Not everything can be discoverable in a modern OS. Heck.. the I'm not sure that any extra arrows in the icon would tell you that hold and drag would work out of the blue. I just read the MacOS User's Guide and it's laid out quite clearly.. though it's not like there are bright neon arrows pointing at it:

https://support.apple.com/en-c...

There's even another mode that I didn't know about: you can just flick left and right on the button without holding down and it will volume up/down one step.

It is what it is.. it's documented.. there are tutorials out there (Like the one I linked to from 4 years ago). I'm not sure there's any better way of indicating the variety of modes in which a single button can operate.

I don't have my volume slider set to show up all the time.. where are you getting that?. Are you reading what I wrote? Did you watch the video I linked? It's even cued up to the right spot.

Let me try again.

1) press and hold on the volume button.. the volume slider will appear
2) slide your finger back and forth (without ever lifting it off).. the volume will go up and down
3) lift your finger off.. the volume slider will disappear after a second

That's it. no more no less. This is how all touchbars work out of the box. Yours does too.

I'm not sure how that can be.. it's a core feature of the touch bar and has been from, as far as I know, the beginning. Or at least since late 2016 when this video was released:

https://youtu.be/aU2eqKO-Fz4?t...

The whole point is to have the touchbar be context sensitive.

BUT.. the right hand side of the touchbar (called the control strip) is constant.. it never changes unless you explicitly do so. Only the middle part (the app controls) changes from app to app.

ALSO.. you don't have to use it that way. You can set it to always use function keys all the time. And then if you press fn the "expanded control strip" pops up and that is constant from app to app as well (but user configurable, unlike the keycaps on physical function keys)

ALSO.. you can reverse the above. You can forego any context sensitive functions and just have the expanded control strip and when you press fn the function keys will appear.

ALSO you can choose between the last two modes on an app by app basis. You can set your global behaviour to show the control strip (no app sensitivity) and fn for function keys. And then you can say "in this app and that app I want the function keys but press fn for the control strip"

There most definitely are standard ways for things to work and you can choose which of those standard ways you want. And then you can do some overriding on an app by app basis. Your complaints are easily addressed with mere seconds of effort.

The touchbar is an incredibly powerful and useful device/feature right out of the box.

I'm not denying that the problem exists.. it most certainly does. Just that none of them happened to me and *regardless* of the durability problems I rather like the low travel butterfly switches. If durability wasn't an issue I would have no problem using this keyboard until the end of time.

That's not how it works (or at least not how it needs to work)

Only one tap:

Tap (and hold), then drag, then let go.

That's it. All one movement. No extra taps needed.

Luckily my chosen source editor (Vim) handles all of this functionality without even *needing* cursor keys. Having to take my hands off the home row is substandard to me.

But for the traditional sorts of keys.. there's so much more functionality than what you describe that it needs to have chording anyways so I don't mind:

pageup - fn up
pagedown - fn down
home - fn left
end - fn right

So far so good.

But what if you want your edit point at the top of the document? cmd-up
bottom cmd-left
start of line cmd-left
end of line: cmd-right
next word: opt-right
prev word: opt-right

if you want to add selection to the aforementioned movement (between the current cursor position and the new?) just add shift

I'll grant that scrolling one line doesn't seem to be available that I can find.

Yes there's chording with all the above but the only ones that are eliminated by extra keys are the first four and I use pretty much all of these constantly when I'm not in Vim so I'm not too fussed about it and I'd rather not have them mash in four extra keys into an already compact keyboard layout.

No pets or kids for me.. but I'm not super shy about eating around my keyboard. Every now and again something will get under a key (though it's more rare than earlier ones which had larger gaps) it's not too hard to dislodge it with an air can.

Volume (and brightness0 adjustments are so much nicer wit the touchbar.. just tap and drag.. no multiple taps on multiple keys to increase and decrease the volume. Just tap and drag.. that's it. Very simple to get where I want. I can also configure what is on the top right of the touchbar. I currently have screen brightness, volume, mute and screen lock. There ae many options there.

Off the top of my head the screen sharing app has great touchbar support. There's some functionality in finder that I like as well (Certain things that don't have keyboard shortcuts) But in the end there really aren't many applications that I use that need access to the function keys. Vim, terminal (mainly because I sometimes use non-graphical vim, eg. through an ssh session) and parallels (since its used for windows).

