Videos Show Menu Bar Behavior in Apps Not Updated for MacBook Pro Notch

[Somian]

Part of the problem comes from Apple not having a good design solution for when there is too much stuff to display in the menubar. This also is not a new issue, it happened for decades, esp. if you worked on smaller Laptop screens and used more than the few default menu bar items on the right side of screen. Usually menu items from a specific app overlay and hide menu items from the right side - if needed. And these disappear.
The notch should have been reason enough for Apple to finally redesign the menubar and have a solution in place - eg just let users access hidden menu items through some MORE menu. Basically what Bartender does.
So yeah it’s a design flaw - they will probably address in an update - but come on it’s not the nightmare some people make it.

Exactly!

I’ve had this problem since I got a 13” MacBook Pro In 2009. There should just be a “more” button or something when there are too many icons. Same for menu bar items. This has existed in the Windows taskbar for 20 years or so.

Try to use Autodesk Maya. It’s got a ton of menu items and on a 13” MacBook Pro they tend to just disappear.

 

[rpmurray]

Never noticed until now, but the menu bar there looks really fugly. Either it's thicker than a normal menu bar or the font is smaller.

 

[Shirasaki]

Well in their own words, why would a developer want Apple dictating where the menu elements go when the developers can adapt to new hardware, which they do all the time.

Yeah competent devs do adapt. That doesn't mean Apple won't dictate.
This will be something that can go weird from time to time.

 

[jgbr]

Quinn’s been getting a little too excentric of late.

 

[MacScape]

He is using the lower 1152x720 resolution or so. Not that it should matter, they need to find a solution. In the 'normal' resolution it probably won't happen that much?

Maybe Apple should not enlarge the Menubar area that much or way (if you change to a lower resolution) or it should always use the default resolution in the Menubar and enlarge text in an other way. But I have really absolutely NO idea if this is possible. Don't hate me on this.

 

[haleyp]

Wtf yeah just give me the windows camera. Some people never even use it. They're adding an ugly feature which they can later remove to seem newer again.

 

[haleyp]

Why not use two or more low resolution cameras and use super-resolution to combine them and also get depth?

 

[robertts]

He is using the lower 1152x720 resolution or so. Not that it should matter, they need to find a solution. In the 'normal' resolution it probably won't happen that much?

Maybe Apple should not enlarge the Menubar area that much or way (if you change to a lower resolution) or it should always use the default resolution in the Menubar and enlarge text in an other way. But I have really absolutely NO idea if this is possible. Don't hate me on this.

It doesn't matter. Apple introduced a new api in Monterey so that developers determine which side of the notch to display menu items OR enable a "compatibility mode" that will automatically adjust the menu for the notch. Again, why this isn't enabled by default or why the default action is to ignore the notch is beyond me.

 

[vjpulp]

Regardless of how this notch is handled – I'm actually not quite sure if this is gonna be much of a problem for most of the pro users. The ones who use this kind of power laptop professionally often work with an external monitor. In my case, the screen of the laptop is only the secondary monitor, and I have my menubar on a 34" LG monitor. I could not have all my menus and windows in AI, IND, PS on one screen. It's just too small, no matter how high the resolution. So yeah, this is not going to be an issue for me.

 

[MacScape]

It doesn't matter. Apple introduced a new api in Monterey so that developers determine which side of the notch to display menu items OR enable a "compatibility mode" that will automatically adjust the menu for the notch. Again, why this isn't enabled by default or why the default action is to ignore the notch is beyond me.

Oops, sorry, my bad. Please delete my post

 

[Shirasaki]

yeah it’s a design flaw - they will probably address in an update - but come on it’s not the nightmare some people make it.

It wouldn’t been a nightmare except there are tons of people out there saying “this is not a dealbreaker”. With a such divided opinion, Apple can easily justify not fixing the issue and leaving all devs in the dry because “only a small number of people will he affected by this issue”.

 

[jsmith78]

Seems like Apple actually DID "solve" this for menu items. It seems that menu items automatically wrap around the notch (see the Davinci Resolve video). But it appears that the Status icons are a problem, but from my experience, they have ALWAYS been a problem - nothing really different with the notch or not.

 

[Populus]

The guy is sooo excited like he discovered a new kind of atom or something... ?

This can be fixed in the next "Minor" update!

It’s called sensationalism. He’s looking for clicks, likes, and becoming viral. And he certainly achieved it, not only he’s made it to the front page of MacRumors, but also some friends (who are not into Apple) have shared it with me, mocking Apple for this. And I’m like... you know, the notch takes up some space from the menu bar, so this was kinda expectable.

