Flexbar Revives The Touch Bar For Your Mac

Lately, we launched Flexbar, an initiative from ENIAC Expertise designed to resurrect the Contact Bar – Apple’s beforehand launched, but discontinued, contact display characteristic embedded in MacBook Professional keyboards. Regardless of Apple’s rationale for phasing it out, there are nonetheless customers who lament its absence. I managed to check out a Flexbar unit to see how the expertise compares to the unique Contact Bar.

Taking One other Take a look at the Contact Bar

The Contact Bar was launched in 2016 throughout Apple’s MacBook Professional redesign. It changed the standard operate key row with a responsive contact strip displaying buttons tailor-made for every utility. Whereas it sounded promising, many customers discovered interacting with touch-based buttons on the keyboard unsatisfactory.

As a former proprietor of a MacBook Professional that includes the Contact Bar, I maintain blended sentiments about it. Apple’s try to innovate was commendable, however it appeared pointless for many customers. The Contact Bar felt smooth, and duties like choosing emojis or navigating mission timelines in Remaining Lower Professional have been undeniably spectacular.

Nonetheless, the Contact Bar often proved to be a supply of frustration. It was riddled with bugs, would change into unresponsive at instances, and only a few functions included its functionalities. In 2021, Apple selected to get rid of the Contact Bar, claiming that “Professional customers love” the “tactile really feel of mechanical keys.” Whereas I can agree with this sentiment, I additionally imagine there was potential for its enhancement.

Expertise with Flexbar

Years later, a bunch of engineers launched Flexbar, designed to intently resemble the Contact Bar however claiming to “resolve person frustrations and elevate productiveness.”

Flexbar boasts a premium steel building that aligns with the aesthetics of Apple’s Magic Keyboard and different gadgets. It options an AMOLED touchscreen displaying vibrant and clear contents.

Whereas the Contact Bar was restricted to predefined controls, Flexbar gives intensive customization choices through a devoted companion app. Customers can create shortcuts to launch apps, folders, web sites, execute scripts, management the quantity, and even sequence a number of instructions. The flexibility to import and export configurations permits customers to share and discover completely different setups.

My expertise with Flexbar has been transient, and I’ve but to discover all of the settings totally. Nonetheless, I’ve set it up with shortcuts for my most-utilized functions, a quantity slider, a button for Typing to Siri, and a lock display button. Flexbar could be organized to characteristic a hard and fast set of controls or permit scrolling to disclose extra choices. You’ll be able to even create folders for controls that solely show when wanted.

Consider it as a Stream Deck with contact performance. As an example, I’ve designed shortcuts that run each day scripts and shortly entry folders containing property utilized in picture and video modifying. Plus, I included shortcuts for my favourite emojis, which is a characteristic I notably missed from the unique Contact Bar.

Enhanced Options and Third-Occasion Plugins

Flexbar additionally gives superior controls that allow customers to save lots of their app preparations, permitting for fast entry to a full set of functions with only one faucet. There’s additionally a performance for scrolling via the show.

Relating to third-party utility assist, the crew has developed an SDK for Flexbar, permitting apps to create tailor-made interactions. Sadly, the plugin retailer isn’t anticipated to launch till the latter half of 2025, which means early customers will probably be restricted to the built-in controls. This limitation is a tad inconvenient, particularly as customers presently lack options like a tab switcher for Safari.

Moreover, Flexbar incorporates haptic suggestions for enhanced interplay with its controls. It’s provided with a magnetic stand for improved ergonomics whereas utilizing it on a desktop, and it connects to your Mac through a USB-C cable. I’ve encountered minor points, akin to Flexbar not shutting down when my Mac enters sleep mode, however this might probably be an remoted problem since I’m testing a prototype utilizing beta software program.

Is Flexbar a Good Worth?

The idea behind Flexbar definitely piques curiosity, particularly for these craving for the Contact Bar expertise. Because it doesn’t impede the usage of a bodily keyboard, there’s no compromise concerned in its utilization. I discover the Apple-esque design, the magnetic assist, customization options, and haptic suggestions fairly interesting. Plus, using it inside a desktop setup (not like the Contact Bar, which was unique to MacBooks) is pleasant.

One characteristic suggestion for the engineering crew: it will be intriguing to see an choice that replicates the native macOS Contact Bar (which stays out there even on Mac gadgets with out the Contact Bar) on the Flexbar. Though this may current some challenges, I’ve observed a neighborhood curiosity in exploring this idea. Why not give it a shot?

The Flexbar was launched through a Kickstarter marketing campaign and is anticipated to debut in February 2025. It is going to retail for $179, however pre-orders can be found for $149 in the course of the marketing campaign. It’s appropriate with each Mac and Home windows PCs.

Is it a vital addition? Maybe not. Nonetheless, for lovers of equipment just like the Stream Deck or Logitech’s MX Inventive Console, the Flexbar replicates comparable functionalities however in a extra refined and trendy aesthetic. Moreover, the SDK for third-party plug-ins fuels pleasure concerning the product’s future prospects.