what happened to the touch bar? I think people hated it because it didn’t give them anything new, so they focused on what they lost instead.
Touch bar was a second, optional way to do things we already could do. You didn’t GET anything. Whatever you were given, you already had it. Nothing to be excited about.
So people focused on what was taken away: tactile Escape key. Important or not, when you don’t get anything in exchange, it _is_ a loss.
To win their customers back, touch bar should start doing something really important for them. My idea is to put Dock there. On small screens (and 12"-13" Macbooks’ screens are not very spacious) Dock eats up a significant amount of screen real estate that you value very much. Apple has a couple of solutions already (automatically hide Dock and fullscreen mode), but both are _compromises_: you don’t see what’s happening, you don’t see badges/running app indicators and, in case of fullscreen mode, can’t use Dock at all.
Instead, if we put Dock to the touch bar, we can free up a significant portion of the screen for the users. There are apps that offer that already but they are mostly app launchers, which is just one of the many Dock’s functions. No, it has to be real Dock: app shortcuts, minimized windows, badges, quick access folders, and, most importantly, Dock on the main screen should disappear.
If we can have that, there’s a good chance we can change people attitude about this invention. That and, maybe, a dedicated tactile Escape key :)