I am the same. Bought BTT… will find some time to implement.
Wow I’d seen this app around for years and I think I even installed it once to try but didn’t have the bandwidth to mess with its obscure settings. I was just reintroduced to it via Setapp (starting to like this more and more BTW) and decided to take it for a spin.
Turns out I should have had this years ago. Its actually making my MacBooks unused touch bar way more useful than I expected! I’ve barely scratched the surface but here are a couple of examples of what I’ve done:
- Created keyboard shortcuts (usually ctrl-option-cmd + letter) for the following: (1) full screen toggle, (1) move between displays (I have one external LG monitor and have to take the app out of fullscreen to move it but with the shortcuts its a snap), (3) toggle connection to my bluetooth headsets (I have Powerbeats pro and AirPods Pro setup) using two different shortcuts
- Created Touch Bar buttons that work in Outlook and specifically to strip email attachments from a selected email. I used to do this with the menu search function since it didnt have a shortcut key combo. Was a nuisance but this is super cool.
- Created Touch Bar buttons for my frequency used apps. I use quicksilver or spotlight to open apps but this a nice touch that’s nicer with the ability to include icons.
It’s got a lot of options and setting so I’d be interested to see how others are using it but with just these I am pretty excited about it.
I am thinking about it. I am pretty flat about touch bar. From reports I wasn’t expecting much and wasn’t disappointed in any way: but at present I would prefer the old keys. I don’t like the ‘feel’ even of the F keys on touchbar. I hardly use them now though I used to have a few I used for Keyboard Maestro shortcuts. I couldn’t tell you why the touchbar F keys feel odd to me though. I am persuaded by enthusiastic endorsements like yours on this Power User forum.
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Personally I would prefer programmable keys over fixed function ones, particularly if the key top were programmable. This is why I like the StreamDeck so much.
(I have StreamDecks; I don’t have a Touch Bar Mac - though there are a couple in the house.)
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streamdeck resembles and external Touch Bar from what I can tell
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I’m wondering if there’s a role for BTT specific to StreamDeck.
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We have used paypal for years as a way of both getting paid and paying for stuff and never had a problem. When we did have an issue with one company over billing us they acted quickly and decisively.
Do I trust them as a repository of my money? No I remove it as soon as I receive a payment as they are not a registered UK bank but I can not really fault them, and would rather use Paypal to pay for random apps and services than give a lot of unknown devs access to my credit card or bank account. It’s far easier and safer to deal with problems if they occur with a large instruction than perhaps a struggling dev who may not have the cash flow to deal with a large influx of refunds.
Yes, that is true, and why I continue to use them. That’s what they are good at, and as long as you aren’t holding a lot of money in PayPal’s control, you’ll probably be fine.
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I’ve had a 1 gen Apple trackpad for a long time, but I’ve not used it in years. I just got a new Magic Mouse for my M1 MacBook Air (which I use in clamshell with an external monitor). I dug out this episode of MPU to get some tips on using BTT for the mouse. They talked so much about the trackpad that I thought I’ drag it out and try it (batteries were removed, so it’s in good shape). I put in a new set of batteries, but I can’t even get it to pair. It sees it in BT preferences, but gives a failed to connect error. I’m assuming that the 1 gen trackpad is not compatible with Big Sur. Am I correct?
Thanks.
I have been using a first gen trackpad and keyboard with an M1 Mac Mini and a 16” MacBook Pro running Big Sur. It should work Ok. I did find that I had to forget it and repair it at one point. It has been working fine ever since. Hopefully, you will be able to get things connected.
Thanks. Knowing that it can work is helpful. Now I just need to find out why it isn’t.
I had two of these back in “the day” as the kids say. One of them was no problem. One of them hated to be un-paired and was a giant PITA to re-pair once it had been un-paired.
As I recall, you could hold down the on/off button on the side for several seconds to “force” it to “really really turn off”, then press-and-hold to turn it back on until it begins to blink.
Even that didn’t always guarantee success, but it was the best way to “force” it to work. Assuming that my memory isn’t faulty, which is obviously a big question.
Sounds like yours could be similarly “finicky” and so you might just need to keep trying that, try taking the batteries out and putting them back in, etc.
The good news is that, at least for me, once it was paired, it seemed to work fine.
Good luck.
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Thanks, TJ. I’ll give that a try.
I did notice when I tried to pair it, I got a series of digits (MAC address?). It tried to pair with this device, but I soon got the failure notice. Then, it just kept spinning as if it were continually trying to pair with it and there was no way to disconnect. This was even after I removed the batteries from the trackpad. A reboot seems to solve the problem.
Related tip: don’t try to sync when all you see is the MAC address. Wait for the name to appear.
(I don’t know why. I just know that it works more often.)
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Ah. That might have been my trouble. Too impatient.
TJ. That was the problem. As soon as I got the device name, it synced right up with the Mac.
Thanks for the comment.
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Just saw this (been busy as heck lately)… glad to hear it worked. It’s one of those quirks that is almost like a secret handshake… if you don’t know about it, I’m not sure how easy it is to discover, but once you know it, you realize it is key.