In 2022, Apple finally got rid of the much-maligned notch in the iPhone 14 Pro's dynamic island (a floating camera notch that appears to change shape to provide additional app data on the home screen)

Last year, it appeared on all iPhone 15 models, signaling the end of the notch on the iPhone (unless, as is sometimes rumored, the notch returns in the iPhone SE 4)

It's hard to imagine anything else now, but as one would expect from a company as large as Apple, alternatives are being considered MacRumors took some of this information and created a mockup based on what the iPhone 15 would look like in another world

In these, the iPhone 15 looks like a real iPhone 15

The most dramatic of these are the pictures below

On the right, the notch is essentially a design extended to a larger forehead, encompassing a pitch-black status bar with time, battery life, and network symbols TopNotch, a free app for MacBooks with notches, allows the menu bar to be tinted black to blend in

The one on the left is more unorthodox, essentially adding a second pop-up notch on the right side to display key status information so that the top notch does not appear lonely and isolated The idea of making the notch a desirable feature rather than a design concession was eventually adopted in the dynamic island

There are a number of different twists on the floating island idea: one on the MacRumors site has app statuses floating like bubbles next to the island, a green call status icon popping up from the right side, and a third has all the status icons can be seen on a giant static island covering the top of the screen

Ultimately, I feel that Apple made the right decision with the dynamic island It may be a visual trick, but it does a great job of making a positive out of a design flaw: the complexity of the Face ID sensor (see above) does not allow Apple to employ pinholes and under-screen cameras like some better Android phones

These ideas are likely doomed to never see the light of day, but could be revived in a later iPhone However, as camera technology becomes more compact, it seems to me that Apple's ultimate goal is to make camera technology completely invisible in the long run, and Dynamic Island is just a temporary pitfall along the way