How has Apple still not addressed many basic UI issues, such as menu bar icons disappearing behind the notch with no way to see them?

▲ EarthLaunch a day ago | parent | next [-]

I take it as a sign of typical increasing corporate dysfunction. Obvious problems, some even easy and uncontroversial, don't get fixed. Why?

The people who can fix them are not in control. The org must be very top-down. But Steve Jobs had a top down style, so what's the difference? Its: Using and caring about the product.

It's top down direction with the people at the top not using/caring about the product. Presumably they're concerned with other things like efficiency, stocks, clout.

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jedberg 19 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Also if you had a majorly obvious bug, you could email steve@apple.com, which he would forward to a VP, who would be fired if it wasn't fixed ASAP. Knew a guy who lost his job that way, so it's not just a myth. Steve really was like that.

The wrath of Steve was a real thing that people feared.

	▲	nntwozz 17 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[flagged]

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16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

▲ cosmic_cheese a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Menu extras were never intended to be treated like Windows tray items. For the earlier portion of OS X’s life, there wasn’t even a public API to create them and required a hack and a private API, and the current API is intended for ephemeral menu extras that disappear when their host app isn’t running. In short, the menubar isn’t designed for users to collect menu extras like Pokémon.

	▲	D13Fd 21 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		But that’s exactly how it is used, and them disappearing behind the notch feels like a bug.
	▲	vintagedave 15 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Sure, but for twenty years that’s not how they’ve been used.

▲ wrs a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In case you don't know, at least there's a setting to help:

    defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing -int 8

▲ nntwozz 17 hours ago | parent [-]

I have collected a long list of these types of settings over the years, for example disable font smoothing:

  defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

It used to be a checkbox, now there's only this command.

Eventually that will be gone too, and none will be the wiser except the old who remember the good old days.

I'm starting to think these settings are left there by rogue engineers who fight against the oppression while staying under the radar. It's like a secret cabal that works to maintain sanity while the plebs are left to suffer at the mercy of their own ignorance.

	▲	throwaway290 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		what is the purpose of disabling font smoothing?

▲ lloeki 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

BetterDisplay has an option to "disable" the notch i.e push the menubar down, essentially making the screen the same as before there were a notch. Lose a little bit of real estate, but regain sanity.

There are some dedicated apps for that like Say No To Notch.

▲ hombre_fatal a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And the apps that provide solutions for it, like Bartender, need screen reading permissions which I just can't bring myself to grant.

	▲	kstrauser 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		If you really want to use such a thing, switch to Ice. It’s an open source thing similar to Bartender, before BT was bought by a shifty outfit. It still requires those permissions, but at least you can look at the code. I have a paid Bartender license. I liked it enough to pay for it, but don’t like the road it went down and stopped using it. Tahoe lets you selectively remove app icons from the menu bar. I’m going to try that for a while and see if I can tolerate not using Ice anymore.

▲ nozzlegear a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think they kinda did? I'm not sure where to look for a link to this info, but I remember watching a YouTube video showing the ability to group and hide menu bar icons in Tahoe so they take up less space (and therefore encroach less toward the notch).

Maybe I'm misremembering the video though.

(edit) The linked page seems to hint at it:

> Personalized controls and menu bar. Your display feels even larger with the transparent menu bar. And you have more ways to customize the controls and layout in the menu bar and Control Center, even those from third parties

▲ iambateman a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I love my Mac and yes, this is easily the most absurd problem. It happens to me all the time and I can’t believe they haven’t fixed it.

Apple…if you’re listening…please fix this.

▲ dsego 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Notice how on the menu bar, when you click File and then the dropdown appears, you can move the mouse arrow to the right (without clicking) over Edit and now the Edit menu shows up. But the same doesn't work on the status menu icons, if I click on the volume icon and move the mouse, nothing happens, the volume menu stays open, even if hover over the battery indicator. So many little things like this that never worked consistently.

▲ adregan a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They need to bring back the control strip!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_Strip

Solves this exact issue.

	▲	DonHopkins 21 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It was great, but they had to quietly retire it when somebody pointed out it looked like a dick.

▲ self_awareness a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Apparently it's not important.