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New macOS 'Compatibility Mode' Options Let Developers Decide How Fullscreen Apps Handle the Notch
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Apple, why can't we just have this...
...it looks so much better and has a webcam without a notch.
If Dell can do it, surely Apple can do it.
If Dell can do it, surely Apple can do it.
Suddenly notch-less displays look like a futuristic paradise.Apple, why can't we just have this...
...it looks so much better and has a webcam without a notch.
If Dell can do it, surely Apple can do it.
A high quality 1080p camera sensor. There’s a reason so few laptops have 1080p cameras. Those that do also tend to have lower quality and smaller sensors.
Because the camera quality is poop on that machine and it also wouldn't have a space ready for Face ID which likely comes next year.
Some people say the bulk of the Apple notch may be necessary for extra functionality like Face ID coming in next MPB iterations. But at this point it is just a theory, unless someone has concrete data. We will see. Perhaps the usual tear-down will reveal more about it.
You mean hearing distance.
*some people will get the reference. For the rest, I apologize.
I think it's just a money saving exercise. Apple could easily make a 1080p camera fit into an even smaller bezel without a notch if they tried (they will in future versions guaranteed). Tiny high-quality web/front cameras have been available in phones for years, the technology is there. I don't really think this is acceptable in an advanced laptop that costs 2 or 3 times the price of the competition, but Apple know people will buy it, so they don't care.
Dell does a good job with slim bezels. I like my XPS but the camera quality is terrible. In a world where video conferencing matters, a low quality camera is not professional. There are other options but all of them require using external cameras. Most people will not deal with external cameras and will just use what’s built in. This will be marketing for Apple as people start to have great webcam image quality, others will want it too (and the microphone quality). Many people won’t care but others will.Apple, why can't we just have this...
...it looks so much better and has a webcam without a notch.
If Dell can do it, surely Apple can do it.
my problem exactly .... have a lot of icons and such.
I do have a real problem with a notch ... it's a black square on the middle of my screen ... it's just ugly and a bad design decision. I know some people will defend it. I'm sorry, I think it's ugly (even the corners should be awwwayyy rounder) and an horrible design.
I will wait for the 2nd revision on this. Great HW otherwise.
As a preventive measure, you can set the microphone input to zero and install Micro Snitch to monitor microphone usage. Or, if this is not sufficient, you can remove the audio input drivers.
It makes them feel safer
People are not always rational - sometimes placebos, rituals and superstition go a long way to preserve our emotional well being.
My point is Apple and others have already done it ...in phones. They are experts in making tiny high-quality lenses and sensors, they just can't be bothered to put the same effort into laptops as they do with their phones. If they really can't do it, just make the top a bit thicker (like they did with the bottom for some reason). MacBooks are used by design professionals and having a big black blob right in your peripheral vision is really distracting, when working on photos, video etc... A dead pixel is annoying, let alone this. I doubt many professionals doing this kind of work even use the webcam on their Mac, what they want is the best possible display and zero distractions.
First the white bezels on the iMac, now this... Apple seem to have forgotten the minimalism and aesthetics that made them so popular in the first place.
The XPS line is seriously gorgeous. One of my favorite laptops.Apple, why can't we just have this...
...it looks so much better and has a webcam without a notch.
If Dell can do it, surely Apple can do it.
And if Michael Dell had taken Jobs up on that (alleged) offer to license Mac OS, the XPS line might even run an OS that doesn’t feel like 30 years of cobbled-together spare parts.
Seriously, I had somewhat high hopes for Windows 11, but even super basic things like the desktop-switching animation are so clunky and broken it’s just an embarrassment.
I asked this same question about a page earlier. I suspect that it will jump instantly from one side of the notch to the other, kind of like what happens when you move a mouse between two displays (which obviously have physical space between their two edges).
But, I think the bottom of the notch will have to act as a top-of-display stop since I don't think you'd ever want the mouse pointer to end up hidden and under the notch. I guess they could sense the direction of your movement (is the user going more to the left or right?) and then the mouse pointer would instantly jump into the menu bar on the left or right of the notch. So, whatever direction you are moving the mouse it will jump instantly from the edge/bottom of the notch to a space on either side of the notch. Kind of like, well, that the notch isn't even there. But then I'm not sure what would/should happen when the user moves the mouse pointer directly perpendicular into the bottom of the notch. Maybe they WILL allow the mouse pointer to disappear and "travel" under the notch, I don't know (obviously).
I suspect that you really wouldn't know what the best behavior would be until you actually tried it on a display with a notch. Apple will probably make it feel and look seamless and "natural" (whatever that may be, it could be a very simple approach).
The other option that I proposed is that the mouse pointer will automatically travel around the edges of the notch, so if you hit the left edge and continued to move the mouse it would jump to the bottom of the notch and then travel along the bottom until it reached the right side and then the mouse pointer would jump back up into the menu bar (on the right side of the notch). But, I think that would be unnecessary and somewhat confusing and thus I suspect that it will just jump from side to side or from bottom to side (instantly). The latter would also be the easiest to implement and would keep the vertical alignment consistent as you moved the mouse from left to right.
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I decided to hold off on 11 on my main workstation as well as my gaming PC. 10 is stable and I’m happy with what it offers.
The headline is wrong. It's exactly the other way around. The compatibility mode actually lets full screen apps NOT interfere with the notched area. Until developers update their apps to support the extra screen size, apps will run in compatibility mode.
The notch:
- is either ugly and/or distracting and/or uncomfortable for the UI, and...
- provides no advantage over a standard horizontal top, and...
- also requires custom logic in the MacOS UI code, which can break some apps, and...
- applications can hardcode the "compatibility mode" (behaviour of the notch), ignoring the user preferences.
- the notch is a poor solution, to disappear sooner than the emojibar.
I bet you can live with that until 2024 when they will remove it, keeping a black dot for the camera until 2027, the year they will return to clean menu again. Isn't that fun? Isn't that innovation?
Apple have basically sacrificed the screen on their most professional laptops for the sake of a webcam.
If you think this isn't an issue, stick some black tape on the top of your existing MacBook screen and see if you find it distracting at all.
If you think this isn't an issue, stick some black tape on the top of your existing MacBook screen and see if you find it distracting at all.