Touch Bar - page 2

Ejector makes your Mac’s eject key useful again

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Make eject great again.
Make eject great again.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Take a look at the top right corner of your keyboard. Unless you’re using a recent MacBook, you’ll see a vestigial Eject key. It used to be used to eject CDs, DVDs and even floppy disks back in the olden days. Now it sits there doing nothing1.

I wonder how many eject keys are manufactured each year? How much plastic is wasted? Truly, we humans do not deserve this Earth.

Sorry, back to the point: Ejector is a Mac app that reclaims this useless plastic square, turning it into a way to eject USB drives and more.

40 reasons to love the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar [Cult of Mac Magazine No. 280]

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You can learn to love the MacBook Pro Touch Bar.
These 40 tips will make you love the Touch Bar (if you don't already).
Cover: Graham Bower/Marty Cortinas/Cult of Mac

Some people love the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar. Other people absolutely hate it. Bottom line is that the thin OLED strip can work wonders — if you use it right!

Get our top 40 tips for making the most of the Touch Bar in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Get it now from iTunes — hey, the price is right! — or keep reading for the week’s best Apple news, reviews and how-tos.

Top 40 tips that make you love the Touch Bar

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You got the touch. Here's how to master your MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar.
You got the touch. Here's how to master your MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

The Touch Bar is one of Apple’s most controversial innovations of recent years. Located inconspicuously at the top of the MacBook Pro keyboard, where the function keys used to sit, some users ignore it altogether. Others actively hate it.

For pro users, like software developers, the lack of a physical escape key and function keys can be a real pain. And the Touch Bar’s touch-sensitivity makes it all too easy to trigger Siri by accident when you aim for the delete key.

But love it or loathe it, we’re stuck with the Touch Bar. Apple includes it on all its high-end laptops, without even offering function keys as a built-to-order option. So we might as well learn how to get the most out of it.

The good news is that once you get in touch with your Touch Bar, it turns out to have some genuinely useful time-saving features. Especially if you use apps that support it, like Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office. Here are my top 40 Touch Bar tips.

MacBook smackdown: Which laptop is right for you?

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MacBook Air 2018
If you need a new laptop, you won't want to miss this deal.
Photo: Apple

Apple finally dusted off the MacBook Air. The 2018 model sports a brand new design, a gorgeous Retina display, and powerful upgraded internals. All of sudden, Apple’s most affordable notebook is up there with its best.

In fact, the new ultraportable is so good, you would be crazy to buy a 12-inch MacBook right now. So, how does the new MacBook Air stack up against the rest of Apple’s laptop lineup? Which model best suits your needs, and which delivers the best bang for the buck?

Find out right here in our comprehensive MacBook comparison.

Gorgeous concept dreams up big changes for Mac mini

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mac mini concept
The space gray coloring is lit.
Photo: Viktor Kádár

After 1473 days of waiting for an update, new Mac minis might finally be on the horizon.

Apple’s ‘More in the Making’ keynote is less than 24 hours away and one of the most anticipated new devices is expected to be an updated Mac mini. We’ll have to wait a few more hours to see what it looks like, but for now, we’re busy drooling over this gorgeous Mac mini concept that brings a pro look to Apple’s smallest Mac.

Take a closer look:

MacBook concept ditches physical keys for a giant Touch Bar

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MacBook sales rising
This concept takes the Touch Bar to the next level.
Photo: Apple

When Apple introduced the MacBook with Touch Bar a couple of years back, it got positive reviews — although it also seemed like a concept that Apple hadn’t pushed as far it would go.

That same criticism certainly can’t be leveled at a new concept video created by Turkish designer and Apple fan Furkan Kasap. Kasap has reimagined the MacBook keyboard as a full-on virtual keyboard built around a touch display. Check it out.

New MacBook Pros come with 6-core processors, quieter keyboards

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The new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models with Touch Bar up the ante for pro users.
The new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models with Touch Bar up the ante for pro users.
Photo: Apple

Apple just updated its MacBook Pro line, ramping up performance and adding various advanced features. Phil Schiller, Apple’s marketing VP, calls the new Apple laptops “the fastest and most powerful notebook we’ve ever made.”

The new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar models boast 8th-generation “Coffee Lake” Intel Core processors, with 6-core CPUs in the 15-inch model and quad-core CPUs on the 13-inch model.

iOS concept brings Touch Bar to the iPhone

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TouchBar concept
TouchBar on iOS doesn't make much sense.
Photo: Eyad Murshid

Apple’s Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro hasn’t been as big a hit as the company would have wished for, but it could make a comeback at an unlikely location: the iPhone.

