeous display with a bigger color gamut and high dynamic range (HDR) potential with 500 nits of brightness. That's great. But the odd idea that the escape key and ALL the function keys are useless and could be eliminated seems like a stretch. Computer users are used to the existing keyboard layout; why drastically change it when nobody asked for it?

If you read reviews of the machine, you hear a lot of Apple apologists go on and on about Apple's "courage," a reference to Apple's explanation for why it removed the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 ($288.00 at Visible) . But while there are practical reasons to remove the headphone jack, like waterproofing, the only reason to eliminate the top row of the keyboard is to make room for the Touch Bar.

The company could have made a touch screen like everyone else, but no. This Touch Bar, along with a huge trackpad, seems to be a stop gap and an obvious and blatant compromise.

Before the fanboys get all up in arms, yes, the Touch Bar can be remapped to return the function and escape keys. However, if you use the bar for specialized apps, you lose immediate access. Apple apologists assert this is all great because they never use the escape key; that's nice, but I use it daily.

The other complaint I hear is the lack of keyboard "throw" on the keys, creating the possibility of typing fatigue. This was apparently done for aesthetic reasons. I'm a fan of thin and light laptops, so I'm not going to complain about this, but it seems as if Apple is eyeing a perfectly flat keyboard with no feel at all, like the virtual keyboards projected onto the desk. They have been around for years but nobody wants to use them. People like to push buttons. Maybe Apple hasn't noticed the renewed interest in funky mechanical keyboards?

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A keyboard requires some movement; otherwise you're just pounding against nothing, which takes some getting used to (and might result in injury).

I'm pretty sure these MacBooks are not what the Apple community wanted. But I'm generally wrong about Apple (there, I've said it), so it's possible they will be a rousing success despite what I consider to be serious drawbacks.