Airbar For Mac
Jul 18, 2017 AirBar for MacBook Air by Neonode adds a touchscreen to any MacBook Air laptop. Skip navigation. How to Clean Your Mac 2019 - Duration: 16:59. Cox 1,185,741 views. AirBar for MacBook Air is on sale now at Amazon for a retail price of $99 (though the price has already gone up to about $116 on Amazon). You can also find out more about it from the company's website. What do you think of a touch screen Mac? Do you want a Mac with a touch screen? Would you invest in the Airbar to have that ability? Instead, the AirBar uses a short cable to plug into the MacBook Air's USB port. On a Windows 10 system, AirBar is plug and play. On the Mac, you'll have to install a driver.
Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier headline on this story referenced the wrong MacBook model.
NEW YORK—I used a touchscreen MacBook Air to write this column.
No, you didn’t misread the previous sentence. Nor did you overlook a new product announcement from Apple, which despite all the company has done to popularize multi-touch on the iPhone and iPad, has long resisted the urge to put touch screens on its Macintosh computers.
Rather, I’ve been testing the AirBar sensor from Sweden's Neonode. It's a thin and light $99, brushed-aluminum strip that converted my 13.3-inch non-touch MacBook Air display into a touch-screen computer. That meant I could pinch, zoom, swipe and tap directly on the laptop display, as if I were using a tablet, smartphone or any number of Windows PCs and Chromebooks.
It worked OK, but still felt a little awkward. It's probably best for Mac users who find themselves frustrated that their Mac screens won't respond like their phones.
Setting it up
AirBar comes with two small magnetic dots that you stick just below the computer’s screen. These secure the AirBar strip magnetically against the bottom edge of the display. The bar is sized to match the dimensions of the computer, with tiny markers on either side to help you align it properly below the screen. Sticking out of the right edge of the strip is a short wire with a USB connector that plugs into the port on the computer's side.
You can easily remove the AirBar from the MacBook Air while leaving the magnetic dots in place, and you’ll have to do so if you want to fold the lid of the laptop back into its closed position. There’s a pouch for carrying AirBar when you’re not using it; I stashed it in my backpack.
Seagate ntfs for mac. During the initial setup, I had to install software and update the firmware on the AirBar. From then on you just connect it and are good to go.
When it works
AirBar makes it possible to “touch” the screen by projecting an invisible light field on the surface of your display.
I was able to take advantage of common multi-touch gestures: I pinched and spread my fingers, for example, to zoom in and out of photos and webpages. And pressed two fingers against the display to scroll inside my calendar or in the Safari browser. I also used two digits to rotate an image. And I dragged a map around with a single finger.
My favorite use of touch was being able to rapidly pore through a bunch photos with my finger.
I was also able to tap the screen with a stylus, regular pencil and other pointy objects, and use touch, however imprecisely, while wearing a glove.
When it doesn't
Unfortunately, the fact that AirBar works with such gestures on the Mac doesn’t necessarily translate into an ideal experience. I sometimes detected a slight delay between when I gestured and when there was a response. On a few occasions the screen went a bit kaflooey.
What’s more, Apple didn’t design the MacOS with a multi-touch display in mind, preferring you to tap, pinch and perform other gestures directly onto the computer’s trackpad. As a veteran user of the MacBook Air, gesturing on the trackpad is second nature. Changing well-worn habits on the other hand is difficult.
About the closest Apple has come to designing a touch-screen Mac is through the context-sensitive Touch Bar controls feature that debuted last year on some higher-end MacBook Pro models. There’s a bit of a learning curve there, and the Touch Bar really isn’t the same thing as a full-fledged multi-touch display.
Apple’s thinking is that having you reach up or out to touch the display on a Mac just doesn’t feel right and natural. I’m inclined to agree, especially when I strained to tap the upper, side or bottom reaches of the display while using AirBar. I struggled, for example, to tap the icon for the Mac’s Notification Center, and didn’t always hit my target when I tried tapping the tiny onscreen buttons to close or maximize a window.
Windows competition
That said, I generally do just fine with the touch displays on several Windows 10 PCs, as well as Google Chromebooks, with the Windows operating system better designed to take advantage of touch than the Mac. And sometimes after I’ve used a touch-capable Chromebook or Windows PC and then come back to the Mac, I reach out to make contact with a screen that is oblivious to my touch.
Neonode also makes $79 versions of AirBar for non-touch Windows PCs with 13.3-, 14 and 15.6-inch display sizes. Other Mac sizes are said to be coming soon.