A concept artist has imagined what it would look like if Apple brought the Touch Bar to iOS and while it may seem like an odd fit at first, it actually might be pretty useful.

Check it out:

Brilliant concept brings Touch Bar to the Mac mini

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Mac Mini
This Mac Mini concept is pretty crazy.
Photo: Louis Berger

It’s time for Apple to think different when it comes to the Mac mini.

Even though it’s been over 1,000 days since Apple last updated its smallest Mac machine, Tim Cook insists it’s still an important part of Apple’s product line. Apple fans are desperate for an update, but if it looks anything like this concept it’ll have been well worth the wait.

Take a closer look:

Get the best price ever on a MacBook Pro

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macos
Now is the time to get a MacBook Pro.
Photo: Cult of Mac

There are awesome prices to be had this week whether you’re shopping for a MacBook or an iMac, and free Beats headphones.

If you’re ready to step up to Apple’s super fast, super light MacBook Pro featuring the innovative Touch Bar, there’s no better time.

macOS High Sierra, tvOS 11 and watchOS 4 get fourth beta builds

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wwdc 2017
macOS High Sierra was one laid back macOS update.
Photo: Apple

Apple seeded its fourth beta build of macOS High Sierra to developers today, along with new betas of watchOS 4 and tvOS 11.

The new builds come two weeks after Apple dropped the last builds on developers that brought a bunch of new bug fixes and under the hood changes. Apple didn’t add quite as many major changes as it did on iOS 11 beta 4, but there are some notable improvements.

Apple ditches its most affordable 13-inch MacBook Pro

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Mac
Isn't it time you swapped that dusty old Mac for a new one?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s most affordable 13-inch MacBook Pro has been discontinued.

The 2015 model has held onto its place on the Apple online store as a more affordable alternative to more recent MacBook Pros, but you’ll have to buy one of the company’s latest notebooks if you want to stick with a 13-inch display.

Crazy MacBook Pro concept replaces keyboard with a yuuuuuuge touchpad

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Keyboards are so last year.
Keyboards are so last year.
Photo: Daniel Brunsteiner

Tim Cook has repeatedly said Apple has no plans to make a touchscreen MacBook, but a crazy new concept imagines what would happen if the company replaced keyboards with a giant touchpad.

Giving creatives a big touchscreen instead of a keyboard may sounds like a horrible idea at first. Typing would definitely take some getting used to. However, designer Daniel Brunsteiner’s concept shows how you could do some cool new stuff with the touchpad.

Take a closer look:

Evernote update brings new buttons to MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar

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MacBook Pro owners will love the Evernote update.
MacBook Pro owners will love the Evernote update.
Photo: Evernote

MacBook Pro owners received some love from today in the form of an Evernote update that adds support for Apple’s new Touch Bar.

Instead of taking a complex approach to the Touch Bar, Evernote kept things simple — adding buttons for tasks you will want to do with one tap, such as search your notes or create a new one.

iPhone 8’s curved OLED display to be made by Samsung

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iPhone 8 concept
Imagining the iPhone of the future.
Photo: Gabor Balogh

Apple’s “premium” iPhone 8 will offer an OLED display with curved glass similar to that used by Samsung, according to a new report out of Japan.

In fact, sources say the display will be manufactured exclusively by Apple’s South Korean rival, but its curves won’t be quite as pronounced as those found on the Galaxy S7 edge.

Sleek iPhone 8 concept shows how ‘Function Bar’ might work

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iphone
We hope the next iPhone is this beautiful.
Photo: AlHasan Husni

The rumored “Function Bar” will make a beautiful addition to the upcoming iPhone 8 if it looks anything like the concept created by designer AlHasan Husni.

In the stunning new artwork, Husni imagines how the Function Bar at the bottom of the new iPhone will work. Not only could it make unlocking the iPhone even faster, it could add a whole new set of swipe functions to bring up certain features.

2017’s ‘iPhone Edition’ to arrive late, OLED display uncertain

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iPhone 8 concept
Don't get your heart set on OLED just yet.
Photo: iDropNews

We’ve all been calling it the iPhone 8 for months, but according to a new report out of Japan, Apple’s tenth anniversary smartphone will be named “iPhone Edition.”

The device is expected to be announced alongside the “iPhone 7s” and “iPhone 7s Plus,” but we’ll have to wait longer to actually get our hands on it. What’s more, sources claim that the OLED upgrade we’ve been looking forward to isn’t a sure thing yet.