Show HN: A macOS clock that stays visible when coding or binging in fullscreen

That’s the appeal to me. I like to _focus_ sometimes without distractions. I work with a single 5k 27” monitor. I accept that i’m human and do better work when i limit my distractions. Especially when writing code.

Research shows that almost everyone performs worse when they multi task, even if they THINK they are doing things better / faster. It’s an illusion. The hilarious thing is everyone thinks it only affects other people. They’re a special snowflake or something haha.

But sometimes multi tasking is needed, like if you’re in a zoom meeting, referencing docs, slack messages, graphs, etc. In that case i’ll just have multiple windows on my desktop and resize them as needed. Or if it’s just for a few seconds, then i’ll jump between full screen windows.

Actually, I also don’t use it very often. Sometimes I turn on full screen mode when recording or watching videos. My reasons are quite similar to yours. Switching to other apps when there is an app in full screen mode is so inconvenient. However, after the product launched, I realized that more people use full screen mode regularly than I expected.

But I set the menu bar and dock to auto-hide to create a less distracting, more focused workspace. Therefore, Corner Time is very important to me, as it allows me to check the time without repeatedly hovering over the menu bar.

Fullscreen (or, as is my preference, "hide menu bar automatically" and "open window to maximized not true fullscreen mode") is useful for presenting a full display cleanly, when the contents to present is exactly 16:9.

Otherwise, the menu bar makes the contents not truly 16:9 or awkwardly shows distractions/leakage in the form of the menu bar.

Critically, if contents being presented is true pixel perfect 16:9 ratio and the window is not "fullscreen" or "maximized with hidden menubar", then the aspect ratio gets messed up, ruining what is otherwise perfection through a slice of "missing" content along one edge.

Indeed, more for presenting than actual task work IME.

Nice thing is this clock can show on other displays, too, in multi monitor setups, e.g. when auto-hide-menu is enabled. So sweet.

> Very hard to do multi tasking with it.

I think that's one of the appeals to full-screen mode: the ability to focus with limited distractions. I don't think it's designed for multitasking.

I use fullscreen mode a lot.

For work I will have VS Code and a web browser side-by-side. Every ticket I work on gets its own instance. I find it keeps me organized so I can focus on the work.

If Apple ever got rid of fullscreen mode I could probably just do this with normal virtual desktops. But this is slightly better than that.

If you stick to 16:10 monitors you have space for the menu bar, dock and a 16:9 content window.

Of course you don't get 12k pixels at 4800 fps or other large numbers and can't be blinded by misguided HDR, if you care about that.

full screen + multiple virtual desktops is the way. I do it on windows most of the time, and its helped my multitasking experience.

the full screen animation when you want to jump back and forth between apps is such a time waste. when I see people swiping across multiple full screen apps I just think you are not a serious person.

I use the mac app sizeup to get actual keyboard shortcuts to properly maximize a window, and also get split left/right top/down etc too. Mainly use it for legacy "fullscreen" convenience.

Thank you!! I do need to optimize its positioning on the external monitor. I’ll prioritize adding an optional background to improve readability to ensure the experience on monitors without a notch.

Is there another corner where you’d like to place it?

I will check it out. I'm curious about its extensibility and non-disruptive experience.

You set a keybinding for hiding/showing the menu bar too. I keep mine hidden and show it when I need it.

Appreciate it! It means a lot to me. That’s exactly why I made this app.

AGREED. But I haven't noticed this happening on iOS.

Thanks! If you set the menu bar to always auto-hide (not just in full screen), it works just as well. This is actually my use case. This website was built using Next.js, with Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui for styling, Motion (formerly Framer Motion) for animation.

Because some media outlets that also advocate for digital minimalism have shown interest in the app. That’s why I prepared it. For example, it has been featured on websites like: ifun.de, digitalminimalist.com and apptisan.substack.com

Are you referring to the position not being exactly the same? It’s true that the alignment isn’t perfect yet at the moment, especially for MacBooks without a notch.

If you’re willing, could you share a screenshot or screen recording?