Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Hate the MacBook Pro notch? This app makes it more fun

Add as a preferred source on Google

A new app from The Iconfactory has a new app — Notchmeister — that lets you add effects to the MacBook Pro’s notch, according to initial reporting by MacRumors. That even includes a festive option that dangles festive lights from it.

The notch on the latest MacBook Pros was a last-minute rumor that turned out to be true. It has been met with a mixed reception, and many users are finding ways to hide or mitigate its presence on the display. The Notchmeister app goes in the complete opposite direction, though, letting you actually draw attention to the feature.

Notchmeister lets you decorate the MacBook Pro’s new notch.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

There are five different customizations on the Notchmeister app. They include:

Recommended Videos

Glow: A white glow will appear around the notch when you hover your cursor near it. The glow intensifies around the mouse and moves with it.

Cylon:- A red dot will scan back and forth on the notch. When you hover the cursor near it, the red dot will stop and you can drag it back and forth. Very Battlestar Galactica.

Plasma Leak: White sparks will shoot out around the notch when you bring the cursor near it.

Festive: Little Christmas lights will dangle from the notch area when you hover the cursor over it.

Nano Reader: The best way to describe this feature is in the app description itself. “Our patented invention lets you know exactly where your mouse has gone.” Essentially a little X-ray type band appears below the notch and shows your cursor hovering over the camera sensor and other components.

This app is obviously meant for the latest MacBook Pros, but there is a simulation mode for older MacBooks, just in case you felt like you were missing out on the notch.

It’s a gimmicky and kind of silly app, but it’s a free download and worth playing around with. In our review of the MacBook Pro, we say of the notch: “I view it as a compromise, not a design flourish … it’s not a bad compromise. The notch seems more intrusive on the 14-inch model, which has less room across the menu bar to accommodate the protrusion.” We also say: “It’s the best MacBook Pro since 2015.”

Hopefully, Notchmeister makes the bulky notch on the MacBook Pro a little more bearable.

Caleb Clark
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Caleb Clark is a full-time writer that primarily covers consumer tech and gaming. He also writes frequently on Medium about…
Siri is about to hear everything you say, but Apple’s privacy approach has me cautiously on board
Apple's new Audio Intelligence features want to hear almost everything you say. A privacy document released alongside them explains why I am mostly okay with that.
Apple Watch Audio Intelligence features

Apple used its September 2026 launch event to enter a feature category it has mostly avoided until now: ambient listening. Siri Recap, Live Rewind, Music Recognition with Shazam, and Sound Recognition all landed on the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4. All four depend on the watch microphone picking up sound around you far more often than any previous Apple product has.

Siri Recap listens for conversations throughout your day and turns them into short AI summaries you can check later. Live Rewind is smaller in scope but arguably more useful day-to-day. It transcribes the last 15 seconds of whatever was just said with a double-press of the crown. This is perfect for catching a name, a book title, or directions you missed the first time. Music Recognition uses Shazam to identify songs playing nearby without you lifting a finger, much like Now Playing on Google's Pixel devices. Sound Recognition is a useful accessibility feature that listens for sirens, doorbells, and alarms to alert users who have a hearing impairment.

Read more
Can You Turn a Mini PC Into a Local AI Agent?
Furniture, Table, Computer

This post is brought to you in paid partnership with MSI

Not every AI task needs the scale of the cloud. An employee searching company documents, a retail kiosk answering product questions, or a digital sign reacting to customer behavior all need fast responses, but they don't necessarily need to send every prompt to a remote data center. Running those workloads locally reduces latency, keeps sensitive information closer to where it's generated, and can lower the ongoing cost of AI deployments. As a result, many organizations are moving toward hybrid AI architectures that handle routine requests on-device while reserving cloud models for tasks that genuinely need more processing power.

Read more
Everything Apple announced at its September event: iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro, new Apple Watches, and AirPods 5
Apple packed its biggest September event in years with a foldable iPhone, new watches, and smarter AirPods.
Computer, Electronics, Tablet Computer

The "Surprise and Shine" September launch event was one of Apple's crispest, most elaborate, and most loaded launch events in a while. Instead of leaving the minute details in the spec sheet or fine print, Apple actually included them in its keynote presentation, not just for its big reveal but for all the devices it unveiled on September 9, 2026. 

While the 'Surprise' bit was covered by the new iPhone Duo, 'Shine' probably refers to the new colors in the iPhone 18 Pro lineup. Beyond these, Apple also announced two new Apple Watches and a refresh for the regular AirPods (not the Pro ones). Given that there's a lot of ground to cover, here's everything Apple announced at its September 2026 event. 

Read more