I really like my M1 Mac, but the notch has to be the dumbest design decision in the history of laptops :/ I would accept any design compromise for the webcam, make it grainy / low-res and put it under the display, put it at the bottom so it points up my nose, or move into a small 'corner notch' in the top-right corner so that the camera looks at me from the side ... anything really but please get rid of that stupidly oversized center notch.
> While it offers many features, I've refused to pay for a solution to Apple's poor design decision.<p>The phrasing of this kind of gets under my skin.<p>Like, it's fine to call it "refusing to pay" if it's some kind of Apple tax. Bartender is great little indie app, a real quality-of-life enhancement. I like to reward creative developers who come up with solutions for weird edge-case users like us.
> * I discovered a free, native macOS solution that doesn't require installing Bartender or any other additional apps.*<p>> <i>You can adjust the values from 0 to 6 to accommodate even more icons. Personally, I found 6 to be a good fit.</i><p>It's ultimately a really petty point - but this is not a fix. This increases the number of apps on the top bar before the problem occurs. Bartender (and hidden[1] - which I discovered in this thread) fix the problem. Calling a technique that delays the problem "a solution" after sneering at a project that actually is a solution just rubs me the wrong way.<p>Edit: Though I'll leave my rude comment in its original form, it's also important to note that OP added a note clarifying this may not fix the problem for everyone in what I thought was a mature reaction to a petty complaint.<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden">https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden</a>
Longterm Mac OS users have used tools like Onyx[0] to configure hidden system and finder settings. It's probably one of my first downloads after an OS upgrade.<p>[0] <a href="https://titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html" rel="nofollow">https://titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html</a>
I learned yesterday about this setting which can be change the default whitespace in MacOS menu bar to get access to apps which would otherwise be hidden under the notch. Many of my colleagues told me they were happy so I thought it might be useful for wider audience as well.<p>I know that the HN guidelines recommend linking to source directly but I think short blog post with images is easier to understand and I hope this is okay :)
Bartender is an app that will let you hide items/hide items in a submenu. I have no affiliation, and it just works.<p>I’m guessing there’s something similar open source but I’ve yet to stumble across one that works as well.<p><a href="https://www.macbartender.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.macbartender.com/</a>
Here is the apparent origin post of this undocumented preference:<p><i>Hidden preference to alter the menubar spacing</i> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/16lpfg5/hidden_preference_to_alter_the_menubar_spacing/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/16lpfg5/hidden_prefe...</a><p>The author describes tracing Bartender's activity to hunt down the method.<p>And this blog post mentions higher values than 6 (recommending 12 for NSStatusItemSpacing and 8 for NSStatusItemSelectionPadding):<p><i>How to fix Mac menu bar icons hidden by the MacBook notch</i> <a href="https://www.jessesquires.com/blog/2023/12/16/macbook-notch-and-menu-bar-fixes/" rel="nofollow">https://www.jessesquires.com/blog/2023/12/16/macbook-notch-a...</a>
This is a “problem” that existed before the notch was born and has been fixed with Bartender (and clones) for several years now. Anyone with lots of app icons would run into situations where the icons would not all fit on the menu bar. Bartender gave us control and helped reduce the clutter.<p>The problem didn’t start with the notch, it just made it more likely that someone would run into it.
The notch is what it is: a compromise between webcam quality, branding, and thin bezels. But it’s hard to argue but that Apple’s software integration with it is mediocre at best. None of the extra space is usable except by anything but the awkwardly tall menu bar and the status items or menu extras it holds, and the system not being aware of the notch —sometimes— like letting status items pile up underneath, or being able to put the mouse pointer underneath it but not when a mouse button is held down (this behavior was removed in a late version of Ventura), or putting the picture-in-picture window partially underneath the menu bar (like it expects only a regular-sized menu bar to be there)… is symptomatic of a larger quality and integration problem at Apple, I think.
Hey, I love to bash appl like anybody else, and this notch issue is an equivalent dumb outcome as the magic mouse charging like a dead cockroach or the "you're holding the phone wrong". But my main concern is how EVERY Mac app nowadays feels the need to leave an icon on the "tray" leading to this problem in the first place. Notch or no notch, this pattern just doesn't scale. Am I the only one installing apps to hide the trays icons? On windows this hiding pattern come as default for years.