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Maybe at some point Apple will relent and produce its own touch-screen Mac. But it's a touchy topic. In the meantime, though far from perfect, Neonode’s AirBar provides the next best thing.
Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter
The bottom line
AirBar for MacBook Air from Neonode
$99, air.bar
Pro. Light sensor strip blends in and supplies multi-touch to Apple's MacBook Air Easy setup.
Con. Multi-touch on the Air is not always smooth, responsive and natural.
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Neonode® Inc. (NASDAQ: NEON), creators of AirBar, the sleek, lightweight device that instantly adds touchscreen capabilities to any laptop display, today announced the official U.S. launch of its new product, AirBar for MacBook Air at CES 2017. Now compatible with the MacBook Air 13.3” notebook and launching in the United States via Amazon.com, AirBar for MacBook Air provides Apple® notebook enthusiasts with the ability to promptly and seamlessly activate touch and gesture functionalities on their laptop’s display.
“We believe the community of devoted MacBook Air users will welcome this new product, as AirBar for MacBook Air will surely enhance the user-experience of an already great product,” said Remo Behdasht, Senior Vice President of AirBar Devices at Neonode. “Our goal for AirBar continues to be expanding its application to more devices, across even more markets.”
AirBar was named a CES 2017 Innovation Awards Honoree in the computer accessories category. The prestigious CES Innovation Awards are sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the producer of CES 2017, and products honored reflect innovative design and engineering in some of the most cutting edge tech products and services on the market.
The AirBar sensor is a sleek bar that magnetically attaches to the bottom of a laptop display and plugs in via USB to instantly activate touch and gesture capabilities, with no software installation or additional configuration required. AirBar uses parent company Neonode’s patented zForce AIR™ technology to emit an invisible light field over a display that senses touch from fingers, gloves and even a paintbrush. AirBar for PC comes in matte black, and AirBar for MacBook Air comes in brushed aluminum. Among many other useful and unique functionalities, AirBar alleviates added weight and glare that is typically unavoidable with regular touchscreen laptops.
AirBar for 15.6” PC laptops running Windows 10 now retails for $69. AirBar for 13.3” and 14” PC laptops will be released with AirBar for MacBook Air in early March. AirBar for MacBook Air will retail for $99 through launch partner Amazon.com.
Leading online retailers currently carrying AirBar for PCs include Amazon®, Best Buy®, QVC®,Staples® and Walmart®. AirBar for MacBook Air is available for pre-order at www.air.bar/mac, and will also be sold on Amazon.com. Neonode plans to extend AirBar compatibility to additional MacBook® models and PC sizes within the first half of 2017.
During CES, a suite of AirBar devices will be shown at Pepcom’s Digital Experience!, one of the biggest consumer electronics showcases that will take place Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017 from 7:00 to 10:30 p.m., at the Mirage hotel.
About AirBar
AirBar, a CES 2017 Innovation Awards Honoree, is a brand of Neonode Inc., a technology company that develops advanced optical sensors using its patented, zForce AIR technology. The AirBar sensor is the company’s flagship consumer product that instantly gives a wide range of laptops on-demand touch capabilities.
For more information, please visit: www.air.bar.
About the CES Innovation Awards
The CES Innovation Awards are based upon descriptive materials submitted to the judges. CTA did not verify the accuracy of any submission or of any claims made and did not test the item to which the award was given.
About Neonode
Airbar For Macbook Air 13.3
Neonode Inc. (NASDAQ: NEON) develops and licenses optical interactive sensing technologies. Neonode’s patented optical interactive sensing technology is developed for a wide range of devices like automotive systems, printers, PC devices, monitors, mobile phones, tablets and e-readers. Neonode is a trademark of Neonode Inc. registered in the United States and other countries. AirBar, the AirBar logo and zForce AIR are trademarks of Neonode Inc. Apple, MacBook and MacBook Air are trademarks of Apple Inc. registered in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
For more information, please visit www.neonode.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include, but are not limited to, statements relating to expectations, future performance or future events, and product cost, performance, and functionality matters. These statements are based on current assumptions, expectations and information available to Neonode management and involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Neonode’s actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.
Touchscreen Macbook Pro
These risks, uncertainties, and factors are discussed under “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in Neonode’s public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including Neonode’s annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K. You are advised to carefully consider these various risks, uncertainties and other factors. Although Neonode management believes that the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are reasonable, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be fulfilled. Forward-looking statements are made as of today’s date, and Neonode undertakes no duty to update or revise them.
© Copyright Neonode Inc. 2017. All rights reserved.