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That notch is beyond annoying. Add that to the list of annoying things Apple does for no reason. Charger under mouse, notch on laptops, airplay not working consistently, power button under the new Mac mini, AirPods Max bra, needing to charge AirPods Max to use wired, Touch Bar (bye!) taking ports away......
When designers beat engineers into submission.
 
Who knows, maybe they'll fit a decent web cam in there too. Still way too early to put faceID in.
 
As OLEDs do not need backlighting (they are self-emissive) they can have active pixels around the camera so Apple can use a pinhole smartphone camera.
Ah never thought about that. Maybe the backlight is why the notch is so wide too—LCD backlighting may not be precise enough to properly light the area around a small notch so it has to overlap a bigger notch. I suppose a teardown would show if that’s true or not.
 
Glad we avoided the notch on the iPad side
The iPad doesn't get the notch because it needs bezels to hold onto to prevent accidental touches. Samsung put a notch on its high end Galaxy Tab tablets because they don't envision theirs as a tablet to be held, but rather kept in a case, so they made their bezels rather small.

One thing the Mac move signals is that Apple still has no intention of using Face ID, which is a disappointment, but it's likely because they don't want to fatten the lid. Windows Hello uses a single camera that doesn't have that much security on it compared to Face ID. Apple isn't willing to compromise to keep the lid thin. I didn't measure the thickness of the current MBP lid, but it's a lot thinner than the iPad Pro's 5.1mm.
 
Sad. Apple's notch is an incredibly beautiful geometric shape which I absolutely adore.

I purposefully keep menu bar hidden and use bright wallpapers just to enjoy the look of it. Well, here's to few more years while it lasts...
 
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Windows Hello uses a single camera that doesn't have that much security on it compared to Face ID.
This is simply not true. On Surface devices, Windows Hello is a dot projector + IR camera system similar to what Apple does in iPhone and iPad Pro.

Fun fact: for Surface Pro 4 in 2015, they've had to come up with their own custom design of camera modules, because off-the-shelf solutions were too bulky and couldn't fit in a thin tablet. So again, just like Apple but two years earlier.

The coolest feature of Windows Hello is that it allows seamless user switching — computer wakes up, sees face and logs into that user right away. One of the few well-designed things about Windows.
 
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This is simply not true. On Surface devices, Windows Hello is a dot projector + IR camera system similar to what Apple does in iPhone and iPad Pro.

Fun fact: for Surface Pro 4 in 2015, they've had to come up with their own custom design of camera modules, because off-the-shelf solutions were too bulky and couldn't fit in a thin tablet. So again, just like Apple but two years earlier.

The coolest feature of Windows Hello is that it allows seamless user switching — computer wakes up, sees face and logs into that user right away. One of the few well-designed things about Windows.
Yours may, but most Windows Hello are single camera. None of mine use more than a single camera. There isn't a single version.
 
I wish we didn’t have to wait so long and I wish it had Face ID.
Face ID would be pretty handy on a MacBook. When just using the MacBook undocked the fingerprint key is fine, but when I'm docked I either need to type in my password or reach over to the MacBook (I'm using a standalone keyboard when docked). With Face ID I could simply turn my head towards the MacBook and be set.
 
I’ll ask again, in what universe is “increased brightness” an advantage of oled over lcd? They had to stack tandem oleds in the iPad just to match the peak brightness of the mini LED, and the battery life on my iPad Pro is not great. Honestly I think people eat up marketing jargon so uncritically, anymore.
When I went from iPhone 8 Plus to iPhone 12, I noticed a major decrease in brightness. Soured me on OLED displays. Now, with the 16 PM, the OLED actually looks good. But the 8? No way.
 
Nice! I never had an issue with the notch but I don’t like the weirdly tall menu bar or the odd way the system handles menu overflow under the notch
 
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As OLEDs do not need backlighting (they are self-emissive) they can have active pixels around the camera so Apple can use a pinhole smartphone camera.

The ambient light sensor is in the notch too, though, isn't it? So will be interesting to see how they deal with that. Will it be integrated into the camera module, or moved elsewhere on the device?
 
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Nice! I never had an issue with the notch but I don’t like the weirdly tall menu bar or the odd way the system handles menu overflow under the notch

Exactly my thoughts. When I use my external monitor it goes back to the thin menu bar, which just looks so much better.
 
When I read this news, I had to check if my MacBook Air even has a notch. It’s so subtle and blends into the menu that I had completely forgotten it was there. I don’t understand why some people are bothered by a notch. I guess if that gets “fixed,” you’ll surely find something else equally important to complain about.
 
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Don't get your hopes up. Apple got rid of the notch on the iPhone and now we have the "Dynamic Island" 🏝️ 😂
 
Have to see whether Apple will implement some kind of dynamic island feature for the Macs.

Not so sure whether the roadmap is correct. It shows MacBook Air in 2022 with just a rectangular screen when it is having a notch cut out and also the 15" model did not launch until 2023. Also as per the roadmap, the MacBook Air is getting the notch in 2028. Think by then the Air should also get the hole punch cut out.
 
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Good. I refuse to upgrade my Mac until they’ve got rid of that damn notch. I wouldn’t mind it if was smaller but half of it is just blank, empty space.
 
Dynamic Island on MacOS would make absolutely no sense considering there is already the task bar and Notification Centre. How about they just don’t ****ing disrupt the display area for a camera?! It’s a big enough device that they don’t have to.
 
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Dynamic Island on MacOS would make absolutely no sense considering there is already the task bar and Notification Centre. How about they just don’t ****ing disrupt the display area for a camera?! It’s a big enough device that they don’t have to.
There's always a tradeoff. Apple provides a much smaller bezel up top because other computer makers just make a bigger bezel where they put the camera, making the bezels uneven. I think we get an extra 80 pixels, the height of the task bar, at the cost of that notch. You can always get a utility to turn it off and lower the screen by 80 pixels if it really bothers you. By now, there are quite a few of those. Strangely Apple provides a way to turn that off per app, but not as a system setting. That's probably for those apps with a really long list of menus.

Apple loses any way they choose. If they didn't provide a notch, there would be complaints of too large a top bezel. When they do, they get complaints it looks ugly. If you turn it off and lower the screen, that ought to give both sides of the issue what they want. Those who don't care about the notch get more pixels while those who don't like it can black out those 80 pixels and get the old look back.
 
Dynamic Island on MacOS would make absolutely no sense considering there is already the task bar and Notification Centre. How about they just don’t ****ing disrupt the display area for a camera?! It’s a big enough device that they don’t have to.

I think the Dynamic Island would be fantastic on the Mac. I purposely have notifications silenced all the time, so I never see them, but I wouldn't mind the island popping up and animating momentarily.
 
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