Whether you like it or hate it, you in all probability have a really sturdy feeling in regards to the notch (or, that awkward little black cutout that sits on the high of your iPhone or MacBook). The notch is a needed evil, since, nicely, your front-facing digicam has to go someplace!

That awkward cutout is a still-awkward, pill-shaped cut-out on the high of the iPhone 14 Pro display. But now, the notch truly serves a twin goal. In this new design, Apple dubs the cut-out/notch a “dynamic island.”

“Our goal was to design a space that clearly and consistently surfaces alerts and background activity in a rich and delightful way,” Apple stated at its fall occasion. “When you receive an alert, the dynamic island will notify you.”

This characteristic is designed to obviously current new info with out distracting you from the app you’re in. In one instance, somebody is ready to see from the dynamic island that their Lyft experience is 2 minutes away, and so they don’t need to navigate away from their textual content dialog. In one other use case, while you join your AirPods, the dynamic island also can present you what p.c cost your headphones are at. It’s a bit extra elegant than a messy banner notification that clutters your display.

Apple isn’t simply giving the notch a goal — it’s making the notch extra outstanding, reasonably than making an attempt very onerous to faux it’s not there ( you, M1 Macbook Pro). When you get a notification within the dynamic island, the notch will seem to develop, enlarging the ovular black cut-out additional out on the display. If you’ve gotten a couple of background exercise, the dynamic island will present each parts.

Personally, we’re simply glad they went with the pill-shaped design, versus the rumored “pill and hole punch” look. That one’s rather less glossy.