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Comment by toyg | Hacker News Reader

But why do they then have to go and f##k things up with the damn notch...?

You get more screen estate with the notch, than without it, because they would have taken the entire horizontal space and make it a piano black bar. And because Apple controls the software too, I expect the integration will be good.

I am more concerned about the risk of cracking the screen, because it is so close to the edge now. Does anyone know how important the width of the edge is for the safety of the screen?

I wouldn't think the cracking risk is worse than my 2015 MBP: the glass runs all the way up to the bezel at the edge, which is maybe 2 - 3mm, so not that different to the new machines.

I do find the notch disappointing and ugly. But at least right now, it looks like they're hiding it in the menu bar in a way that's not too obnoxious.

I just wish they'd made the notch (and the menu bar) the old menu bar height, instead of almost double the size. Mainly because I think the new height looks a little chunky and unnecessary.

There is a nice symmetry in the fact that all apps/websites will need to take into account safe area insets to display properly on any apple device in all display modes.

That is not true, no app ever gets to interact with the notch on macOS.

If you're in desktop mode, it's reserved for the menu bar. No application can go above that line.

If you're in fullscreen mode, the screen does not render anything to pixels at or above the notched area judging by what early reviewers are saying. In other words, it all goes black and the notch "disappears," with content displaying in a rectangular area.

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/10/18/macos-hides-notch-on-ne...

The iPhone is the only Apple device where app developers need to take into account a notch and home bar safe area.

I was just guessing at this, but it seems I might be correct: https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/10/19/apps-can-use-full...

Not a big fan of the notch, but I do like consistency.

Good point, I learned this today. It’s not that apps never get to interact above that line, it’s that developers must purposefully use a new development feature to do so intentionally.

I.e., a full screen application that isn’t updated to use the notch area simply won’t, it’ll be a nice perfect rectangle.

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