Mike Wuerthele
New claims about future Mac hardware have emerged after Tuesday's revelations from Apple's Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi, with the latest rumors suggesting that future high-end Retina MacBook Pros may not include a Touch Bar, and the iPad Pro could be used directly as a tablet input device for a connected Mac.
According to a report from OS News, and reinforced by notable developer Marco Arment, the new Mac Pro tentatively slated for a 2018 release only started development a few weeks ago. Apple was allegedly taken aback by poor "professional" response to the 2016 Retina MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, and amped up attention to the segment.
As a result of feedback garnered in the wake of the release, reportedly, Apple's updates to the 15-inch MacBook Pro may not include a Touch Bar. Additional synergistic features between macOS and iOS are also rumored to be in the works, such as "hooking an iPad Pro up to a Mac to use it as a Cintiq-like device" according to OS News.
Apple's examination of the "Cintiq-like" features mirrors that available in apps on the App Store, such as a annual subscription to Duet Display, or Astropad Studio.
In an uncharacteristic reveal of Apple's future moves, on Tuesday Senior Vice Presidents Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi spilled the beans on a new Mac Pro in development for 2018, the evolution of the iMac, and the continuation of the Mac mini.
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79 Comments
Apple's going to ditch the touchbar when it hasn't even been on the market for a year? Yeah no. The things pros complained about with the new MBP was RAM and ports, neither of which have anything to do with the touchbar. My guess is we're going to hear all sorts of bogus rumors from people allegedly in the know. Btw, Marco Arment doesn't have any inside information he just guessed that Apple's decision on the Mac Pro was recent (hence why no date on when we'll see a new one).
I think the only thing truly legit with these rumors is Apple got an earful from some "pro" consumers and they have to course correct. Alex Lindsey, who is on Macbreak Weekly said he'd prefer it if Apple got out of the Mac hardware business and let someone else do it. I think that's nuts.
I agree, Apple would be foolish to ditch the touchbar. I didn't buy one, only because I have a 2013 MBP that fits my needs, but I've tested one at the store for over an hour with multiple programs I use and I'm very impressed and will purchase one when the time comes. As for using an iPad in conjunction with a MPB I'm doing that now the my Air2 and Duet. It works perfectly (and is free except on the iPad Pro units) and they have even added a touch bar iPad when I use it as the second screen. Duet works really well because it is hard wired (via USB) to the MBP, eliminating lags some of the other emulators have. Not sure how Apple could improve on what Duet does now?
I suspect what they might do is include an entry level MacBook Pro that doesn't include touch bar (but still has a non-ULV processor, and can be upgraded to a full blown i7 with tons of RAM etc. I was almost certain I'd be buying a new MacBook Pro last fall, but I looked at the prices and realized that I'd be paying the cost of an Apple Watch in order to get what's essentially an Apple Watch built into my MacBook. And i said no. (I actually wrote to Tim about it, who knows if he read it.) I would actually love to see them move back to the design of the non-retina MacBook Pros, and include MORE. They could leave the optical drive out and instead create a space for modular upgrades (I know it's a very non-Apple thing to do, but it'd cater to the pro market very well.) If it's empty your laptop is lighter. If it's full you have additional battery, or an optical drive (for people like my sister who's a lawyer who HAS to deal with DVDs often on the go because that's how they get evidence given to them.) You could have other modules like a discrete GPU. There are probably also a number of other options that you might like to have built into your MacBook that I haven't thought of. Sadly I doubt this'll happen.
WTF! Oh right, something Apple has had in development for years and one of, if not the main selling point of the latest MBPr line is just going to be dropped right away on future hardware updates because some pros don't like it? What kind of nonsense is this! What the next step might be in the near future, is that the whole keyboard area gets replaced by a haptic feedback touchscreen of some sort, with the current Touch Bar as a stop gap. Other venders are known to be working on this.