A Further Status Update on the Toaster-Refrigerator Project ⇥ apple.com

Joanna Stern, reporting for ABC News in 2012:

And it was on that last point that Cook had a lot to say. When asked if Apple was planning to merge its tablet and laptop products, much as Microsoft is proceeding with Windows 8, Cook responded with a quip: “You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those aren’t going to be pleasing to the user.”

Cook elaborated that converging the iPad with a laptop would result in tradeoffs, ones Apple isn’t willing to make. “We are not going to that party, but others might from a defensive point of view.”

Apple, today:

Apple today introduced the all-new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, featuring breakthrough tandem OLED technology that delivers game-changing front-of-screen performance. Available in 14- and 16-inch models, MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display offers a visual experience unlike any other, transforming pro workflows with up to 2000 nits peak HDR and SDR brightness, an industry-leading 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio for exceptional detail, a 120Hz variable refresh rate, and a wider colour gamut covering both P3 and Adobe RGB for brilliant colours. The new MacBook Pro also introduces intuitive Touch capabilities on the Mac for the first time, opening up a whole new dimension for pros to interact with their content, from manipulating 3D models to playing musical instruments onscreen. […]

One might point out, as they watch the Apple Developer videos about these touch features, that Apple is not in fact delivering the toaster-refrigerator hybrid of doom. MacOS looks mostly the same; even though touch targets in parts of the U.I. are larger, most controls remain the same visual size. When needed, MacOS gives more room, like if you use a finger to show a menu instead of a pointing device. This is merely about bringing touch as an optional interaction element to the Mac. And just look at the quote above: Apple does not even mention touch features — sorry, “Touch capabilities”, with a capital T — until the third sentence. If anything, this is a MacBook Pro with a nicer display that happens to support touch.

But Apple is still asking people to pay more for it than the standard model, though not by as much as it might first appear. While the M6 MacBook Pro starts at $2,000 USD, the touch ones have an M5 Pro chip. Thus, the equivalent non-touch models start at $2,500 USD, and the touch ones at $2,900 USD. For that $400, you get an ostensibly nicer screen that supports touch input and has a Dynamic Island instead of a notch, and a lighter and thinner chassis.¹

What you do not get, though, is a true hybrid of an iPad and a Mac. The display does not fold back to create a tablet, for example, and it does not support Apple Pencil input. Yet. Apple also has not managed to reinforce the human arm or fix the ergonomic issues it has repeatedly identified when it was not selling a Mac with a touch screen. This is evidenced by the section of the developer video suggesting that developers should place denser and finer-grained controls around the edges of the screen where users can support their hand with the metal frame.

Maybe I am just showing my age.