Ever since the iPhone got a Dynamic Island, Mac users have wanted one. The new MacBook Pros with the notch and the big menu bar do end up wasting a lot of screen real-estate up there. Wouldn't it be cool to get some of the same interactive features from the Dynamic Island on the Mac? An interactive music player, a place to trigger shortcuts, or some nifty utility? NotchNook is an app that makes all of that possible.
Media, calendar, and shortcuts
NotchNook has an interactive media player very reminiscent of the Dynamic Island. On the left of the notch, you see the album art, and on the right, an animated waveform. As the track changes, the notch also animates. There are also gestures. You can swipe left or right on the notch to quickly change tracks.
Things get a lot more interesting when you click the notch, though. The app expands to show three sections. There's a more detailed media player that also shows media playing in browser, not just your apps. Then there's a Mirror option. Click it to get a small, live camera view that you can use to quickly check yourself out before you hop on a call.
The section in the middle is quite interesting if you're a Shortcuts user. Here, you can add up to four Shortcuts for easy access. This can be a good way to trigger your frequently used Shortcuts, without going into the menu bar.
You can jump into the Settings to enable your Calendar view in the Nook as well. Features like notes and to-dos are coming soon.
Tray for smoother file management
Personally, I find the Tray feature quite useful. It serves as a place to temporarily collect files from different places, before sharing them out.
Drag any file from Finder up to the notch and you'll see the Tray. Drop the files on the left side of the notch to save them in a collection for later use.
If you drag files to the right side of the tray, it will instantly open the AirDrop menu so you can quickly share them to your iPhone, or any other Apple device nearby. I find myself using NotchNook for this often, as I share files to my iPad often, and this saves me two right-clicks.
As it stands though, the Tray feature is quite basic. The only way to remove files from the Tray is to drag them out, and you can't really do anything else with them, like trigger any automation or even create a shareable link (these features are available in drag and drop apps like Dropover).
Overall though, NotchNook is a really well designed piece of software, and while there are many ways to integrate media players, a calendar and Shortcuts into the Menu bar, no app does it with this level of finesse and style. The app is available as a two-day free trial, but then costs either $3 a month, or $25 to buy outright. A subscription for a utility doesn't make much sense, so we would recommend buying the app outright. You can also get 35% off by tweeting about the app.