Apple Mactracks...

Look, before I get to the name, I will say that the intro video Apple made for the touchscreen MacBook Pro is good – a massive improvement over the chaotic HomeView one. It shows what's new and highlights why you might care. It evokes a sense of desire, not stress (though yes, some people of a certain age may feel stressed seeing a finger reach out to touch a MacBook screen – smudges!).

Also good, it would seem that John Ternus was actually on stage – as in, standing on an actual stage in a room full of actual people – presenting it to the group of influencers and press that gathered in Los Angeles. It wasn't live-streamed, nor has Apple released a video of the "event" (at least not yet), but it's a start! It seemingly points to a world where Apple returns to the stage, so to speak, but also literally. Perhaps not for every event, but maybe just for some. I hope this was a bit of a test and training run for what's to come (back).

Speaking of... he did it. He really did it. The tease was legit. After a decade away, the Apple logo has once again been lit on the back of the screen! It always seemed wild that Apple let this natural marketing maneuver – recall those shots of students in college classrooms with dozens of Apple logos illuminated – fade into history. Now it's back, albeit on a device that will undoubtedly be too expensive for most students. Still, that too is a start. And you can tell how happy Ternus is about it by the fact that he had his profile picture immediately changed to a shot of him with the glowing logo upon announcement. Nice, um, touch.

Steven Levy snagged a sit down with Ternus (and a few other Apple executives) for Wired ahead of the launch. And he didn't shy away from poking the elephant in the room:

I ask if Apple is about to break a long-imposed taboo and introduce a Macintosh with a touch screen.

Ternus beams. “Who knew?”

We are referring to the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display that Apple is releasing today at an event in Los Angeles. It’s got a mighty M5 Pro or M5 Max chip and a show-stopping tandem OLED screen. (A tandem screen has multiple light-emitting layers, producing more dramatic contrasts.) But its most conspicuous feature is one that’s been deeply woven into iPhones, iPads, and even Apple Watches for years but not Apple’s laptops: a touch display. After years of resistance, a Mac screen has finally gone digital. As in fingers.

Okay, the name. I mean, I was sort of right in guessing that it would be something like "MacBook Pro with..." but wrong in thinking that it would be something simple like "Multi-Touch". I understand why – as you'll see below, Apple aims to downplay the actual touch functionality of the device – but come on. "MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display" – that is the actual name complete with ALL CAPS – sounds and looks downright Microsoftian. The jokes write themselves.

The intro video actually explains some of Apple's thinking here: the aim is to highlight not touch, but the OLED screen itself. But it's Apple. So it's not just 'OLED' – it's 'PROLED'. A little cute, but we'll allow it – especially because the reference in the video is fairly tongue-in-cheek. But they should have stopped there! I won't go so far as to suggest that Apple should have called it the 'MacBook PROLED' – though I'm tempted! – but 'MacBook Pro with PROLED' would have been much better than appending on the 'XDR Display'. Yes, even maintaining the redundant 'PROs'.

I know Apple is very proud of their XDR technology, as they highlight it in the branding of their displays wherever they can. But I just can't imagine anyone outside of Cupertino actually cares. It has always sounded like a brand Dell came up with, not Apple. And 'Display' is just silly. It suggests that no one knows what 'XDR' is!

This turnaround is a big deal to Apple fans. Ternus shrugs off the drama. “The Mac is first and foremost an indirect input device, built around the trackpad and keyboard. But I think there’s times when it’s comfortable and handy to have touch.”

Ternus and Apple want to make sure that the Mac faithful don’t panic that the 42-year-old franchise is losing its identity to Apple’s gangbusters mobile products. “We needed to get to a point where adding touch didn’t make the product lesser in any way. It didn’t make it heavier. It didn’t make it thicker. That came together with the OLED screen, the best display we’ve ever put into a Mac,” Ternus told me. “All of these things, and, oh yeah, it has touch as well.”

I actually think this is the exact right statement and attitude about the backtrack on touch. Yes, it has a touchscreen, but it's just a feature, not the main event – hence, the naming. If you call it the MacBook Pro Touch or the like, it signals the capability as the marquee feature. Apple is playing it up as a nice-to-have addition, made possible by their new screen technology, not vice versa.

Speaking of that new screen, beyond logo illumination and touch capabilities, it also seemingly allowed Apple to shave a half pound off of the weight, bringing the 14" model awfully close to the 13" MacBook Air – 3 pounds vs. 2.7 pounds.

Mainly I enjoyed Levy continuing to push the Apple execs on the change of heart referencing an old Phil Schiller "philosophical" (or "PHILosophical" – for shame) filibuster (or "PHILibuster" – for shame) about ergonomics. Sadly, Apple wouldn't make Schiller available to answer for his crimes against touch, which perhaps led directly to the ill-fated and ill-conceived TouchBar. But again, everyone else – all of which were around in those days – just brushed the change off as a sort of "times change". Which mainly here means generations of people do, and touchscreens is now all most kids know, so... yeah, this was always inevitable. Ergonomics and finger grease be damned!¹

One more thing: the marketing video opens with (and repeats) the refrain "if you give the Mac an OLED..." which clearly conjures "if you give a mouse a cookie..." Which is cute, but also implies Apple is compromising here! What might they compromise on next? Say, cellular capabilities? Please!

¹ Apple claims to have some sort of new coating on the screens to cut the grease issue. We'll see. Such technology seemingly hasn't stopped the grime on keyboards after decades... Maybe the more matte, anti-reflection option will be better? ↩