MacOS Golden Gate gives you a taste of how a touchscreen MacBook will work
macOS 27 Golden Gate beta reportedly adds new touch controls through Sidecar, fueling rumors of Apple’s first OLED touchscreen MacBook
Fransebas
The touchscreen MacBook dream is starting to show up inside macOS
Chris Hagan / Digital Trends
Even as Windows laptops turned touchscreen as a part of the premium laptop checklist generations ago, Apple has resisted the touchscreen MacBook for years. However, things might be changing soon. After years of rumors and reports of Apple finally adopting touch input on its PCs, the latest macOS 27 Golden Gate might be the one to finally bring this highly requested feature to reality.
The first beta of the new macOS just dropped, and people are already trying cool new things in it. One of these include a new touchscreen behavior when a Mac is connected wirelessly to an iPad through Sidecar. In macOS 26, users still had to rely on a mouse or trackpad while using Sidecar. But macOS 27 lets users can operate macOS through the iPad’s touchscreen.
macOS 27 Apple
It’s not just simple taps either as you can see a user scroll through lists, selecting menu items, using pinch-to-zoom, and dragging a fingerover lists to highlight items.
Is the touchscreen-enabled MacBook Ultra rumor true?
All of this might add weight to the rumor behind a new premium MacBook Ultra model. However, this is still just speculation at this point and not an official confirmation. A change to Sidecar is not definitive proof of upcoming touchscreen hardware. But what’s interesting is the timing.
Apple’s next high-end MacBook have pointed to a major redesign with an OLED touchscreen, possible M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, thinner construction, and a display layout that could replace the notch with a punch-hole or Dynamic Island-style cutout. But while there’s no real confirmation yet, Golden Gate may be the first public sign of the groundwork being laid.
Golden Gate is already borrowing from iPhone and iPad
There is another small clue in the same direction. A new report found that macOS 27 Golden Gate also adds a new “swipe down to refresh gesture”. This brings a familiar iPhone and iPad interaction to the Mac. Apple reportedly supports it in apps such as Safari, Mail, News, Podcasts, and Calendar. Again, you’re not seeing macOS and iPadOS blending together.
macOS 27 Apple
Apple’s own macOS 27 preview focuses mostly on Siri AI, Visual Intelligence, Liquid Glass refinements, performance improvements, and Apple silicon compatibility. But touchscreen support was not a major talking point. Yet, the pieces are starting to line up. A touchscreen MacBook has always needed more than a panel that can detect fingers, and the software now seems to be getting there.
Vikhyaat Vivek is a tech journalist and reviewer with seven years of experience covering consumer hardware, with a focus on…
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