If you miss the divisive Touch Bar from a newer MacBook model, then a group of like-minted enthusiasts have likely made your day.
A new Kickstarter campaign is asking for funding for a Flexbar that can be placed on your desktop behind your keyboard, or above the function keys on your laptop.
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It’s a tappable, swipeable customisable AMOLED strip that works with Windows and Mac and connects to the host computer via USB-C with a plug-and-play interface. It’ll mimic the Touch Bar’s functionality by offering shortcuts to favoured apps and then surfacing common pieces of functionality within those popular applications.
Thanks to pre-made plug-ins, it’ll already work with the likes of YouTube, Microsoft Office, Adobe PhotoShop, and loads more.
“The discontinuation of the original Touch Bar didn’t mean the concept was flawed – it simply wasn’t taken far enough to reach its full potential,” ENIAC, the company behind the Flexbar, says on a Kickstarter page.
“There’s something undeniable itself: the potential for a customisable, adaptive interface that could streamline workflows was immense.
Right now the product can be backed for as little as $119, which would get you a 34% discount on the full price of $179 if the Flexbar comes to fruition. That seems likely considering the project has well exceeded its modest funding goal.
The Apple MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar certainly split opinion during its short-lived period above the numbers on the laptop’s keyboard. It arrived in 2016 on the MacBook Pro and lived on until 2023 model when the last model packing the feature was discontinued.
For some people, an intelligent touch-friendly display that offered different options depending on the app you were using, and was a genuine upgrade to the keyboard experience that had been largely the same since the laptop was invented. For others, it got in the way and wasn’t executed as well as it should have been. They were glad to see the back of it. Now, at least, it’ll be a choice.
