“No way.”
That was my very first thought upon seeing this video from tech YouTuber, Quinn Nelson of Snazzy Lab Media.
And that’s because I actually posed the same question, sort of jokingly, in a Mashable Slack chat during the Apple Event last week:
“Will the items on the Mac status bar get hidden behind the notch on the new MacBook Pros?”
I actually did not expect the answer to be “yes.”
In a video posted to his Twitter last night, Nelson showcases how status bar items on MacOS actually get hidden under the the notch on Apple’s brand new line of M1 MacBook Pros.
“WTF HAHAHAHA HOW IS THIS SHIPPABLE? WHAT IS THIS?!” Nelson included in his tweet.
Some users in Nelson’s replies mentioned how this could be an issue with the app he’s using, iStat Menus. For their part, the developers of iStat Menus say they’re not doing anything outside of Apple’s own guides for developers.
Nelson even showcases in a follow-up video how older apps interact with the notch by just completely ignoring it. Using an older version of DaVinci Resolve, he shows viewers how your mouse just jumps over the notch when you try to go thru it. The app menus also jump over the notch, so nothing gets “stuck” behind it.
In that second video, Nelson tests out the theory that app developers and not Apple are to blame. He grabs the default status bar battery icon and is able to pull it behind the notch so that it’s completely hidden. Obviously, this is not how the status bar is supposed to work with the notch.
Other videos from early adopters toying around with their new MacBook Pros also put notch glitches on full display.
Take this hilariously lonely “Help” menu item from designer Sam Henri-Gold, for example.
The notch immediately became the topic of discussion on social media when Apple unveiled its new MacBook Pro line. Was it good to have the extra screen space? Or was the notch just that bad it wouldn’t matter?
While Apple will certainly get around to fixing these flaws, they are pretty mesmerizing to watch. And also, the notch has been great fodder for jokes.
Mashable has reached out to Apple for comment about the notch issues and will update this post when we hear back.
