Apple’s MacBook Pro has a hidden menu item that can hide items from the user’s view. This hidden menu item is called the “Notch.” The Notch is located on the left side of the keyboard, and it can be accessed by pressing the fn key and then clicking on the “Notch” icon. The Notch will show a list of all of the currently open windows, and it will also show a list of all of the applications that are running. If you want to hide an application from this list, you can press fn+click on it and then select “Hide All.”
Snazzy Labs owner Quinn Nelson posted on Twitter showing some issues with how the new MacBook Pro works with some applications. Basically, some Status bar icons, such as Apple’s battery indicator, can get hidden by the notch when menu bar items are extended.
Using iStat Menus, Nelson showed how almost the entirety of the information from the app can be hidden under the notch, thus rendering the app basically useless. According to the developer of iStat Menus, the app is just using standard status items, and the guidance Apple posted for developers regarding the notch won’t solve this issue.
— Quinn Nelson (@SnazzyQ) October 26, 2021
A second video posted by Nelson shows how older apps interact with the notch. Basically, with an older version of DaVinci Resolve, you can’t even move your cursor into the notch. Instead, your mouse moves around it. With the same app with extended menu items, the items overtake the system icons, making it so you can’t access them without minimizing DaVinci Resolve.
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While annoying, this shouldn’t be too much of an issue for most people, as they won’t have enough icons in their status bar to fill it up beyond the notch. Still, it’s unfortunate that Apple didn’t get this right, especially considering the staunch opposition many fans had towards the notch. The company only has one chance to make an excellent first impression with this divisive design, and it doesn’t seem like it’s doing a good job with that.
