Unless you are proposing that the menu-bar doesn't cover the full width of the screen, you have not gained usable screen space. There are already apps that let you display things like weather and stocks in your status bar so they dont temporarily cover your screen when you expand NC.
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Apple Patent Offers Sketch of Possible Notch Implementation in New MacBook Pros
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Well if there is a notch hopefully they offer a setting to basically turn it off by blacking off the sides If people wanted.
Full screen means all of the LCD screen, not also things which dont have a screen.
Only using the area below the notch is most of the screen, not all of the screen.
The screen area below the alleged notch is the same size ratio as current screens. Now they’re adding extra screen areas on top, and you’re feeling shortchanged?
As I mentioned above, I think we may get Face ID without the additional cost of the flood illuminator via a strictly software implementation. Then Touch ID and Watch unlocking serve as backups. This would be similar to Windows Hello.
Well, I have said in another thread that one person's "notch" is another persons "ears"...
However, there are a couple of flies in the ointment:
If it is going to take a bite out of the menu bar (which, if you take the "ears" view, means moving the bar up and leaving the main area of the screen free for content) - and separate the left-hand menu headings from the right-hand icons : first, the height of the menu bar varies depending on what screen scaling you choose, so it's going to have "overbite" or "underbite" depending on the screen mode - which would look fugly (which is not good for something that is clearly motivated by "form" rsather than "function").
It would also enforce a half-and-half split between the left-hand and right-hand sections of the bar when, in practice, the left-hand part tends to need more space than the right-hand part.
Or, let's say that this is going to be pure "extra" space, not accessible to legacy apps, purely for newly added icons. First - what new icons? Is anybody asking for this? There doesn't seem to be any pressing need.
What background colour? If it's a "digital bezel" (i.e. black) then you're back to the uneven bezel/forehead "look" - if it's white or matches the menu bar then... well, that's a big extra block of white at the top of the screen (which will call attention to the notch). All of the mock-up photos seem to show it continuing the desktop background (which is gonna muss up the aspect ratio of photographic backgrounds) which breaks as soon as you display the menu bar underneath it...
Are the icons going to be mouse-accessible? Will that mess up full screen games that capture the mouse?
...then you're going to need a control for hiding them - because you might not want bright light-on-black icons hovering over your full-screen movie or game - so that's an extra complexity to add.
Trouble is, I can see this looking really cool in a few mock-ups of carefully chosen cases produced by a graphic designer to sell the idea (I mean, some of the amateur mock-ups don't look bad except they've conveniently omitted windows and the menu bar) but fugly in real life.
Also - Apple really need to remember the lesson from the Touch Bar, Force Touch (& maybe the Pencil) - don't use UI features to distinguish models. Unless you're gonna roll out the feature across the whole range so everybody can use it, software producers won't make too much effort to support it. If Apple were going to go down this route, they should have included it in the 24" iMac design
(NB: something occurred to me while writing this: all the fan mock-ups appear to show black bezels and, consequently, a black notch... now, I'll be happy if the "pro" Macs stick to a businesslike black/grey/silver scheme, but I thought that white was the new black... what's it going to look like with a white bezel & notch, plus a desktop background colour-coordinated with a coloured base?)
I dont really care about sligfht differences in aspect ratio. If the notch impacts the menu-bars usability by moving it down from the top of the screen with stacked interactive items, or splits it awkwardly, then it is a negative, not a positive.
I dont have a problem with the idea of a notch, but Apple hasn’t exactly been on top of the usability and accessibility game with their latest Mac-OSes so I’m not hopeful that’s the notch will be implemented well.
It does if there is no cost and no downside. It would be the same to argue that Watch unlocking is redundant on Macs with Touch ID, but it is there all the same.
How would it be any worse than having a big bezel at the top? in photos the top strip will not be allowed to be a part of the photo itself as the article explains. People are getting too bent out of shape on this. It’s a reasonable solution to allow for more screen real estate. The notch certainly should never cover any space used by UI (in photos or any other app) but Apple is certainly smart enough to implement it that way. The article makes clear that this is the intent. Of course this will mean changing how menu bar functions but if this gives extra screen real estate that's a win. I'll take it over a big bezel which can never be used for anything.Editing photos and zooming in will be a nightmare with the black void on top
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Thank you for bringing some sanity to this discussion. I wish more people would read an article before blurting out comments.
Assuming the rumors are true the new screen will have more pixels than the current one. These additional pixels will be placed where you are currently staring at a black fixed bezel. The new screen work area could be the identical resolution, physical size, and aspect ratio to what you're working with now. Apple could have implemented this by taking the current MPB display and adding two small discrete displays in the bezel area. Those extra mini displays are what I have gained. It's a similar idea to the Asus Pro Duo adding a small discrete display above the keyboard.
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That's nice! They might even make it an OLED part (basically a small screen) so it can be a full black bar except the data!
Edit: Forgot it's Mini-LED, almost as good!
Except yove reduced the menu bars usability by adding clickable items above it because now you can overshoot the menubar items instead of just moving your pointer to the top of the screen and clicking. So instead of easily opening the File menu, for example, you have to make sure you dont accidentally click on whatever is displayed above it.
Not if it's like TouchBar, you can only edit it in settings, and it prevents mouse cursor entering that area... but then they can't use things like Wifi icon there, battery and date are perfectly possible though!
No. No let's all panic and jump to conclusions!