The MacBook Air needs a login for the face and a delicious notch

The MacBook Air made its comeback last week with a new Retina display, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor and Apple's T2 security chip in what the company calls "the most secure boot process of all laptop". It's an interesting word choice because soon after, Apple introduced the iPad Pro, called Face ID, "safer than all tablets and all computers." Presumably, this includes the super secure MacBook Air.

It was a shocking moment. While boasting about the security of its new MacBook Air, Apple has declared it obsolete and weak compared to the relatively affordable iPad in the space of just a few minutes. So, why did not Apple put Face ID on Mac?

There are a number of practical reasons why this might be the case. It may be simply a big question: Face ID's sensor range may be thicker or wider than Apple can adapt to its laptop screens – or maybe face identity would increase costs. But since comparable Windows notebooks have managed to incorporate their own infrared face recognition cameras into their models, it seems like Apple could find a solution. As it stands, the company's latest MacBooks are not limited to its mobile devices – including the new iPhone XS, XR and iPad Pro – but also to most Windows competitors.

If Apple really wanted to make waves with the new MacBook Air, he should have taken a risk and added a notch. Listen to me. We have already seen other laptop makers reduce the size of frames to the limits of what is possible, well beyond Apple's thinnest borders. Imagine a MacBook Air that, instead of catching up with the rest of Apple's laptops two years ago, outstrips its competitors by removing almost all of its screen, like the iPhone X.

Picture of James Bareham / The Verge

If you think about it, a notch makes sense with macOS. We have already seen Windows competitors such as the Dell XPS 13 or the Huawei MateBook X Pro awkwardly circumventing the location of their webcam by hiding them at the bottom of the screen or even inside them. a touch of the keyboard. (Nobody wants to see your hair in the nose during a video call.) But a slotted menu bar would let Apple leave the camera in its place – at the top of the screen – without sacrificing the thin top executives. Combined with Apple's already ubiquitous default menu bar (which already has an annoying dead space in the middle in almost every setting) and the dark mode recently introduced in macOS Mojave, a notched MacBook would fit seamlessly into the design existing software. to be a troublesome intrusion that you must ignore as on iOS. At a time when all laptops began to blur visually, a notch could differentiate a new generation MacBook. It would be similar to Apple's strategy with the iPhone X – at least until everyone copied it.

If Face ID ignores the Mac, this is not surprising. The Mac is simply no longer a place where the company innovates. Almost all of Apple's latest hardware or software innovations have started on the iPhone: App Store, iMessage, Retina Displays, Siri, Touch ID, HomeKit, Face ID, touch screen interfaces and even the basic trends of the user interface . And the places where Apple is The innovations on Mac are sometimes based on Apple's mobile operating systems, like the Touch Bar, which was warmly received and built from a version of watchOS.

Picture of Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple has finally brought almost all of these features to Mac. But for now, Apple's Mac series looks like an afterthought or a second violin that ultimately benefits from integrated iOS features instead of its own platform of innovation. Now that it is looking to fill the gap next year with the porting of iOS applications by Marzipan, the pressure exerted by the mobile platform will only reinforce this fact for Mac users. Apple almost admits that Mac applications are no longer sufficient and turns to iOS.

The new Apple MacBook Air is not bad in itself: Apple has updated the previous Air perfectly, but it is an update that brings things back to normal compared to the terribly obsolete model. With the new Mac mini, you have two computers that have not been updated in years and are finally brought back to the standard standard for 2018. Meanwhile, Apple continues to perfect its tablet technology, year after year.

It's as if Apple was excited about the iPad. This is a place where the company wants to push the limits of what is possible with computers. And even if it seems that the software that feeds this material is not yet ready for this future, at least Apple is trying to advance there, instead of catching up with self-imposed stagnation .

It's time for Apple to push the limits of the MacBook range: to take risks, be bold, exciting. Maybe it could start with a notch.