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Technology
Daryl Baxter

Reimagining how the MacBook Touch Bar could work in 2024

MacBook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar.

Back in 2016, Apple announced a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an OLED strip that replaced the Function Row keys at the top of its keyboard. This Touch Bar would change its functionality depending on the apps you were using. Emojis would appear, suggested words popped into view, and even controls for brightness and volume swam up for easy access. The potential was great — with the right developer support, complex shortcuts, and tools could be mapped to the Touch Bar, making power users of novices. And then it died.

The Touch Bar is widely considered a failure, a rare cutting-edge flop from Apple's shop. Was there a lack of support? A missing killer app? This was innovative and cool — so why did it fail, and where did it go?

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