Apple has consistently said that touch on Macs would not be useful and doesn't make sense. If you'd asked me over the last few years, I'd have agreed.

One reason is the OS and software which are optimized around mouse cursor input. Another reason is the ergonomics of the Mac. With an upright display, reaching your arm out to touch a screen is awkward and uncomfortable over long periods. This is especially true on an iMac, but it's true on notebooks as well.

Then, Apple released the iPad Pro with a keyboard, and the ergonomics are about the same as any notebook. And unlike competitors like the Surface, there is no pointing device. Touch is the only way of interacting with the UI on an iPad Pro.

Now, with Apple promoting iPad Pro as a work machine, and with touch gaining widespread adoption on PCs, Macs are looking increasingly old fashioned by eschewing touch displays.

Apple's answer appears to be the Touch Bar. I've spent a little time using a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, and so I'd like to get into what I view as the pros and cons of Apple's approach.

First of all, let's take a look at just the Touch Bar on its own. It's delightful to use. It's fun, fresh and dynamic. Tapping and swiping through the many context-sensitive actions is really a joy.

But the Touch Bar does not exist on its own. It's part of a much bigger product. So how does it fit in that context? It replaces the function keys, which, as it turns out, I use quite often. You don't notice how much you use them until they're gone. I have another context for this, which is the iPad Pro Smart Keyboard. It lacks an escape key and the volume, brightness, and media buttons normally found on a Mac keyboard. I often find myself reaching for the escape key to dismiss menus or dialogs. It's an action I perform all the time that I wasn't even aware of previously.

Media shortcuts remain available on the Touch Bar, but now they are tucked away inside a menu. That means you're taking your eyes off the screen, and what was once a single button press is now a tap and a swipe away. It may seem insignificant, but a keyboard works because it's static and tactile. The Touch Bar is neither, which means it does not work as part of the keyboard. When you become fluent on the keyboard, you're not meant to look at it. The Touch Bar demands you look at it. So it is a neighbor to the keyboard, but it is entirely separate and discrete in both form and function.

The Touch Bar has another neighbor as well: the screen. And what I've learned from using the Touch Bar is that when you introduce a touch screen right below the computer's display, your expectations about how you interact with the display naturally begin to change. I intuitively start to expect that I could touch anywhere on the display. I start reaching for it without realizing it.

For instance, using the crop/rotate tool in Photos brings up a rotate dial on the Touch Bar. It's direct and it's precise, much more so than a mouse or trackpad would be. But if you also want to adjust the crop, those controls are on the main display. It would be the most natural thing in the world to move your finger off the Touch Bar and just an inch or two up onto the display to touch that crop control. But the product requires instead that you move your hand all the way down to the trackpad, while mentally changing gears from a direct touch interaction to an indirect mouse cursor interaction. To me, this repeated switching between modes is jarring and is a constant source of friction while using the computer.

The Touch Bar is a terrific piece of technology. But I'm afraid it doesn't make the product it's built into any better. If you are a fluent typist and you frequently use the shortcuts on the function keys, it may even be a worse product for you. Apple clearly intended to "check the box" for offering touch on Macs by introducing the Touch Bar, while not fundamentally changing the product or the OS. But I believe the Touch Bar's presence only makes the absence of touch on the display more glaring by contrast.

Apple may be right in principle by not adding touch to Mac displays. And touch may not ever and probably should not ever be the primary way of interacting with a Mac. But in a world where we can touch almost every screen, and kids are growing up expecting touch by default, Macs may feel increasingly "out of touch" and out of date by not offering fully multi-touch displays.

Apple announced the results for the second fiscal quarter of 2017, and performance over the year-ago quarter is mixed. While revenue was up $2.3 billion and profit was up $500 million over last year, that increase wasn't reflected by unit sales:

• iPhone sales fell from 51.1 million to 50.8 million
• Mac sales rose from 4.03 million to 4.2 million
• iPad sales fell from 10.25 million to 8.92 million

Once again, services accounted for much of the growth, as well as the "other products" category which includes Apple Watch, Apple TV, iPod, and accessories:

• Services revenue rose from $5.99 billion to $7.04 billion
• Other products revenue rose from $2.19 billion to $2.87 billion

A couple other observations: iPhone revenue was slightly up despite the lower unit sales. Mac revenue also outpaced the increase in units, suggesting a higher average selling price due to the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar.

