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.

Go to the linked site.

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