Apple has copped plenty of flack over the pricing of its new Touch Bar-equipped MacBook Pro, but this little trick might help users recoup the additional cost in time savings alone.
A Reddit user has discovered that when viewing YouTube videos in Safari, the Touch Bar can be used to skip through video ads.
Related: Apple MacBook Pro (2016) review
When a video is playing the OLED panel transforms to an interactive, visual timeline which users can scrub through to get to the main event.
The user RomansFiveEight wrote (via The Next Web): “In Safari, the Touch Bar will pop up a scrubbing control whenever a video begins to play. Amazingly, you can use that to scrub THROUGH an ad, even a non-skippable 30 second pre-roll ad; and begin your video right away!
“Who knows how long this ‘feature’ will exist. But, hey; pretty neat!”
Of course, a lot of folks already use ad blockers to get around video advertisements in YouTube, but this is a fun, if unintended, way to skip those pesky commercials.
Given our livelihoods depend on it, it would be a bit rich of us to go around recommending ad blocking but those 30-second hits before watching two-minute YouTube clips are a bit much sometimes aren’t they?
Have you snapped up the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar? Share your first impressions in the comments section below.
Video: MacBook Pro first look
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
