YES! That would be awesome and would 100% solve my gripes about the notch. I will not be buying a Notchbook until this option is available (either from Apple or via a system hack). I don't care about the extra 74 pixels of frame buffer. I just want to not ever see the notch.
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New macOS 'Compatibility Mode' Options Let Developers Decide How Fullscreen Apps Handle the Notch
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100% agree. I hated the notch on the iPhone X and I hate it even more here.
Apple, give us a System Preferences > Display option to permanently shave off the top 74 pixels of the fscking frame buffer!
LOLOLOL.....if that TV had a functional 1080p camera in it, it would have been a miracle and only a fool would have thrown it away!
I guess I just don’t get it. I’ve had a notch on my phone for years and I never see it or think about it at all.
I guess I pay attention to what’s on the screen, not what’s around it. I’m not being a jerk, it honestly just doesn’t enter into my visual frame.
I’ve officially entered the Twilight Zone. LOL
Seven years ago, the NSA proved otherwise: https://www.wired.com/2014/03/webcams-mics/
My profession requires I do everything reasonable to maintain confidentiality. If putting a little sticker over my webcam and putting a little plug in my microphone jack achieves that, I am OK with it.
What people seem to forget is that it isn't just a matter of extra space or extra bezel. Not all screen real estate is equal:
- Corners and current position
- Edge regions
- Interior region
Genuine question: if your computer has been so thoroughly compromised that the threat actors have total control of your webcam and mics, what do you think they’d gain from watching you through your webcam that they wouldn’t gain from their clearly unfettered access to your computer itself?
And — again! — I wasn’t saying it’s impossible to get hacked, I was saying that the webcam on a MacBook cannot activate without the light coming on, and that in any case the average MacBook owner has nothing to fear on that count.
If someone hacked into my machine they’d die of boredom long before they got anything juicy.
Go to any laptop vendor that allows you to customize the machine and voila.
Take into account screen size, RAM, drive and GPU and you're welcome to post results.
I posted the information before but for some reason the post got deleted: for Macs released after 2008 it's not possible anymore to deactivate the camera LED through software. Theoretically it's maybe possible to flash a different firmware with this capability, but Apple signs the firmware so an attacker would need to defeat Apple's signing protections too.
Me too. It was going to be my first MBP. Guess I'll be heading back to Dell. Again.
It doesn't really matter if it's extra pixels or not. I don't like it, so Apple isn't getting my money. Same as any other company.
I do. I can practically see behind me. It’s not about what’s there to see, it’s about what I focus on. I honestly can’t for the life of me figure out why anyone would be looking at the notch instead of whatever they’re working on, reading, or watching. I know you probably think I’m being a jerk, but it sounds totally silly to me.
I’m not saying it doesn’t bother you, or that it shouldn’t bother you, only that I literally cannot understand how or why it does. My eyes just skim over it like it’s not there.
A lot of folks have jobs that involve confidential information. I don't do government clearance type stuff(anymore), but I still have to sign NDAs with some clients because of the nature of their enterprise and I'm often exposed to information their competitors would benefit greatly from if they could get it. Sometimes that confidential information is things we talk about near the computers. Industrial espionage is real, it happens, and the best targets are the people who think it's a myth or paranoia, because they're the ones who won't take the steps to secure from it seriously.
Beyond that, if you're the target of a hack where they got into your computer, maybe you don't have passwords stored in plain text that they can get access to. But being able to study you, listen to what you talk about on the phone or with other people near your computers, can reveal to them what you think is trivial information, because you forgot that you used this or that bit of "trivial" information(like your pet name, spouse's maiden name, best friend's name, favorite team, etc. etc. etc.) as one of your verification questions for your credit card company or credit union/bank. Before you think "well who would just sit their listening", people in poor countries can make a lot of money stealing stuff like that, life changing money for them and at this point, they don't actually have to sit there and monitor you, there's no reason at all they can't just move your audio feed through voice recognition that spits out text files for them to peruse later.
That stuff happens. I want to say it happens "all the time" because it's happening to someone somewhere right now, I guarantee it, but I also don't want people to think I'm saying it's happening everywhere all around them to everyone. Just that it does happen, and what you think is trivial information about yourself, can be the key for a social engineer to steal your identity or get access to your company's trade secrets.
The link I included is demonstrative that the webcam CAN activate without the light coming on.
It's not like the webcam is physically/electronically disconnected from the machine until you activate it. If there were a hard switch wired in, maybe. But that's not the design.
What would bad actors get from my webcam that they wouldn't get from my computer? Video of whatever I am doing, who I am with, where I am. and whatever others are doing...which they can't get from anything on my computer.
It's like wearing a mask. It protects me, but also protects others around me.
None of that changes the fact that the MacBook Pro camera cannot activate without also activating the light that tells you it’s on.
Which is all I said. That you can tell if the camera is on, and that you always see these folks talking about webcam covers, when it’s actually the microphones they should be disabling, as you yourself just explained.
But, like I said to someone else earlier, just because it’s within the realm of theoretical possibility that I might get hit in the head with falling aircraft parts I’m not gonna wear a helmet every time I go outside. Because that would be quite silly.
No, it’s demonstrative of the fact that it used to be possible on old Macs a long time ago.
It no longer is. Someone else posted about when Apple fixed it in hardware years ago.
If the camera is on, the light is on.
I suppose it might be theoretically possible that someone could physically tamper with your device to enable that sort of snooping, but if that’s the case you have way worse operational security problems than a hacked webcam.
I said as much when I pointed out there could be a notch, a week ago...
Apple demonstrated it pretty well, I thought, when they showed it as "here's the camera at the top, and now programs can use this previously wasted space to either side of the camera array" (or words to that effect).
I do like your graphic, explains it well.
And the information in the article that not only is there a property list value for controlling the use of the top bar, but also there's a checkbox in "Get Info" on every app for users to configure this... well that just makes it about the best of all possible worlds.
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Does this go all the way back to the guy who said he was going to put gaff tape on his camera?!? Wow, this went down a crazy rabbit hole! LOL
I noticed the notch in my iPhone X for about an hour or two. Would occasionally catch my eye again for the first couple months. I have no reason to believe it won't be the same on my new MacBook Pro.
The link is not relative to Mac's unless you go back almost a decade. You can't activate the camera without the light without physical access to the machine, a great deal of experience, and the ability to load additional firmware onto the laptop. If you already are in this position, the camera itself is a non-issue. Plus from the sounds of the new M1 chips, that wouldn't be possible anyway due to the firmware checks the new Secure Enclave performs.
I’d have to believe I’d find the notch on the MBP even less noticeable than on the phone, because I don’t regularly flip my Mac up on its side.
Tape? Yes, tape. Security experts say it's just good sense to cover your laptop's camera | CBC News
A curious photo circulating online of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personal laptop has ignited a conversation about data security, and how people can protect themselves against hackers.
1) "In security testing, Lewis said he's been able to breach a system and take control of a person's laptop camera without their knowledge."And it doesn't even always trip the light that shows the camera is live," he added."
2) Some might find others being able to see you as particularly invasive.
3) "Covering a laptop's microphone can muffle the audio enough to prevent a hacker from listening in, uninvited."