The Flexbar is a substitute for Apple’s Contact Bar that would give the Stream Deck a run for its cash — assuming the software program is absolutely hammered into form sooner or later.
The Contact Bar was a component of the MacBook Professional keyboard that supplied the promise of productiveness. By giving customers the flexibility to the touch a row of context-aware buttons that carried out shortcuts or modified settings, they might probably do extra without having to navigate menus or bear in mind key mixtures.
Whereas the element had potential, it was typically derided and was finally changed by a row of bodily perform keys, following the demise of the 13-inch MacBook Professional.
Customers now not have the choice of utilizing the Contact Bar in Apple’s present crop of {hardware}, and as an alternative they have to look elsewhere if the need one thing related. The Stream Deck is an apparent and well-tested choice, however if you happen to needed an interface that is a lot nearer to the Contact Bar in idea, it is best to as an alternative flip to the Flexbar.
Created by Eniac, the Flexbar is a skinny OLED show that gives a set of software program buttons and controls to work together with your Mac and its apps. By touching the display, you possibly can set off shortcuts, macros, or in any other case management the related Mac, all from a bar designed to sit down above your keyboard, like the unique Contact Bar.
Whereas it will not essentially provide the entire performance of Apple’s Contact Bar, it does provide a whole lot of what its predecessor promised.
Flexbar overview – Design
The Flexbar is, mainly, an OLED show in an aluminum alloy enclosure. It is a skinny bar of a show, and at 10.8 inches lengthy, 0.6 inches huge, and 0.3 inches thick, it is nearly so long as a Magic Keyboard.
The aluminum alloy enclosure would not go amiss when surrounded by Apple {hardware}, so it can mix in with most individuals’s Mac setups with ease.
The center of the machine is that 2K AMOLED display, which has a decision of two,170 by 60 pixels. This clearly is not meant for use as an precise show for content material, however it’s sufficiently big for tappable parts to be seen.
Flexbar overview: The show is vibrant and simply readable.
It is a touch-enabled display, however there are additionally two black display-less parts on the ends. Whereas not used as a part of the seen show, they do nonetheless have makes use of, resembling opening a small interface drawer or being the default “again” button.
It is also very mild at 71.7 grams (2.5 ounces), so it is easy to hold round with a MacBook Professional. That’s, if you happen to can stow it away in a right-sized pocket in your bag.
When used as meant on the high of a MacBook Professional’s keyboard, it does imply it’s important to increase your fingers about half an inch to press parts of it. When used on a desktop Mac, positioned on the desk behind the keyboard, it may be much more stage with the keys.
Flexbar overview: It is a lengthy touch-enabled show, much like the Contact Bar
When used by itself, its easy base means it could possibly simply slip round your desk if you happen to’re not cautious. Eniac does provide some pads to extend the quantity of grip, however there’s additionally a magnetic stand that ships with it.
The wedge-shaped stand sticks to the Flexbar firmly, and angles the show towards the person, making it simpler to see the display. This does increase the Flexbar up greater, so it is harder to achieve on a MacBook Professional, however it’s significantly extra helpful for desktop-based customers.
Flexbar overview: The equipped magnetic wedge helps angle the Flexbar
Connecting the Flexbar to your Mac is dealt with by a USB-C cable, with a woven one equipped within the field. This connects to 1 finish of the Flexbar, dealing with knowledge and energy.
This could possibly be an issue for folks wanting a wi-fi desktop, however it might be exhausting to think about hiding a battery in that enclosure without having to make it thicker.
By default, you connect with the USB-C port on the right-hand aspect of the show, however you possibly can flip it round and alter a setting so it really works with the port on the left too.
The sunshine weight of the Flexbar does introduce the issue of cable jostling transferring the bar itself very simply. It is much less of a problem when utilizing the stand for further weight, however it’s nonetheless one thing to remember whereas utilizing it.
Flexbar overview – Designer
Whereas the {hardware} itself is half the equation, the opposite is the software program. Flexbar Designer is the app you utilize so as to add the entire software program buttons and parts to the Flexbar itself.
Given a illustration of the Flexbar, customers can add buttons of various sorts that carry out completely different duties. The obvious are buttons used to carry out a macro or to carry out keypresses for you, resembling a button that locations fundamental HTML code right into a textual content field.
