Apple is expected to launch redesigned MacBook Pro laptops later this year, which will bring a major overhaul both visually and internally. The biggest change will be a touch-sensitive panel, one with OLED technology on the bottom instead of the mini-LED panels you get on Apple’s current Pro laptops. But it appears that the iPhones’ pill-shaped cutout – officially known as the Dynamic Island – will also appear on these laptops, according to Bloomberg.
What’s the big change?
“The company’s first touch Macs, due out this fall, will have the Dynamic Island centered at the top of the display,” said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren’t public,” reports Bloomberg. Ever since Apple added a notch to the MacBook – both the Air and Pro models – fans have complained about the lost screen real estate and how the functionality has remained untouched.
The open source community, on the other hand, has developed many apps that make the most of the notch, turning it into a file container, a clipboard manager, a camera preview engine, a mini calendar, and more. But the aesthetic compromise is still there. With its upcoming MacBook Pro overhaul, Apple appears to be solving two problems at once: doing away with the notch and instead introducing a dynamic island that can serve as a hub for activity, similar to the iPhone.
Finally some good news
The upcoming 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro are currently in development under the codenames K114 and K116 and will feature a user interface designed for interactions. And if user interaction with Dynamic Island on iPhones is anything to go by, its counterpart on MacBook Pro can do a lot more, from tracking ongoing activity to acting as a progress timer and more. But Apple isn’t going all out with a touch-friendly design for macOS.
“The idea is to let customers use touch as much or as little as they want, combining it with the familiar point-and-click approach,” the Bloomberg report adds. As for Dynamic Island itself, it will be smaller than what you currently see on iPhones. Either way, it’s an exciting turn of events. But it would still take some time to get used to it. “There are other questions – how dynamic would this dynamic island be? If it changes size frequently like the iPhone version, it could mess with your muscle memory because the buttons are no longer where you expect them to be,” says our previous report on this possibility.
