When Apple introduced her new design language for the MacBook Pro with a rank on top, I was enraged. I was watching the incident on the OLED screen of a Dale XPS 15 and kept wondering why Apple could not do a web camera in thin bezels, the way Dell handled it.
A few months later, I upgraded to M2 MacBook Air. And there was this. Nothing is doing, in addition to looking like a dark disparity. Apple drilled a hole in the screen of the iPhone and then created a complete functional system around it called Dynamic Island.
MacBook noted did not find any such love. This is a great failure. How can I say this? When Apple adopted notch on the iPhone X, the whole industry copied it. Nevertheless, when it did the same for the laptop, there was no major brand. Four years later, the notch remains the same.
Thankfully, the enthusiastic community has brought it to life by creating an entire functional world around it. Notchnook is quite popular, but is very expensive for a notch utility. Then I jumped into the amazing open-source community and discovered the boring position.
What is boring notch?
Boring Not is a free app that you can download directly from the developer Website Or pick up the latest release from it Jethb repositoryThe app is not currently available at the app store, so you may want to chip the developer team in some penis.
Before you set the app, especially if you are running Macos Sequoia, you will have to undergo some additional steps. The app does not load directly after drawing the DMG file to the native installer. You must first walk this path:
Settings> privacy and security> Open> Anyway. To run boring notch you will need to certify your identity for this route, so there is a clear confirmation to deal with it.
Once the app is installed, you only need to launch the app, and it will automatically add a shortcut to the menu bar as a four-point star icon. To reach the notch bucket, just hover the cursor near the notch edges or click behind it.
I love it
Why do I need a boring rung? Well, it serves the notch a purpose. Second, it makes some frequent computing tasks easier instead of handling them through dedicated apps. Third, it consolidates some tasks at the same place, without any heavy complexity.
Now, you can open a not container by moving the cursor or using a keyboard shortcut. The shortcut is optimized, so power is a breath of relief for users. You can opt for a secretly peeping or open control button to adjust.
The most obvious utility of the app is creating core music playback control within easy access. Play/Pose, Skip, and Rewind are those that you find, is combined with Zesty animation to go with playback.
I wish it had volume sliders, but then, it is already an additional tool compared to the music playback bar in the control center of the McOS. In addition, the keyboard is the dedicated volume buttons at the top of the deck, and I like them instead of dealing with the slider.
On the more fun side of things, you can enable color spectrograms, albums can have a blot effect for art, adjust the slider color, turn on live music activity, and do much. They do not necessarily add a lot of functional bliss, but there are people who appreciate these minor software allowances.
The music playback is a minimum side-scrolling calendar next to the field. Once again, there is not much to dig, except for a quick look at the events of your calendar for that particular month.
If there is an event schedule, you can tap on it to reach more information in the calendar app. Over four categories, you can choose which calendar entries appear in the notch area. I disable the holidays and birthdays, and only enabled preview for entries related to work.
Next, we have a battery indicator. Now, by default, Apple does not show the battery percentage of your MAC, save to the dynamic battery cell icon. You can definitely enable it from within the setting page. Thankfully, the boring knot keeps that information on top.
Just the correct amount of granular control
On the more functional side of things, if you are working on a multi-screen set-up, you can add notch to them all. It looks ugly, but hey, at least “it” noted provides an objective. Correct?
The app also has a feature called boring mirror. This is essentially a small camera preview where you check your camera scene and fix your hair, before jumping into a meeting. This is very Nifty, really. I wish, there would have been a clipboard function, but then, I suspect the UI get a lot of crowd.
Then we have a shelf, a place that you can leave files for quick sharing. All you have to do is pull the files into the notch area and leave, and they will be added to a temporary shelf. I often exchange files with my iPad Pro and iPhone 16 Pro. Shelf made it easy to handle them through the aircraft.
For added flexibility, you can set the virtual knot to match the size of the real thing on your MacBook, or increase it slightly to align with the menu bar. If you want something bigger, there is also an option for the custom size adjustment.
If you are forced with a notch-free screen with a notch on an external display, or even an old MacBook, you still get the above adjustment control. I was not expecting a free open-source app to go deep, but you can also adjust the duration of the cursor hover to expand the virtual position.
I got my sweet place in 0.2 seconds, but you can extend it for a full second, as well. There are a total of ten stop levels, so you can find delay in hover gesture that your cursor activity pattern looks best. You can also accommodate notch behavior for full-screen app window mode.
When going one step further, the boring not app also supports swipe two-finger to swipe two-finger to reach not control, rather than relying on the cursor hover or keyboard shortcut. You can also adjust the sensitivity of the gesture, which is clean.
What will happen next?
The boring notch is a free utility that converts a useless physical element into a clean small functional powerhouse. There are no advertisements to bother you, nor are there any intrusion details. You can choose to disable features like file and camera access at any time.
This is not correct, because some characteristics are still in beta, and some of them can sometimes mess up. Thankfully, the open-source community is very active behind it, helps in reporting bugs and solving them.
On the facility conditions, the best remains to come. The team behind the boring knot is working on adding more controls in the notch, such as volume, brightness and backlight. Browser download indicators, extensions, app switching and custom function buttons are on the horizon.
It is definitely worth trying if you are someone who has a difficult time to ignore the rung on his MacBook and wishes that it can do more. I am one of those people, and this app definitely tones one of my top annoyance with Apple’s laptop.