 

[Octavius8]

Elementary school design of the display in the MBP!.
Can’t Apple take a lesson of aaaaaaall the other laptop vendors that have displays with thin frames???.
Other vendors put the camera on the keyboard or even in the frame, we would be less upset with a slightly thicker top frame than with the current silly “super creative solution”. Pathetic design, really. Worthy of the worst vendors, but since it is from Apple, many agree that the solution is “genius”. Seems Apple is testing is with terrible design choices to see how much we can accept from them. An it seems a lot.

 

[chucker23n1]

There is a visual one. Funny, I guarantee that it is certainly possible to circumvent this notch. If I promised you $1M if you modified your 1 program to avoid the notch by the end of the week it would be done so it can be done. Now you may not want to do it, but that is life. You need their hardware (assuming you have a Mac program) more than they need your 1 app.

I don't get your point. If Apple offers an NSStatusItem API (they do) and iStat Menus uses it as intended (they claim they do), and that API leads to status items being partially obscured, iStat Menus might be able to work around it as a temporary measure, but this particular bug is almost certainly on Apple's end.

I'll take that $1M now; thanks.

 

[duck apple]

I don't understand why this isn't handled at the system level. So, every Mac app needs to engineer a solution for the notch?

iStat menu icon stretches quite wide and strays away from convention a lots. I frequently mistook its icon as from two apps.

 

[Lestdog]

Snazzy Quinn needs to settle down.... but he's right on the subject. That's really stupid behavior. Who would have ever thought we would need to go find a workaround to use the menu?

 

[chucker23n1]

It doesn't matter. Apple introduced a new api in Monterey so that developers determine which side of the notch to display menu items

Menus automatically get arranged around the notch. Devs only really have to care if they want a non-standard behavior, e.g. to draw their own non-menu stuff up there.

Separately, there's apparently a bug for status items.

OR enable a "compatibility mode" that will automatically adjust the menu for the notch. Again, why this isn't enabled by default

Because turning that mode on would disable the notch for most existing apps, and in almost all cases, that isn't really necessary. It almost always works fine.

or why the default action is to ignore the notch is beyond me.

It is. Menu items, by default will simply shift around the notch.

 

[satchmo]

It's valid criticism that needs to be fixed but the guy is super obnoxious.

Quinn’s been getting a little too excentric of late.

He appears on my feed and seems like a 'Karen' for tech.

 

[Cicnod]

I don't get your point. If Apple offers an NSStatusItem API (they do) and iStat Menus uses it as intended (they claim they do), and that API leads to status items being partially obscured, iStat Menus might be able to work around it as a temporary measure, but this particular bug is almost certainly on Apple's end.

I'll take that $1M now; thanks.

The point quite simply is that it can be fixed by developers. I hire many people (outside tech) for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I tend to find the successful ones always come with solutions, not problems. Sure they find the problems as much as the next person but they find solutions almost always. This is an easily solvable situation.

It seems all of your posts are Apple screwed up this, this is their fault, this is a design problem, this is a bug and your counterparts seem to say we adapted and provided a solution or will within X weeks/days.

I believe 99% of developers will easily come up with a cohesive solution and this will be a non issue. For the 1% who can't/don't, adapt or be left behind.

 

[fbr$]

Wow, it's the first time in my life I see Apple launching a not fully ready, not fully tested software... /s

 

[chrono1081]

I disagree with the last part when it comes to UI. It's different when you don't optimize for new chips/performance. It still works, albeit slower. But this actually breaks something and is it not easier to do it from one side than from 10,000s? This is highly unrealistic, no one can expect that. Not even Apple.

Except developers have been doing it forever on every platform. If Apple were to make some kind of change devs would be up in arms because it's not going to work for everyone on every use case and cause just as much of a mess.

Again, as a developer I want to pick what UI components land where when they're avoiding the notch, I don't want some kind of guesswork on Apples part.

 

[CC77]

Regardless of how this notch is handled – I'm actually not quite sure if this is gonna be much of a problem for most of the pro users. The ones who use this kind of power laptop professionally often work with an external monitor. In my case, the screen of the laptop is only the secondary monitor, and I have my menubar on a 34" LG monitor. I could not have all my menus and windows in AI, IND, PS on one screen. It's just too small, no matter how high the resolution. So yeah, this is not going to be an issue for me.

Surely you can’t be saying that the solution for a portable workstation targeted to professionals is to use it as a desktop

 

[svish]

A software update will definitely be fixing this issue.

 

[Ethosik]

He’s actually a really decent tech reviewer. Sure he’s a bit whacky in this video but he’s just easily excited..

He’s probably mad as heck. I would be too. This was my concern the minute I read the rumors of the Notch. And why I didn’t buy one yet even though I have $4,000 available.