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Parallels makes Windows apps work with your MacBook's TouchBar
If you're one of those Apple users who likes (or needs) to run Mac OS and Windows side by side, you'll probably be into Parallels Desktop 13. Especially if you have one of those MacBook Pros with a TouchBar. The latest version of the software makes certain apps on Microsoft's platform fully compatible with Apple's digital OLED strip, including all the major web browsers and the entire Office Suite. For instance, if you're running PowerPoint for Windows through Parallels, you can use the TouchBar to do things like bold or italicize the text on your slides. You can also customize functions based on which app you're using, just as you would on the Mac OS interface.
Chrome plays nicely with your MacBook Pro's Touch Bar
If you have one of the more recent MacBook Pro laptops with a Touch Bar, Google Chrome has long played second fiddle. Despite early hints of support, you've had to spend months surfing the old-fashioned way where Safari had the fancy (if sometimes gimmicky) context-specific commands. At last, Chrome is receiving equal treatment. Google has released Chrome 60, which officially introduces Touch Bar support. It's a familiar experience with navigation buttons and a hybrid address/search bar, but that's all you need if you just want to open a new tab without touching the trackpad or a keyboard shortcut.
Apple expands Touch Bar support for GarageBand (updated)
While the list of apps supporting the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar has been growing at a decent clip, and Apple's own entry-level music learning and production software just got an update as well. After WWDC, Apple pushed out a GarageBand update that expanded how the app works with the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar -- similar to Apple's own professional level production suite, Logic Pro X, which added touch features earlier this year.
Evernote for Mac puts shortcuts on the Touch Bar
When we reviewed the latest MacBook Pro after it came out last November, we found its brand-new Touch Bar feature to be useful, if unasked-for. But even as a peripheral appeared to give users the full touchscreen they really wanted, software mainstays like Office and Chrome have added support for the capacitative strip in the last few months. Evernote is the latest to integrate the Touch Bar into its MacBook edition, adding a handful of controls that mimic those found in its smartphone app.
Chrome Canary adds support for MacBook Pro's Touch Bar
Chrome could soon follow in the footsteps of other apps (like the Microsoft Office) that recently introduced support for the Macbook Pro's LCD strip. Google has just released version 58 of the experimental Chrome Canary build, and it now works with the laptop's Touch Bar. Its implementation seems to be simpler than Safari's -- according to 9to5Mac, it has escape, forward and backward, new tab, bookmark and refresh buttons. It also has a search and a URL text box that activates your browser's URL field when you tap it. However, the search bar doesn't have word prediction, and you won't find any playback controls when you play video or audio files
Microsoft Office for Mac gets Touch Bar support
Owners of the Macbook Pro with Touch Bar will be pleased to hear that Microsoft Office now works with the LCD strip Apple introduced with its latest laptop. Support for Touch Bar was announced alongside the new MacBook Pro at an Apple event last October, but Office support is now available to all users. The Touch Bar has special layouts ready for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, with Outlook and Skype additions coming soon. It's the latest high-profile app to get Touch Bar support and joins other massive apps like Adobe's Photoshop and Apple's own Final Cut Pro.
MacBook Pro Touch Bar banned from multiple state bar exams
Here's an unexpected drawback of Apple's latest flagship laptops: law students in several states are being asked to disable the Touch Bar on their new MacBook Pros, or leave them at home entirely, if they plan to use the machines when they take the bar exam in February. According to an announcement from testing software company ExamSoft, the Touch Bar's predictive text feature could compromise "exam integrity."
Take Logic Pro X projects from desktop to mobile with GarageBand
Despite it's highly capable tool set, GarageBand is widely thought of as Apple's beginner audio recording software. Logic Pro X is the company's option for more advanced users. While the latter app has been around since 2013, Apple regularly adds new features and it's doing just that today. With version 10.3, Logic Pro X gains a host of new tool to lend a hand with recording and music production. First, the app has a refreshed UI to make it easier to see in well-lit environments. After all, not everyone likes to work in the dark or a dimly lit room.
A software update will solve those MacBook Pro battery issues
Apple's latest MacBook Pros got plenty of mixed reviews, but the bugs with the laptop's battery life estimates were a bad ending to a tough year for Cupertino. Although Apple figured the machines would get a respectable a 10 hour battery life, independent tests from Consumer Reports showed wildly different results ranging from less than four hours to almost 20 hours, causing the group to pull their recommendation for the first time. While Apple put some of the blame on Intel's Skylake-based chips, a new software update has apparently fixed the issue to Consumer Reports' satisfaction.
