The notch

What can you actually do with the MacBook notch?

It is where the camera lives. It is also the one spot on the screen you can hit without looking.

On its own, nothing. But the space around it is a place your pointer can always find without aiming, and apps can draw there. Just Copy uses it as the spot your clipboard drops from: move the pointer to the notch and everything you’ve copied opens as cards, above the menu bar, without a window.

NotesFile

9:41

Clipboard Pinned Client Snippets Palette

Color5h

#A99B87

Text1d

Thanks Maya — the revised brief works. Let’s lock the palette on Friday.

Link2d

OP–1 fieldteenage.engineering

Text (RTF)1w

ClientLindqvistDeliverablesIdentity, site, launch filmPaletteCoral, teal, ochreDue26 Sep

Code4m

:root { --accent: #A99B87; --ink: #0A0A0A; } .btn { border-radius: 28px }

Contact1w

ML Maya Lindqvist Ferngate Studio

Image1w

Actual size. The tray opens above the menu bar, over whatever you’re doing.

Why the notch is a good target

Push the pointer up and it stops at the top of the screen. Slide it to the middle and you are there. No aiming, no looking, no window to find. It is the same reason the corners of a screen are easy to hit, with the added bonus that the notch is already drawn for you.

What drops out of it

The tray. Everything you’ve copied, as cards you can see: pictures, links with their page preview, code with its highlighting, colors as the color, files, contacts, dates. Sixteen kinds. Start typing to narrow it. Press Return and it goes straight back into the app you were typing in. It opens above the menu bar, so the menu bar stays put either side of it.

No notch? Same thing.

Reach for the top-center of the screen and it drops down the same way. You can have it draw a small pill up there instead, or move it to a bar above the Dock and open it with one shortcut. Same cards, same keys. It runs on any Mac with macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon.

Questions

Does it get in the way?

It stays closed until you reach for it. Press Cmd-C and nothing opens, nothing flashes; the copy is simply kept.

Does it cover the menu bar?

No. The tray opens above the menu bar, so the menu bar stays put either side of it.

Which Macs does it run on?

Any Apple silicon Mac on macOS 14 or later, with or without a notch.