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Become a Six Colors member to read exclusive posts, get our weekly podcast, join our community, and more!By Jason Snell for Macworld
How Apple can bring the Touch Bar and Touch ID to desktop Macs
Ever since the release of the new MacBook Pro, which introduced two features never before seen on the Mac—namely the Touch ID sensor and the Touch Bar—it’s been an open question. When will those features go from being available only on the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro, and move across the entire Mac product line?
It’s probably only a matter of time before the Touch Bar and Touch ID sensor crop up on the MacBook, if for no other reason than it’s a laptop and Apple has already showed how to integrate those features into a laptop. (But given how svelte the MacBook is, it might take a while.)
The real question is on the desktop. Yes, it’s true that roughly two-thirds of the Macs Apple sells are laptops. But Apple still sells a lot of iMacs—and many of Apple’s laptops are sometimes plugged in to big external monitors when they’re docked at a desk. (Apple specifically touts using the MacBook Pro with LG’s new 5K external display, in fact.)
How do you get technology designed for a laptop, where input devices are integrated with computer and display into a single unit, into a desktop configuration—whether it’s an iMac, a lid-closed laptop, or (stay with me here) a Mac Pro or Mac mini?