Different sorts embrace media management, {hardware} administration parts such because the display brightness of your Mac or quantity management, and buttons to open webpages or purposes.
The entire buttons might be positioned simply, and with a whole lot of management over how every button seems. This may embrace making a button wider or narrower, border types, font types, and association of parts inside the button itself.
They are not simply buttons, both. For instance, you possibly can arrange a quantity management slider so as to set the precise quantity share you need.
Not all the pieces needs to be interactive, as you might additionally use the Flexbar as a show for knowledge. There are alternatives to view metrics resembling CPU load or RAM utilization, that are proven as live-updating graphs.
Flexbar overview: Flexbar Designer is used to configure the menus out of your Mac.
You are additionally not restricted to only one display of icons and parts, as you possibly can outline pages. Every web page can maintain a number of buttons, which may make it quite a bit simpler to group collectively shortcuts relying in your at the moment in-use utility.
Within the quick time spent with the Flexbar, we have been in a position to arrange a web page of shortcuts for Blender and Twitch. In an illustration format preinstalled on the Flexbar, it included pages for Adobe purposes, video games together with Minecraft, OBS, and pages of ready phrases and statements for chatrooms.
It’s potential to rearrange as much as 14 ranges of nested pages within the Flexbar, so you might simply arrange teams of icons into bigger teams. For instance, pages for Adobe Premiere, Lightroom, and Photoshop could possibly be nested inside a common Adobe web page, which itself could possibly be inside a Work nest.
The handbook does clarify that it’s potential to bind a web page to a window, so that it’ll seem on the Flexbar as quickly as that window or utility is in deal with the principle desktop. This may be extraordinarily helpful, if correctly configured.
Whereas Eniac has gone to some bother to make the method of including parts to the Flexbar’s show comprehensible, it’s nonetheless a whole lot of work for a person to undertake. It could possibly be made quite a bit simpler for a person to get began with the Flexbar, resembling having pre-defined default shortcut collections for apps that customers may add.
This is not obtainable now, however it could possibly be sooner or later.
As a undertaking supplied on Kickstarter, the group continues to be engaged on getting the entire parts in place, together with creating the software program that Flexbar must run. As prerelease software program equipped to AppleInsider earlier than the Flexbar shifts, the software program is in a usable state, if not absolutely polished.
Because it’s software program, there may be at all times the prospect of increasing its options to make it much more user-friendly. Certainly, there are already guarantees of parts which are in improvement to perform this.
A plug-in system will permit builders so as to add Flexbar performance by APIs. This provides the chance for deeper integration with apps, and presumably extra management choices.
A plug-in market may even be on the way in which, which can in flip simplify the method of customers including apps to the Flexbar interface. It is simple to think about having the ability to set up a plugin and have a web page routinely populate with related buttons and controls for an app.
Nonetheless, these are nonetheless in-development options that will not be obtainable at first. It’s anticipated that the plug-in system and market will launch someday within the second quarter of 2025.
They are not obtainable now, however it’s straightforward to see them being welcomed by customers down the highway.
Flexbar overview – In Use
There’s the expectation that the Flexbar is analogous in utilization to Apple’s Contact Bar. To a degree, it’s.
The intense show, with an adjustable brightness management, crisply shows the software program buttons and sliders with out concern. Even with giant fingers, the smallest button settings are nonetheless simply pressed with out mis-taps, and positioned above the keyboard, it is simply inside attain.
That’s, if the cable of your keyboard would not get in the way in which an excessive amount of. You probably have a keyboard with a cable that stands proud the again, it can get in the way in which and pressure you to maneuver the Flexbar over to the aspect.
Flexbar overview: The bottom could be very flat and slick. Use the magnetic stand for extra grip and weight.
The act of urgent the buttons or different parts can be helped by haptic suggestions. A button faucet or a slide is greeted with a small vibration, acknowledging your press.
Faucets are additionally shortly acted upon in the event that they contain the Mac, with actions carried out with minimal lag.
It is very straightforward to think about utilizing this in an analogous option to a Stream Deck. You probably have lots of shortcuts and macros arrange in a Stream Deck, you possibly can simply add extra in a bar-style association right here.
