Alcove

The notch on a MacBook usually just sits there. Alcove turns that strip into something closer to the iPhone’s Dynamic Island: notifications land in it, Live Activities run in it, and it responds to swipe gestures and clicks rather than being a static cutout. System HUDs for things like volume and brightness can be customised so they surface there too, and lock screen widgets carry the idea across to sign-in.

It ships as a native Mac app, with a one-time purchase of $14.99 and a download available directly from the site. The current release is v1.7, and a changelog and FAQ are published alongside it.