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macOS Sierra code suggests OLED touch bar and TouchID might be coming to Macs

Late last month a credible report came out that said Apple was looking to substantially revamp its MacBook Pro and that some very interesting new features would be making their way to the laptop. Now it looks like those rumors are being corroborated by Apple’s own APIs that are part of the new macOS Sierra.

One of the big changes rumored to be coming to a new version of the MacBook was a so-called OLED touch bar, that would replace the existing row of function keys. This would be a pretty big change for Apple’s lineup. A number of new resources from macOS Sierra suggest this is indeed the case with references such as “kHIDUsage_LED_DoNotDisturb” pointing to a Do Not Disturb button, and “kHIDUsage_LED_NightMode” hinting at a night mode button on the OLED touch bar.

Touch ID may be integrated into the MacBook Pro trackpad

Another rumored feature was the inclusion of TouchID to the MacBook. This feature has been expected to make its way to Apple’s notebook ever since it debuted on the iPhone. At WWDC 2016, Apple did announce that users would now be able to use their phone’s biometric systems to unlock MacBooks, but adding a separate on-device TouchID would speed things up even more.

And it looks like that might be happening as well with references strewn around macOS Sierra such as “kIOHIDBiometricDoubleTapTimeoutKey” and “kIOHIDBiometricTapTrackingEnabledKey”.

Of course, this is still speculation at this point, but seeing that traditionally, beta code for Apple’s operating systems has given us many hints regarding upcoming features, we’d say there’s a good chance we’ll see these additions on the next MacBook devices.

Source: Apple Dev Site Via: 9to5Mac

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