The new, free TopNotch app will make the notch atop Apple’s new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro notch disappear forever.
Topnotch features:
• Dynamic Wallpapers: TopNotch supports macOS Dynamic Desktop Wallpapers.
• Multiple displays: The app works well with multiple displays and spaces.
• Works in background: TopNotch stays in the background and watches for wallpaper changes.
TopNotch requires macOS 11 Big Sur or later.
More info and free .zip download link here.
MacDailyNews Take: Guess which new, free app we’ll be running all the time on our new MacBook Pros?
OMG – are you STILL freaking out about the notch? Does this app do anything other than change the background color across the top few dozen pixels of the screen? The notch is still there, of course. Finally, doesn’t switching to Dark Mode do pretty much the same thing?
Right? The notch is fine. I wish MDN would spend as much time weeding out the political comments as they do complaining about the notch.
Ja, leftist scum like JA are a notch below, not above.
Thanks for making my point. You people are like insolent children stomping around. I’m centre left, if you must know. But can’t we just talk Mac here? I find it fascinating that the right wing troops feel the need to spread their lies on a computer site. You’re not going to convert anyone here.
As the Facebook document dumps show, “anger” is five times as valuable to a site owner as simple “likes.” If you look at comment totals, political rants get waaaaay more attention and interaction than mere Mac posts. I expect the vitriol to continue unabated.
My understanding is clicking the Apple logo top left corner, system preferences, general, and switching to Dark appearance will achieve exactly the same outcome of the top notch disappearing completely – once again the negative Apple pile on effect continues.
Actually this app gives you LESS SCREEN SPACE by moving the menu bar down into the 16:10 area of the screen. Why anyone would actively seek to get LESS SCREEN SPACE is mystery to me. Wouldn’t it be both easier and cheaper to just by an M1 13.3 incher?
I have often wondered if a very light-colored wallpaper/background, immediately pixel-adjacent to the camera and/or sensors, might interfere with their performance; and that might be the reason Apple puts the notch in there. Regardless, as a long-time and heavy Mac-user, I am completely OK with the notch, even on the iPhone. Frankly, I am more trusting in Apple than to immediately go to assuming they are stupid.
As a retired Technology Consultant of 35 years, I have seen Resistance-to-Change far too often to dismiss it as the real issue in this case.
with such a trusting attitude towards rapacious tech monopolies, you don’t sound like someone people should be consulting with about technology
Says Nick the tricky Rick with a silent p
I understand American Football players sometimes put those black lines on their cheek below the eyes to cut down on the reflective glare, but that kind of glare would be impossible as a reason for the notch on the mac. Likewise, unless the screen pixels have greater than 180 degrees of visibility I highly doubt their light does anything worse than light up what the camera can see.
I think Apple actually missed an opportunity when they first introduced the notch on the iPhone. They allowed the thing to be described as a notch, at a point when they could have referred to the screen space on either side of the camera as re-captured screen space. They should have focused the conversation on the additional usable space instead of the space they couldn’t use for screen.
It never really bothered me ever on the iPhone but it bothersome having it on a Mac. They should’ve at least put it a little more effort to make it smaller than it is. But maybe I’d get used to it, don’t know.
But, but, but… the notch whiners will not be silenced as they see no reason a notch should ever have been there in the first place. I’m so glad I easily get used to things like that in usually a day or two and then it’s like it doesn’t exist. All I know is the pros outweigh the cons by a huge degree with these new MacBook Pros and that’s all that matters to me.
Agree with MDN. That notch is just down right ugly. Seventy pixels with a piece of electrical tape in the center is not exactly a productivity boon.
If the notch is so great why is Apple showing off pictures that hide the notch?
Comment from Daring Fireball
“You’ll notice that most of Apple’s product photography for these new MacBooks shows them with dark desktop pictures. With default translucency settings, a dark desktop gives you a dark menu bar, and a dark menu bar disguises the notch.”
There is no need to disguise beautiful objects.
I’m in love with the notch. It’s so cozy and inviting, makes me want to stare at it all day. No longer will I be without focus in my life.
Thank you Apple!
Um, actually, you don’t have “LESS SCREEN SPACE” with this app. Look at the photo. It doesn’t “move the menu bar down into the 16:10 area of the screen.” It leaves the menu bar where it belongs and colors it black.
When I’m using my notebook (a MacBook Pro aged art 4 years) I focus o the part of the screen I’m working on and don’t pay that much attention to the top bar. I generally get caught with the warning my battery is about to doe on me.
End result is that I can do with the space if it is usable (like on my iPhone) but otherwise I have too much to do to bother about the notch.