From ComputerWorld: Apple today reworked its notebook line, boosting the touch-ability of the MacBook Pro line, not by letting users smudge the screen but with an adaptable bar above the top row of keys.
The expected replacement for the row of function keys got the name "Touch Bar," without the "Magic" moniker some thought would lead of the label.
But with the new hardware came new, higher prices: Apple raised the entry-level prices of the new 13- and 15-in MacBook Pros with the Touch Bar by $500 and $400, respectively, from their bar-less predecessors. The price hikes represented increases of 39% (13-in.) and 20% (15-in.).
"This is very much a redesign, not a refresh," said Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticule Research. Traditionally, Apple has kept prices stable, even lowered them, when it replaces a component or two with a faster or more capable successor. Rubin's argument was that the new models went far beyond that modest swap.
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