My favorite use of touch was being able to rapidly pore through a bunch photos with my finger. And I dragged a map around with a single finger. I also used two digits to rotate an image. And pressed two fingers against the display to scroll inside my calendar or in the Safari browser. 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. When it worksĪirBar makes it possible to “touch” the screen by projecting an invisible light field on the surface of your display. From then on you just connect it and are good to go. There’s a pouch for carrying AirBar when you’re not using it I stashed it in my backpack.ĭuring the initial setup, I had to install software and update the firmware on the AirBar. 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. 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. 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. These secure the AirBar strip magnetically against the bottom edge of the display. Setting it upĪirBar comes with two small magnetic dots that you stick just below the computer’s screen. It's probably best for Mac users who find themselves frustrated that their Mac screens won't respond like their phones. It worked OK, but still felt a little awkward. 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'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.

Rather, I’ve been testing the AirBar sensor from Sweden's Neonode. 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. No, you didn’t misread the previous sentence. NEW YORK-I used a touchscreen MacBook Air to write this column. Watch Video: Neonode AirBar touchscreen for MacBook AirĬorrections & Clarifications: An earlier headline on this story referenced the wrong MacBook model.

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