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New M6 MacBook Pro details revealed, including Dynamic Island, touch, more

Apple has its first touchscreen-equipped Mac coming later this year: the M6 MacBook Pro. And a new report offers fresh details on what to expect.

Here’s what to expect from the first touchscreen Mac, per report

Mark Gurman has a new report at Bloomberg today that offers fresh details on the forthcoming M6 MacBook Pro with an OLED touchscreen.

First, Gurman says that the iPhone’s Dynamic Island feature is coming to the next-gen MacBook Pro.

The Dynamic Island on the Mac will be built around a hole-punch-sized cutout for the computer’s camera. It’s smaller than the pill-shaped notch in current iPhones.

It sounds like the current Mac notch design is getting significantly sized down. But even with a small hole-punch, the software will make the cutout blend seamlessly by adding a Dynamic Island UI.

Gurman also goes into detail on how macOS will work with its newly gained touch support.

Here are a few of the details shared:

the Mac will gain a refreshed, dynamic user interface that can shift between being optimized for touch or point-and-click input, said the people. 

For instance, if users touch a button or control, the interface will bring up a new type of menu surrounding their finger that provides more relevant options for touch commands. The goal is to give users the controls that make the most sense based on whether they’re touching or clicking. 

The software will also display the most appropriate set of controls based on users’ prior interaction. And if a person taps an item in the menu bar at the top of the screen, the set of controls will enlarge to be more easily selectable with a finger.

Top comment by S3xyEV 00

Liked by 26 people

I would understand a gesture based input function. There was a third party product a while back that seemed promising, and adopting touchless input would be consistent with AVP.

A touchscreen? No thanks. Fingerprints aside, Steve was right that it’s a poor option.

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Other details mentioned include support for standard iOS and iPadOS features like “fast scrolling and the ability to zoom in and out of images and PDFs,” and the emoji picker getting a touch-optimized interface.

One thing that’s emphasized throughout the report is that the Mac isn’t becoming touch-first. Rather, touch will simply complement the primary input methods of keyboard and trackpad.

Even though new MacBook Pros with the M5 Pro and M5 Max chip are expected next week, Gurman says this new M6 model is still coming later this year—likely in October or November.

What are your takeaways from the new M6 MacBook Pro details? Let us know in the comments.

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Avatar for Ryan Christoffel Ryan Christoffel

Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.