According to Tech.pinions, AirPods are Apple's best new product measured by customer satisfaction:

The overall customer satisfaction level of 98% sets the record for the highest level of satisfaction for a new product from Apple. When the iPhone came out in 2007, it held a 92% customer satisfaction level, iPad in 2010 had 92%, and Apple Watch in 2015 had 97%.

After some initial skepticism, I finally picked up a pair of AirPods a couple weeks ago and they're sensational. Apple has sanded off all the rough edges associated with wireless headphones and made something entirely new.

This is Apple at its most Apple-like: taking an existing product idea and distilling it down to the essential parts. I'm sure there were considerable technical challenges with AirPods, like battery life or left/right sync. Six months in, AirPods still limited supply suggests some challenges remain. But when the challenges are overcome, it enables a product that is so simple and so easy that its technical complexity is completely invisible.

I'm surprised that Apple Watch scored nearly as high as AirPods. I wear my Apple Watch every day, but unlike AirPods some of its rough edges can still be felt. For instance, the sometimes slow interactions and the long pairing process. Compare that to paring AirPods, which is dead simple.

Most wireless earphones are still connected by a wire. This is the case with the Beats I use for exercising. The wire can help keep them secure if one side falls out, and it allows for play/pause and volume buttons on the wire. But wireless headphones with a wire don't really live up to the name.

Much of AirPods' magic is that they are truly, completely wireless. They float in your ears, almost like nothing is there at all. I forget I’m wearing them. Incidentally, AirPods are the first earphones I like to use while laying down.

The battery case is another bit of magic. It keeps the AirPods fully charged almost all the time, which reduces some of the battery anxiety I have with the Beats.

There's also no power switch, which is brilliant. AirPods are quick and easy to put in and start listening, so I find myself reaching for them much more often than other headphones.

I occasionally miss having playback controls on the wire, but AirPods make up for it with clever touches like automatically pausing playback when you take one out of your ear. You can also double-tap for Siri, which I don't use often, but I like knowing I don't necessarily have to take out my phone to do something.

AirPods are my favorite new Apple product since the first iPhone. They have that same implausible quality that makes your brain say, "This thing shouldn't exist, but it does." AirPods really do exist, even if they're hard to find. The only way they might be more magical is if they came in the box with the iPhone.

I’ve started this blog because I enjoy writing. I’ve wanted to start this project for many years, but haven’t. Why? I guess because I hadn’t written anything yet.

Having not done a thing yet is a great excuse not to do it.

I’m putting these words on the page before I figure out anything else. I don’t know yet where I’ll host this or if I can build an audience. I don’t know what to call it or what font I’ll use. The writing is what’s important.

Why should you want to read what I write? Well, my goal will be to write about the things I’d want to read about. That is what Apple does, I think. “What product would we want to buy for ourselves? Okay, let’s make that.”

I hope my background in technology makes this blog relevant. For the past 12 years, I’ve worked for or with Apple in some capacity or another. It started in college when I began a part-time seasonal job at the Apple Store. After college I went full-time, and later I became a Mac Genius.

Since leaving Apple, I’ve been the IT manager at an ad agency. We use Macs for everything from finance to creative. Print, web, video… every day I get to help people use Macs and iPads to get work done and make fun stuff.

I’ve made Apple my work, but that hasn’t diminished my enthusiasm. Here I’ll write about the products, new and old. I’ll write about Apple as a company, its strategies, and sometimes its competitors. I’ll write about how Apple fits into my work and my life.

While there’s certainly no shortage of Apple opinion on the Internet, I hope to contribute something original here with my writing. And I hope you will enjoy reading.