I find the notch the be an utterly horrible design choice. Like the iPhone notch, it seems like a major step back in aesthetic. I found both too distracting for comfort.
The large amount of white place has been driving me insane for a while, glad to see there is a fix I will need to check this out later.<p>But I don't understand why Apple did not take a page out of Windows's taskbar. If there are too many make a dropdown. They are already easily draggable and removable so concern about bloat isn't really a concern. If I have them there I want them there and accessible.
Author here: @dang other users here helped me to understand that the title is bit misleading. I was just eager to share about this and possibly help others with this knowledge without thinking about this correctly.<p>I already renamed the article on my end and redirected it to a new url:
<a href="https://flaky.build/built-in-workaround-for-applications-hiding-under-the-macbook-pro-notch" rel="nofollow">https://flaky.build/built-in-workaround-for-applications-hid...</a><p>Can you change the url and rename the submission title to:
"Built-in MacOS workaround for applications hiding under the MacBook Pro notch"<p>Thanks a lot and sorry for the trouble!
This drives me nuts. I resort to quitting applications until I've removed enough that the app I'm looking for is visible again. I did use bartender for a while. I can't remember why I stopped using it.
I found an alternative solution: the application Easyres, a little app that lets you change resolutions from the menu bar, has an alternative resolution that's about 30-40px shorter than the standard resolution. This gives you back the whole menu bar as it sits below the notch. It's a much cleaner look. The notch completely disappears and you forget it ever existed.
I was hoping this article would show how you could make fullscreen apps actually fullscreen. It bothers me that the top of the app sits below the notch - there are some apps where there's nothing in the top middle that the notch would cover, and the apps would benefit from a little bit of extra real estate.<p>Oh well, we wait and hope someone figures it out.
Original source of this hack is: <a href="https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/465674/330523" rel="nofollow">https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/465674/330523</a><p>I recommend upvoting (and favoriting) to make it more findable in the future (including my future self).
The free app Dozer gives you the ability to move icons into a collapsible section, which also solves this problem from a different angle. <a href="https://github.com/Mortennn/Dozer">https://github.com/Mortennn/Dozer</a>
The open-source Hidden Bar is my current solution to this problem, but I think I prefer this native fix.<p><a href="https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden">https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden</a><p><pre><code> brew install --cask hiddenbar</code></pre>
I've been using Bartender since before the notch because often the space isn't enough.<p>This is something macOS needs to handle better. The notch itself only removed some space, but the problem was already there.
All this added padding from the last few releases forces me to believe this is in preparation for a port to iPad or AVP.<p>EDIT: The hardware is there, it's just a matter of getting the right UX in place.
The real point for me is: where were all Apple Egineers when the decision ws taken to add (or actually remove) that notch to the display? Have then been called in at all?<p>I can hardly think that the decision came from the engineers: that would not solve any technical problem or add any extra technical feature. Just whoes.<p>The decision likely came from the marketing.<p>Fancy and stylish decisions (the nothces) on engineered stuff (the Mac) should require the former to beg the latter for a go/no go badge.<p>I think you can put a camera in any of the 4 corners in a bezel, you can put it (back) in the middle of the upper bezel, maybe in the middle of the lower bezel.<p>Or ask you Apple fans to use their iPhone as a camera.<p>Look at where they put cameras in a Tesla. Not where it is nice, but where it is effective under all the points of vieew.<p>To me the notch is totally useless also in my phone as it doesn't add anything. It rather makes some of my screen real estate unavailable. Just to get a slimmer bezel which is not a useful feature.<p>I would rather sacrify some of the bezel to get back my perfectly rectagular display without any rounded corners (another pesky marketing-driven decision) or nothces.
Meh!
I don't mind the notch (I understand the reason it's there and it's a compromise), but it boggles my mind that Apple decided to just place the icons under the notch, where they aren't visible.<p>This is a clear example of lack of dogfooding: clearly Apple executives do not use many apps, or they would have been infuriated at the stupid problem.