If somebody wrote a plugin that simply moved the menubar (and the maximum top of fullscreen apps) $height_of_notch pixels lower and drew nothing but black above it, would you be happy? Because that would give you parity with existing macbooks.

I would be incredibly happy with this but I'm not sure it is possible. I certainly hope so!

I read that hiding the notch with a black bar is actually a built-in feature they just briefly brushed on in the keynote.

Didn't they just say that it looked "really good in dark mode"?

I rewatched it and have to confirm what you wrote, unfortunately. It was just a rumor, sorry.

I can almost guarantee there's going to be something like this built into the OS.

No problem there. "Full" screen can just start below the notch. (Don't know if they'll do that, but they should.)

Looking at the videos, that appears to be exactly what they did. That makes total sense for not breaking existing apps but now I'm curious whether developers can opt-in to use the space around the notch in full screen mode.

Yes - https://www.apple.com/v/macbook-pro/ac/images/overview/hero_...

Not to mention, with the mini led display, letterboxing will be indistinguishable from the bezel.

If you’re curious, this just posted: the result full screen mode renders below the notch (which is still more pixels than the previous models) and developers can customize it to render in the rectangles they call auxiliary spaces.

https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...

Ah, the classic "glass is half full" discussion

Think you misunderstood the parent comment. Full screen doesn't somehow add pixels into a bezel

Now you get the same amount of window space without losing the menu bar.

Full screen doesn't extend to the sides of the camera on current laptops. All that's there is the bezel.