Basically before touchbar I was saddled with fixed keys that I almost never used and the keys that I did use were not well placed or nice to use.. nor could I configure them since their functionality was printed on them. The touchbar eliminates all that. I can have context aware functionality in an otherwise mostly unused part of the keyboard. Even in Vim I only use Esc, F1 and F2.

In the end, for me it's a net increase in functionality/usability. If I ever upgrade (and I may since this machine still has some value in it and I'd like the extra cores) the escape key will be nice but I'm not clamoring for it. If all else was equal I'd just stick with what i have.

I type all day every day from a typing experience standpoint I never had a problem with the butterfly keys. I really like the super low travel. I did have some problems with keycaps that came loose but I got that fixed under warrantee very quickly. If the new keyboard gives me the same feel but with a bit more durability then I've got no problem. The reliability issues they had with the butterflies was definitely a black mark on their reputation. But this laptop has served me well for 4 years. As a nearly 30 year software developer I can say without a hint of hyperbole that the current apple keyboards (including the ill-fated butterflies) are the very best keyboards for my comfort and efficiency. Years of wrist pain disappeared after switching to a low-profile aluminum apple keyboard back in 2007. I'd tried all manner of ergonomic keyboards to no avail.. that one did the trick.

I'm fine either way on the escape key. I've been using Vim for 4 years with the touchbar version and I've got no real complaints. I do wish that the touchbar had haptic feedback like the touchpad does, however. I'm also happy to see they've gotten rid of the full height left and right cursor keys.. but as a vim user that's not been a huge impediment.. more of an annoyance.

The touchbar itself, though? It's been a massive net gain in usability for me. Aside from the aforementioned haptic feedback I've got no substantive complaints. I use the actual function keys exceedingly rarely (basically only in Vim and Terminal and a couple other applications). I'm able to set things to show me function keys when I need/want them and then touch bar otherwise. The system controls are excellent (adjusting volume and brightness and such) and certain applications make very good use of the touchbar. It's gotten to the point that I'm upset at apple for not selling an external keyboard with touchbar so that I can use it at my workstation in the office as well as my laptop.

Not sure about other OSes but the macOS print dialog has a small preview of the pages to be printed. You can view them one at a time and see exactly what's going to come out. From the same dialog you can save to PDF and even just open the current print job in an application called..... Preview.. to see a higher resolution preview

We do feature film visual effects and out of 100 staff there's maybe.. 85 on Linux workstations doing modeling, rigging, animation, dynamics simulations, compositing and lighting across the entire pipeline. The remainder are on Mac workstations and 3 floating Windows workstations for the couple of applications that only run on that platform.

I've had mine for about 2.5 years and the batteries are still going strong (both the buds and the case). They charge very fast -- you get about 3 hours' listening time with about 15 minutes in the case. I use mine all day every day at work. it's pretty rare that they wear out before the end of the day. Generally I just pop them back in the case when I step away from my desk to get a coffee or use the restroom. Works a charm.

I spend enough time without my headphones in during an average day (and thus I can charge them in the case) that battery life just isn't a problem for me.

And if you plug in the case to charge its internal battery while the airpods are in it then the airpods will charge first and then the case battery.

What are you talking about? Apple's phone batteries are secured by removable adhesive strips. They're incredibly easy to remove and replace (both the strips and the batteries they hold in place).

If the "browser issue" is deleting a system file then the problem is with the browser that's deleting the system file.

If users need to turn of OS-level file-system protections of said system file in order to get some drivers to install/work then the problem is with the makers of the drivers.

Consider that Apple's revenue is ~ $260 Billion per year..

So they pull in a billion dollars in about a day and a half.

Apple spending a billion dollars is roughly equivalent to a person earning $26,000 per year and spending $100.

Not chump change.. but it's not gonna break the bank either.

Music you buy and download from Apple (as opposed to the stuff you stream temporarily in Apple Music) can't be "wiped' from your system. What's more there's no copy protection at all. That music is as much yours to do with as you please as music you rip off a CD.

Buying albums from the iTunes Music Store is still my preferred way to pay for music. I do have an Apple Music subscription for when I just want to listen to some random music around the house or in the car but the bulk of my music listening is either albums bought from iTunes or pre-MP3 stuff I've ripped into my library.