There are a number of included features which are extra for present than they’re sensible. There are hexadecimal converters and calculators which, whereas practical, do not actually lend themselves to a bar format versus your typical calculator quantity pad grid.
There’s additionally the curious addition of a ruler with each centimeter and inch markings. It is a bit of enjoyable however it’s also correct, making it useful if you happen to want a measurement and a bodily ruler is nowhere to be discovered.
Flexbar overview: It communicates to your Mac utilizing USB-C.
The place the Flexbar would not fairly match the Contact Bar is in Apple’s advantageous integrations. The important thing one being the shortage of urged phrases when utilizing a textual content editor, a job the Contact Bar was extraordinarily useful for having.
It is possible that this form of performance could possibly be added utilizing the plug-in system in a roundabout way, however not for the second.
Utilizing it over time, we did run into the problem of lightness, because it was very susceptible to maneuver when tapped flippantly, even on the magnetic stand. That is in all probability right down to utilizing it on a shiny picket floor moderately than a mousepad or one other floor with extra grip.
Flexbar overview – An amazing begin for a distinct segment peripheral
The Flexbar actually provides a whole lot of productiveness bonuses to customers in an analogous option to the Contact Bar it emulates, in addition to the competing Stream Deck. It is a useful little display that gives shortcuts inside a brief vary of your fingertips and your keyboard.
It already demonstrates a excessive stage of customizability, however with it comes complexity. For one thing like this, you’d count on an intrepid person to have the ability to get themselves arrange and operating after a little bit of finding out find out how to use the Flexbar Designer software and a while tinkering.
For the common Mac person, they may want much more steerage as it’s fairly an intimidating factor to get going with. It does want extra simplification of the setup course of for these customers.
Handily, this can be a factor that may be handled through software program updates, with add-ons on the way in which. Simply not proper now.
{Hardware}-wise, it is exhausting to criticize the Flexbar. It is vibrant, huge, simply comprehensible as soon as arrange, and really intuitive to make use of.
Flexbar overview: There’s a whole lot of promise, however it must excellent its software program.
The sunshine weight of it’s mitigated by the extraordinarily helpful stand, however might be a problem. Some may complain in regards to the lack of a battery and wi-fi choices, however that once more could possibly be a second-gen revision.
As a primary try to attempt to make a comparative product to Apple’s Contact Bar, the Flexbar will get a whole lot of issues proper. {Hardware}-wise it is just about there, with software program enhancements being the subsequent section of enchancment.
It is not fairly there proper now. We will actually inform the place the group needs to go along with this, and the place it would finally find yourself.
Flexbar Execs
- Apple-like bodily design
- Vibrant and straightforward to make use of show
- Vastly customizable menus, with the prospect for extra with app plug-ins
Flexbar Cons
- Preliminary setup is difficult to the common person
- Gentle weight, simply moved with the cable
Score: 3 out of 5
The Flexbar is an attention-grabbing product. As a rule, we like the thought, and the idea. The execution simply is not there proper now, and potential customers could be higher served with an Elgato Stream Deck, with the software program the way in which it’s.
So, this rating relies on the pre-release {hardware} and software program equipped to AppleInsider for overview functions. It takes under consideration what’s usable on the time of the overview itself, and would not think about software program enhancements which have but to be carried out.
If carried out proper, the inbound software program updates anticipated within the coming months may make it a much better total product. It is simply possible for the rating to be 4 out of 5 at that time — it simply is not proper now. We could revisit this sooner or later.
As a part of the overview, we have additionally integrated the truth that it is a crowdfunded undertaking. As a crowdfunded undertaking, there may be at all times the chance the product not transport as promised — or in any respect. Due to this, AppleInsider would not cowl nearly all of crowdfunding efforts as a rule, until {hardware} is out there and after an evaluation of the group behind the hassle.
The place to purchase the Flexbar
The Flexbar is at the moment obtainable on Kickstarter with a marketing campaign that can finish on January 2, 8 AM Jap, 1 PM UTC. On the time of publication, it has raised $264,684 of its $2,576 objective.
It has an MSRP of $179, with Kickstarter backer bundles ranging from $149.
