The just-launched MacBook Pro models are the first with a screen notch. And this apparently came as a surprise to many of Apple’s own software developers as some of the company’s professional apps don’t support the screen cutouts. Which means they can’t fill the new Mac displays and must leave blank areas.
This won’t make it easier for Apple to convince third-party developers to fully support the latest macOS notebooks.
iPhone notch makes the jump to MacBook Pro
On both the 14-inch and 16-inch versions, Apple gave the 2021 MacBook Pro models screens that stretch nearly edge to edge. As the company phrases it, “The display features even thinner borders and extends up around the camera to provide users with even more room for their content.”
In other words, there’s a notch to make room for the front-facing camera. It’s a feature iPhone users are long familiar with. But many iOS users were hoping the notch would go away, not spread to additional Apple devices.
The end of the notch isn’t likely to arrive until the development of a satisfactory under-display camera, and that’s still sometime in the future.
Taking secrecy to the extreme
Efforts to keep the MacBook Pro’s notch a secret apparently extended to not telling the development teams for Xcode and Logic Pro. These professional-grade Apple applications appear on the MacBook Pro page on Apple.com showing that they can’t fill the new notebooks’ screens.
At least someone was willing to tell the FaceTime team. And the one for Final Cut Pro, too.
And, surprisingly, Apple sent the news about the screen notch to Adobe. Apple’s press materials for its new notebooks show Photoshop can fill the screen.
Photo: Apple
Lack of support for the new computers from some professional Apple apps is likely to be a short-term problem. If Cupertino expects third-party developers to tweak their apps to support the screen cutout, surely its own software will have to do so.