Photoshop is ready to put your MacBook Pro Touch Bar to work
When Apple replaced the physical function keys on the new MacBook Pro with a swipe-friendly Touch Bar, the company touted its ability to make edits with apps like Final Cut Pro and Photoshop a breeze. While the new laptop has been available for a few weeks now, today Adobe announced that its flagship photo-editing app is ready to play nice with the machine.
There's a tiny piano app for the MacBook Pro Touch Bar
Apple has showed off a number of uses for the newfangled MacBook Pro Touch Bar, including DJ and other music making controls. It also plays Doom, which is quite handy. When you need to do your best Elton John impression, there's an app that can help with that. Appropriately named Touch Bar Piano, the software brings 128 different instruments to that touch panel above the laptop's keyboard.
Pros and cons: Our quick verdict on the new MacBook Pro
Good news: Apple finally revamped the MacBook Pro, after sticking with the same design for more than four years. The bad news: It's not quite the notebook we at Engadget had been waiting for. Though the refreshed MBP ushers in a series of improvements -- faster SSDs, a thinner and lighter design, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, brighter screen, more robust audio -- loyal Mac fans will also probably have to make some changes to the way they work. For starters, there are no full-sized USB ports here, and no SD card reader. That last point will sting for any of the "pros" who use capture devices to record lots of photo, video and audio files. As for the USB ports, get ready to use a dongle if you typically connect an external monitor or even external storage drive.
The MacBook Pro Touch Bar plays 'Doom' because of course it does
Doom is the rice of the video game world. It's a staple of the industry and it works with everything, running flawlessly on ATMs, printers, pianos, calculators, e-readers, chainsaws and even on a terminal within Doom itself. This week, Facebook iOS engineer Adam Bell got Doom running on one more unlikely appliance: the Touch Bar of the latest MacBook Pro.
MacBook Pro review (2016): A step forward and a step back
The last time Engadget reviewed a brand-new MacBook Pro design was in June of 2012. It weighed 4.46 pounds (a heavyweight by today's standards) and it ushered in some newfangled thing called the Retina display. Though Apple has occasionally refreshed the processors (the last time being all the way back in early 2015), that design from 2012 is virtually the same one we've been reviewing all these years. Thanks to that stale design and often neglected internals, many Mac fans out there have delayed upgrading -- surely a new model was just around the corner, right? Though we're not sure you all were able to hold off until now, Apple has finally updated its MacBook Pro line, and it's not just a processor refresh either. Both of the new 13- and 15-inch Pros are thinner, lighter and more compact than their predecessors, with faster graphics and disk performance, a brighter, more colorful screen, Touch ID fingerprint sensor and louder, clearer audio. Most notably, they mark the debut of yet another newfangled thing: the "Touch Bar," an OLED strip above the keyboard that replaces the age-old Function bar with touch-sensitive controls that change depending on the app you're using. Factor in a narrower selection of ports (almost guaranteeing you'll need a dongle) and the MacBook Pro isn't just a thinner or different-looking Mac; it's one you're meant to use differently. That's not necessarily a good thing.
Apple's Logic audio editor will use the MacBook Pro Touch Bar in 2017
The new MacBook Pro's Touch Bar might already come in handy with video editing in Final Cut Pro X, but what if you're a musician? If you depend on Apple's Logic Pro X, you'll have to be patient. The company has informed an AppleInsider reader that Touch Bar support will arrive in the audio production tool "by early next year." It's not certain what's prompting the longer development process, but it wouldn't be surprising if it's a matter of complexity. It's not just a question of adding a timeline control and calling it a day -- Apple has to account for the many, many interface elements you need to produce album-worthy tracks.
Apple's MacBook Pro isn't the touchscreen laptop it ought to be
Ever since Phil Schiller brought up the issue while introducing the second-generation MacBook Air, Apple has made a point of publicly resisting the pressure to introduce touchscreen Macs. Computers need a fundamentally different interface than your smartphone or tablet, Apple argues, and it's cumbersome to keep raising your hand to the display. However, the new MacBook Pro's Touch Bar really amounts to a confession -- it's an acknowledgment that touch input can improve your computing experience, and that Apple has been missing out on technology that some PC users take for granted. As big a step forward as the Pro may be, it's not necessarily the giant stride that you might like.
UK pricing for Apple's new MacBook Pros
So, Apple's "Hello Again" event is over, and it turned out to be a little lighter than first thought. The company announced a new all-in-one guide for Apple TV, as well as Minecraft hitting the little box before the end of the year. The new MacBook Pro lineup was the main reason people showed up, though. They are thinner and lighter, with brighter screens and improved performance, though they seem to have misplaced standard USB ports. The new OLED Touch Bar with Touch ID that replaces the function keys is the big addition to the top-end 13-inch and 15-inch models, offering contextual controls based on what program you're using at the time (where supported, of course). We know what you're here for, so we'll cut to the chase. What's the damage?
