Early looks at the iPhone X are missing something—a little bit of every video and a chunk of many games. That's because some content on full-screen apps in landscape mode is covered by the "notch," or the black area at the top of the screen housing the front-facing camera and sensors.

Why the notch? Apple wanted to do a bezel-less display, but there's no technology (yet?) for putting a camera under a display. The Essential PH-1 phone has a smaller notch, but Apple just has more going on up there, with its dot projector and 3D face-tracking technology.

Since Apple wanted to hide the iPhone X's specs from developers until the last minute, third-party app developers weren't ready for the notch. But iPhone X doesn't arrive until Nov. 3, so popular apps have time to get notch-worthy.

Making Lemonade

According to iPhone developers on Twitter, Apple is now pushing out guidelines that tell them to embrace the notch. Don't block it off, but also don't draw attention to it, Cupertino says.

It's a lemon of a "feature," and the best Apple can do right now is to make lemonade. The split notch is a good place for status information. In a game, for instance, it could display health or inventory data. On a video, the pause and fast-forward buttons could go over there.

BGR's Zach Epstein points out that the default setting for Apple's video player actually has your video stop short of the notch, which is a good call. I'm sure app developers will work around the notch.

That doesn't mean it isn't going to look weird, as iOS engineer Cam Hunt notes. Fortunately, phones are used in portrait mode most of the time, except when gaming and watching videos. I really wonder if the notch will kill off other potential landscape-mode uses.

Let's Talk About the iPhone XI

The iPhone X really feels like a warm-up for the iPhone XI.

The X's Face ID is a great way to collect face data, which can then be used in augmented reality contexts. In a year, Apple will be an expert at processing depth maps using neural networks. Then it will be time to put the dot projector and IR camera on the back of the phone as well, making the XI (or whatever it's called) the most dynamic augmented reality phone around.

Maybe there are other technologies coming up which will reduce the notch, too—some way to get the sensors under the display. Apple is probably hard at work at this. While the X is the start of a new chapter for Apple, I think the notch shows there's still a lot of work to do.

There's still a month and a half before iPhone X arrives. Here's hoping developers get to work.