this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
267 points (98.2% liked)
Technology
78627 readers
5534 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The touch bar is pretty good if a) most everyday shortcuts you use are on the modifiers and the alphanumeric keyboard instead of the f-keys, and b) you can put custom controls in the touch bar. Both of these are true with Macbook: there's a third-party app for controlling the touch bar. E.g. I've put in it a button to handoff the Bluetooth headphones from the laptop to the phone or the other way around.
Also helps if you're using an external keyboard, while the laptop is sitting on a stand. This way the touch bar is just an additional control surface.
But, if you use laptop as a stationary machine, you can just buy an external touch control. Though they're probably pricey due to the small specialist market.
My dream was to get an external one as an additional surface but when I looked it was almost impossible to find one. That was some years ago so the market may have cleared since.