What does everyone think of the rumors of touchscreen MacBook Pros? Would touch still be useful even if you're stretching your arm across the keyboard to use it? How would you keep an OLED screen clean of fingerprints?
ASKED BY · Douglas Carmichael · 28 OCT 2026 · ▶ 00:31:30
Keeping open mind; Apple typically rethinks entire experience when adding major features like with iPhone Duo folding; would hope for macOS enhancements.
Used Windows touchscreens for 10 years; useful for scrolling and link navigation but rarely used; fingerprint management difficult; many Mac users forget and reach for touch when coming from iPad.
Touchscreen rumors have circulated for years; Apple keeps Mac and iPad distinct; you won't keep an OLED screen free of fingerprints if used.
Touchscreen MacBook is a no; keyboard shortcuts infinitely faster than touching screen.
Could appeal to graphic designers using stylus on high-quality screen like Wacom; hated Touch Bar; interested in folding/flipping designs like Lenovo Yoga.
Summarised by AI from what the panel said. Watch the moment for the full answer.
From the transcript.
Machine-transcribed, so it may contain errors. Every timestamp opens the episode at that second.
31:04I've done it during a show, Jeff. Hey, so I left the Zoom meeting once, updated Zoom, and came back in. Let's just put it this way. Show of hands. Can we see the gallery possibly? Show of hands. Who has had a catastrophic software update that screwed up a whole show? All right. One Canadian. Okay, let's go to the next question. And that wasn't a dig on Canada.
31:30I just wanted to say I've performed various Vulcan mind techniques to bury the PTSD trauma that I've experienced. So I couldn't even tell you what those were because they are locked away in a corner of my mind. All right, this one's coming in from Douglas Carmichael. What does everyone think of the rumors of the touchscreen MacBook Pros? Would touch still be useful even if you're stretching your arm across the keyboard to use it?
31:51How would you keep an OLED screen clean of fingerprints? How bad do you need a touchscreen, Jeff Collin? Go. Starting in reverse, you will not keep it free of fingerprints. If you use it, you'll start having fingerprints. But, I mean, there has been rumor of a touchscreen Mac for as long as there's been such a thing as a touchscreen. So that's nothing new.
32:16All the evidence would support, no, they don't want to do this because they have two distinct lines. They have their Mac and they have their iPad. iOS, iPadOS devices. And while they have kept converging for quite some time, we see more and more of that. There's a couple reasons why they're different, touchscreen being a big one of them. I'm still hot, by the way,
32:39mad that they have gotten rid of Launchpad. Apparently, I'm the only person that used it, but I make fun of the people that have 50 icons on their dock there, I like that nice and clean, but this is, to me, this was very intuitive because it is just like we have on our iOS devices. They've gotten rid of it, so that's a sign that they kind of are separating from having the same interface.
33:09And then if we go on to, you know, what are they doing with the iPad? I mean, they keep making it more and more like a computer. They, you know, a little while ago they released windowing, which is really fantastic. I finally was able to get a client to get off of her old PC and convince her that, yes, all she needs to run her business is an iPad.
33:33But when she is in the office, it is docked to a big monitor. She has windowing on her iPad. To her, it's just like using a computer. She has windows. She has multiple monitors. She has different windows on multiple monitors. all from her iPad. Then she gets to unplug it and go to the beach with it. So they show here with the keyboard,
33:58and they keep improving their own keyboard, let alone third-party keyboards. I didn't even realize they call it the Magic Keyboard for iPads. So, no, I think there's some strong reasons, and they want more people moving to this line for this to be their computer. Yeah, we'll see. Alexander. I've never ever wanted a touchscreen MacBook Pro. However, like anything with Apple, when they do something,
34:29they're not going to do something in a kind of cobbled-together way typically. So I'm interested in it. I'm keeping an open mind to see how well it's going to work because obviously, much like the new iPhone Duo, the folding phone, they had to really rethink the entire experience, how touch would work, how apps would operate, how they look on a folding display.
34:55So I would hope that macOS is going to see some major enhancements to take advantage of that touchscreen. So we'll see. But I'm not super excited about it, to be honest with you. Jeff Francis? Touchscreen MacBook Pro is a big no from me, dog. You know, I have no desire to touch the screen on my Mac. I want to use a keyboard and a mouse.
35:18I want to use keyboard shortcuts. It's infinitely faster than touching anything on the screen. Keyboard shortcuts, keyboard shortcuts, keyboard shortcuts. So, Courtney, is this the Mac that's going to make you buy a new Mac? No, because, you know, I've been using touchscreens for 10 years now in the Windows world. I have touch on all my laptops. I don't use it that often, but I tell you, when I'm browsing,
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