David Pierce at The Verge:
I keep forgetting the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display has a touchscreen. I’ve been testing this new laptop, one of the most impressive Apple has ever created, for the better part of a week. I can’t stop noticing some of its other features: the slimmer design, the improved display, the Dynamic Island that somehow catches my eye more than the notch ever did. But I keep forgetting that as I go about my day, I can now reach out and poke the screen.
The crew over at ShortCircuit have a video up featuring the new MacBook Pro, and how touch on macOS stacks up to touch on Windows 11. LTT is primarily a Windows shop, but I was surprised at how many times they said Apple had done things in an easier and more obvious way.
From the WebKit blog:
In the spring of 2019, Safari 12.1 became the first browser to support dark mode on the web. A lot of people love using dark mode, but not every website has a dark version. Almost 40% of web page loads are from users in dark mode, and yet only 10% of page loads support it. If you love dark mode, you’ve probably hit a site that felt particularly bright. Adaptive Dark Mode is designed to close that gap, providing a consistent dark experience across the web.
One of the most satisfying things about having a flip phone back in the day was being able to snap it shut when you were done with a call. You didn’t even have to be hanging up in anger — it was just a cool move.1
One aspect of the iPhone Duo that I am enjoying is akin to this. If I’m working on the inside screen, I want to shut the phone and have it lock, ready to go back in my pocket. This move says, “I’ve done the thing I needed to do, and now it’s time to move on.”
Black Ink 3, the next version of Red Sweater’s app for crossword connoisseurs, is coming soon for both iOS and Mac. A preview beta is now available with one of the most anticipated features: iCloud Sync. Now you can start solving a puzzle on your Mac in the morning, put a little time in during the day on your phone, and finish up on your iPad that evening. Everything syncs seamlessly through your existing Apple account.
Mark Gurman, in his Power On newsletter, writing about the new MacBook Pro and how Apple launched it:
Adding touch to that should have been treated as the biggest change to the Mac in more than half a decade. Instead, Apple presented it as more of a routine upgrade — rather than an opportunity to build something new. The updated models are significantly lighter and slightly thinner, with better heat management and a redesigned cooling system. Yet they look much like the tried-and-true 2021 versions and run the same M5 Pro and M5 Max chips introduced this past spring.
The HomeView’s OS — which doesn’t really seem to have a name — was explored over the weekend by several folks. It looks like an interesting mashup of iOS and watchOS, complete with a bunch of fun wallpapers. I’m partial to this one:
My thanks to Mardo for sponsoring the site this week. It is the best Markdown viewer ever made. Press Space on a Markdown file and watch it render beautifully, live, right in Quick Look.
I am back on the podcast, and just in time:
MacBook Pros can be touched, iPad mini chips can be binned, and John Ternus can change the world.
Federico Viticci, in the smartest article I’ve read about the new MacBook Pro:
I’d argue that the Mac’s lack of touch is a liability at this point. Its omission has turned from a deliberate design decision that made sense for its time to a choice dictated by inertia and, perhaps, an unwillingness to challenge the status quo. Which is especially funny since the “status quo” of Apple is that of a company that sells millions of touch-enabled devices every year and considerably fewer trackpad-only ones. The lack of touch on the Mac feels like a self-inflicted problem that has no reason to exist anymore, and which John Ternus is rightfully rectifying for the modern age.
Steven Levy got to speak to Apple’s CEO (and others) about the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display for Wired (Apple News):
I ask if Apple is about to break a long-imposed taboo and introduce a Macintosh with a touch screen.
Ternus beams. “Who knew?”
We are referring to the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display that Apple is releasing today at an event in Los Angeles. It’s got a mighty M5 Pro or M5 Max chip and a show-stopping tandem OLED screen. (A tandem screen has multiple light-emitting layers, producing more dramatic contrasts.) But its most conspicuous feature is one that’s been deeply woven into iPhones, iPads, and even Apple Watches for years but not Apple’s laptops: a touch display. After years of resistance, a Mac screen has finally gone digital.
Apple just unveiled its new high-end notebook, the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display. The name is a mouthful, but it makes a lot of sense, as the normal MacBook Pro is still alive and well.1
The most important thing about this laptop is that the Apple logo lights up on the lid. I will never forgive Jony Ive and Tim Cook for taking that away ten years ago. I understood it on the 12-inch MacBook in 2015, but taking it off the MacBook Pros was in poor taste.