I have software that has a LOT of menus at the top.
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Apple Patent Offers Sketch of Possible Notch Implementation in New MacBook Pros
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At first I thought this would be a bad idea, but if it fits where the menu bar is, then you're really not loosing anything. Even running apps at full screen, like Final Cut Pro, you still gave a grey area at the top that it would fit into. So you're really not loosing any area of the screen.
I can’t think of when I don’t have a strip of menu bar across the top of my screen, whether in PS or LR. It will simply reside by the 20 other labels that seem to reside across that space. And who edits images by placing the work you are focusing on in the top 20 pixels of a 5K screen? I would like to see the work-flow of the person this is actually a deal-breaker for. I prefer this approach to having bezel left and right of the camera. This will essentially provide an ”infinity” screen And maximize the screen size for the given size of the laptop.
The mockup already tells it all... it is very distracting and aesthetically bothersome...
Video and photo professionals switching to full screen constantly will hate it.
Making the top bezel so “thin” that there is a need for a “notch” to house the camera and the sensor hardware just defeats the purpose!
Exactly my thoughts. That’s also why I am not a fan of face ID instead touch ID. My camera is always behind a cover unless I need it.
This is how I see this working. The vertical real estate that includes the notch would not be reachable by a mouse nor addressable by an application. Rather, only system information can be placed there initially and it has zero effect on external monitors and running applications; i.e. applications still see a 16:10 area as before. Basically, the machine has a virtual 74px high forehead that has some potential system usage rather than being simply a forehead. It is possible that future version of MacOS could allow applications to update this area but that would be a MacBook Pro specific feature, much like an application's usage of TouchBar.
Now imagine if Apple releases a new desktop monitor with a notch, then the concept would extend to external monitors in a similar way.
If the notch area works in this way, transparent to applications, then would all the outrage go away? It's either this approach or a tall forehead, and I'd rather have this.
I'm really looking forward to the new MacBooks Pro's and, hopefully, physical F-keys. When I bought the 2016 macbook pro I was hyped about the touchbar but it turned into a really bad experience. As an architect I use a lot of shortcuts for a quick and intuitive workflow. The touchbar slows this process down since I constantly have to look down at the keyboard to find the right touchbar keys. My solution has been to mainly use an iMac or always bring a separate keyboard instead to avoid the loss in efficiency.
Which no—clickable information, besides time and date, could the OS display that would be useful to most people. Information that would fill the larger width of the 16” Notchbook and even larger external displays you mentioned.
So basically the top bezel is still going to be present on the MBP but instead of the menu bar information below the bezel it will show on the bezel itself either side of the notch pretty much, freeing up the rest of the display.
I think it’s a good move and the notch wouldn’t put me off as I don’t notice it on my iPhone 99% of the time.
I think it’s a good move and the notch wouldn’t put me off as I don’t notice it on my iPhone 99% of the time.
No idea at the moment, but let's start with time and date. I use iStatsMenus so something similar could be useful to me, like memory usage, network activity, etc. Less useful if I can't click on it to see details though. At some point if this area becomes usable by an application then the initial limited use evolves to something more useful. I guess we'll find out in 24 hours.
That's even worse. That means menu bar drops down in order. And what relevant information would it display? Task icons? Weather? Language? Time? There is no info that ot can display that's already not on the menu bar. Menu bar is the top component of UI, the header if you will. You can't put anything above it and even if they do the extra display is still useless and one more component that adds to the actual price.
if the top part of the screen is added pixels, there needs to be an option to turn off the top part of your screen so that it's just a standard 16:10 screen. the screen is mini-led, right??? should turn it off no problem. ALSO, please no rounded edges. that's just dumb.
What everyone is saying makes no sense. It makes zero sense to have the top notch black bar as an information only bar with the menu bar underneath it. Then, you’d have your application windows below all that. That’s dumb. They won’t do that.
This is what makes sense: they will have just the top black notch bar as the information bar and Finder menu options. There will be no additional finder menu options bar. This will save lots of screen space, negating the need for an additional menu below and it will provide consistency between Mac OS and iOS with a persistent “Information Bar” at the top, in this case a Finder information bar.
Apple can do this on these computers because they have room to put all these options in given the horizontal screen space. What they could do is have some toggle button that would flip the Finder Menu options in the top black notch on and then they’d show. And also turn these off and they’d disappear into “quiet mode”. When in an application the top notch black Finder bar could automatically switch to quiet mode.
This is what makes sense: they will have just the top black notch bar as the information bar and Finder menu options. There will be no additional finder menu options bar. This will save lots of screen space, negating the need for an additional menu below and it will provide consistency between Mac OS and iOS with a persistent “Information Bar” at the top, in this case a Finder information bar.
Apple can do this on these computers because they have room to put all these options in given the horizontal screen space. What they could do is have some toggle button that would flip the Finder Menu options in the top black notch on and then they’d show. And also turn these off and they’d disappear into “quiet mode”. When in an application the top notch black Finder bar could automatically switch to quiet mode.
The thing is that this would be "useless" bezel space anyway, due to the presence of the camera. So it's just a bezel that can display some info, afaik. I think that could be kinda useful in some ways, for example, having a low-overhead way of displaying Activity Monitor stuff, like cpu/memory. This is supposed to be a "pro" machine, after all, so it would make some sense. There could even be an option to have it "off", so it's just a black bezel.
Mind you, a big part of me still thinks this is a bogus rumour.
I was waiting for yet another 'brilliant mind' to put a 'gate' on this, to join the hundreds (or is it now thousands?) that have done the very same with something that was not broken into, nor stolen.
I wholly agree with this. If the extra screen space is kept blacked out except for a few bits of text and status icons, then the display still looks like it has the big ol’ fat bezels at the top, which defeats the point of the engineering and “hearts and minds” marketing effort needed to cut the notch out in the first place. The spaces next to the notch are much, much wider than needed by the time and WiFi icon, and allowing more colorful content—which can’t be interacted with, mind!—above the macOS menu bar would just make the display look garish and top-heavy.
Then again, I have extensive experience in being completely wrong, so I might have crow for lunch on Monday…