by Jason Snell
Marcin Wichary on Apple’s confusing Globe key
Marcin Wichary, the author of the excellent Shift Happens and one of the best new blogs out there in 2026, Unsung, has written a lengthy essay about the history of modifier keys that’s keyed (eh?) off of Apple’s introduction of its Globe shortcut key:
Suddenly, the globe key on the iPad and the hybrid globe/Fn key on the Mac were equipped with a million Windows-like tasks: Globe-C to activate Control Center, Globe-A to show the dock, Globe-N for Notification Center, and so on. There was also Globe-left arrow and Globe-right arrow to jump between apps (even though Command-Tab also did that), Globe-H to go to the home screen (same as Command-H), Globe-F for fullscreen (also available via Command-Control-F), and a bunch of other window management functions. You could even press Globe-D for dictation, even though by now F5 was promoted to serve the same purpose.
The most frustrating thing about the Globe key, as Wichary points out, it that it’s basically a repurposed Fn key that’s been broken so that it’s not compatible with most (but not all!) non-Apple keyboards.