OK, before you kill me: I know it's not the same thing and Apple actually brings value to the table with their products (even if sometimes it's 'just' polishing the UI/UX). What I don't like is that most of the world will gladly accept everything that Apple sells as Apple's fantastic and groundbreaking ideas, forgetting about the prior art.
I think tactile feedback is still the biggest possible feature of a (real) keyboard.
I could just add a few hundred bucks and buy a new Macbook.
As others have mentioned, looking at the keyboard is generally something to be avoided. The premise for this is sort of a workflow antipattern.
The Optimus was also not very comfortable for actual typing use, which probably put off a lot of potential customers.
https://www.microsoft.com/appliedsciences/content/projects/D...
I can imagine a large touch bar with stylus input (!) would actually be useful.
Also a trackpad at the top of the keyboard would be perfect for working on trains and planes!
At the other extreme, there's http://www.daskeyboard.com/
Sure, they would effectively be function keys, but you could see what the keys do for all the various apps without having to learn and remember.
I haven't watched much of the material, so pointers welcomed. But "ctrl+s in this app saves" seems preferable to "which icon is save in this app"?
Super expensive, but pretty interesting concept.
It lacks feedback when pressing the button. Trying to find the correct button without looking to the keyboard is quite difficul since the virtual buttons dont have relief. I find it as well quite annoying since moving your sight down makes you feel out of place
If you check online the Thinkpad X1 2nd gen is one of the most hated Thinkpads, because of the touchbar and the trackpad...
I'd assume now that it's out there other manufacturers like Lenovo, Dell and HP will try to copy them.
