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Fullscreen apps above the MacBook notch

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Re: Fullscreen apps above the MacBook notch

#21

Post by hombre_fatal »

adam_arthur wrote: post #15
dilap wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I basically never do full screen, so for that reason I'm not bothered. (In fact, now I'm _less_ bothered, since I somehow no longer feel like the menu bar is "wasting" space.)

I never use the "fullscreen" mode either, and don't understand the point of it. But you don't ever have a window that spans the full vertical space of the screen? You can hide the menu bar and have it only appear on mouseover, thus not wasting space. Except on non-notch Macs you can place windows where the menu bar used to be, and on notched Macs you can't

Good point, but I just went through all my open apps and the only app that had empty toolbar chrome (the top part of a window that has the Close/Minimize/Zoom without anything else on that row) was Telegram and VSCode.

The rest of the apps have app UI on the same row as the Close/Minimize/Zoom buttons which would be hidden by the notch.

But empty toolbars is a good usecase for rendering an app window on the notch. I'm actually surprised how many apps utilize that space!

Re: Fullscreen apps above the MacBook notch

#22

Post by robertoandred »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #5

Just got an M2 MBA and it's such a fantastic upgrade from my old intel MBP, but the notch is a bit more distracting than I'd like. It's awkwardly large, and the corner rounding is a lot worse than the notched iPhones imo. Its saving grace is that the screen is 16:10, and all pixels where the notch lives are bonus pixels, so it's still a net win in usable screen space vs 16:9 laptops. Still, this is a nice workaround!

The screen is actually taller than 16:10. The space below the notch is itself 16:10, and the pixels to the sides of the notch are bonus as you said.

Re: Fullscreen apps above the MacBook notch

#23

Post by adam_arthur »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #21
adam_arthur wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never use the "fullscreen" mode either, and don't understand the point of it. But you don't ever have a window that spans the full vertical space of the screen? You can hide the menu bar and have it only appear on mouseover, thus not wasting space. Except on non-notch Macs you can place windows where the menu bar used to be, and on notched Macs you can't

Good point, but I just went through all my open apps and the only app that had empty toolbar chrome (the top part of a window that has the Close/Minimize/Zoom without anything else on that row) was Telegram and VSCode. The rest of the apps have app UI on the same row as the Close/Minimize/Zoom buttons which would be hidden by the notch. But empty toolbars is a good usecase for rendering an app window on the notch. I'…

I'm not concerned with whether what's covered by the notch is empty or not. Chrome has tabs that would be covered by the notch, but its largely irrelevant, I can still click it or swap to that tab easily enough.

Similar to how the notch doesn't materially degrade video content, despite covering some aspects of the video. We've seen iPhone make the choice to intentionally obscure a portion of app content for years without any major concerns.

Re: Fullscreen apps above the MacBook notch

#24

Post by duxup »

adam_arthur wrote: post #16
duxup wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to say you can’t be bothered, but I look at it this way. I’m honestly only really looking at a small amount of my screen at a time…. I suspect I use that space very little.

So why ever get a larger screen? Maybe you feel that way, but it's not a commonly shared belief. There is a marginal value to having additional screen space, and its silly to block use of it via software gates.

More applications on my screen at a time?

Re: Fullscreen apps above the MacBook notch

#25

Post by frankus »

The "Automatically hide and show the menubar" setting should really default to "Never" for notched displays, since it doesn't actually gain you any extra real-estate and just slows you down with a pointless animation.

I finally turned it off because on my (non-notched) external display it was too easy to accidentally activate, which would disable the thing in the toolbar that I actually intended to click on (and then I'd have to sit there and wait a second for it to re-hide before very carefully mousing to almost-but-not-quite the top of the screen to click my intended target).

It's in the Desktop & Dock section.

Re: Fullscreen apps above the MacBook notch

#27

Post by hombre_fatal »

adam_arthur wrote: post #23
hombre_fatal wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point, but I just went through all my open apps and the only app that had empty toolbar chrome (the top part of a window that has the Close/Minimize/Zoom without anything else on that row) was Telegram and VSCode. The rest of the apps have app UI on the same row as the Close/Minimize/Zoom buttons which would be hidden by the notch. But empty toolbars is a good usecase for rendering an app window on the notch. I'…

I'm not concerned with whether what's covered by the notch is empty or not. Chrome has tabs that would be covered by the notch, but its largely irrelevant, I can still click it or swap to that tab easily enough. Similar to how the notch doesn't materially degrade video content, despite covering some aspects of the video. We've seen iPhone make the choice to intentionally obscure a portion of app content for years wit…

Fair enough. But it's why the notch space doesn't feel like pure waste.

If you right-click -> "Get info" on most applications, there's a checkbox for "Scale to fit below built-in camera (notch)".

I've only had to use that for one game and iirc Parallels.app that were rendering on top of the notch. It would be nice if you could force the behavior per app with that, but it's only to fix apps that, I suppose, use some drawing API that lets them render on top of the notch.

Re: Fullscreen apps above the MacBook notch

#28

Post by adam_arthur »

duxup wrote: post #24
adam_arthur wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why ever get a larger screen? Maybe you feel that way, but it's not a commonly shared belief. There is a marginal value to having additional screen space, and its silly to block use of it via software gates.

More applications on my screen at a time?

So you say space isn't important, because you look at a small portion of the screen at a time, yet having a larger screen is useful to have more space to place apps?

So, in the end you're saying screen real estate is important? Or not? You have to pick one to be logically consistent.

Re: Fullscreen apps above the MacBook notch

#29

Post by djur »

ThorsBane wrote: post #9

My 16" MBP would be a perfect device if they could either put the webcam/sensor array behind the glass or just get rid of it. If I want to FaceTime I can use an iPad or iPhone as a peripheral attachment. At this point, virtually perfect hardware is being ruined by a notch. :( It's a reminder every time that there are still design limitations to overcome and engineering feats to be achieved for the next 1,000 years. 8…

By "behind the glass" you mean underneath the display? Because it's already covered in glass, right?

Re: Fullscreen apps above the MacBook notch

#30

Post by zemvpferreira »

glhaynes wrote: post #13
lannisterstark wrote: post #10

I've actually been debating getting a 14 MBP M1 for about $1500 on open box stores etc (woot), or on sale or what not but cannot justify spending 1.5k on a laptop lol. I have a desktop and a Thinkpad T430 if I need to go somewhere. Also have a tablet and such. I definitely do need a "better" laptop but my justification is that I'm not outside the house often enough for me to buy the MBP. Which, realistically, is true…

If you're price-sensitive and not already doing so, include the M2 MBA (or, hell, even the M1 MBA) in your calculations. Great machines, way more than sufficient for most. Though there are some nice, fun luxury (again, for most) features on the MBPs, too.

Agreed. I switched from a 2015 MBP to an M1 MBA a few months ago after the 2015 died a sudden death. Went into Apple convinced I'd get an M2, winced at the prices, agonised in-store over all the different models until I said screw it, the low-tier model seems good enough and if not I'll just eBay it and get a more expensive one.

It's been a phenomenal machine with outstanding battery life. Most definitely happy with my choice.

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