What's plugged in — and how fast it really is
A drive that should do 10 Gb/s quietly falls back to 480 Mb/s over the wrong cable, and macOS only admits it deep inside System Information. The Devices card puts every connection and its negotiated speed on the notch.
The negotiated speed, not the label on the box
Each row reads the link speed the device actually agreed with your Mac, straight from the IO registry. That is the number that explains a slow copy — the cable or the hub, not the drive.
Sorted by what matters
Fastest first, then alphabetically, with the product and vendor name macOS reports. Internal controllers and root hubs are filtered out, so the list is the things you plugged in yourself.
Live as you plug and unplug
Connect something and the row appears; pull it and it goes. Mounting a drive also pops an island with an inline Eject, and its free space joins the disk rows.
Next to the rest of the numbers
The card sits with the system monitor — CPU, GPU, memory, network — and with peripheral battery levels for the devices that report one.
Everything Notchy does, for free
- Fluid Dynamic Island animations on the Mac notch
- Command palette (⌃⌥K) — every action one keystroke away
- Knock — double-tap a modifier key to open the notch
- AI usage tracker (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot)
- Detach any tab into a menu-bar popover
- Now Playing music controls (Apple Music & Spotify)
- Time-synced karaoke lyrics under the notch
- Mac clipboard history shelf (password-manager safe)
- Searchable clipboard — filter by text, file name, or OCR'd words
- On-device OCR — copy a screenshot, get its text (Apple Vision)
- Window snapping — drag a window to the notch to tile it
- App Launcher — pin apps to the notch, open with one tap
- Text snippets — TextExpander-style pastes from the ⌘K palette
- One-tap screen capture to clipboard + shelf
- Color eyedropper — sample any pixel, hex auto-copied
- System-wide mic mute for every meeting app at once
- Keystroke HUD for demos & screencasts (secure-input safe)
- Keyboard cleaning lock with countdown island (⌘⎋ unlocks)
- Menu-bar icon hiding — Bartender-style separator & chevron
- Live CPU / memory / network stats flyout
- Open GitHub PR count in the notch (Keychain-stored token)
- iPhone-style call island — Answer/Decline FaceTime on the notch
- Notch Terminal — real VT100/xterm shell in a PTY, its own tab
- Privacy Indicator — pill when any app's camera or mic goes live
- Caps Lock HUD — brief island on every toggle
- Full Charge island with adjustable threshold + low-battery sound
- Alt HUD styles — edge-pinned bar or circular gauge off the notch
- Audio-reactive Now Playing visualizer (real FFT of system audio)
- Custom closed-notch idle animation — drop in your own Lottie JSON
- Drag-and-drop file drop shelf — persists across relaunches
- Zip & unzip files right from the shelf
- Image converter (HEIC, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF) + video → GIF
- Run Apple Shortcuts with one tap
- Screenshots auto-staged on the shelf, ready to drag
- Download finished alerts with Reveal in Finder
- USB drive mount island with one-tap Eject
- Apple Reminders quick capture & due list
- macOS Pomodoro notch timer & stopwatch — streaks + 7-day chart
- Resizable expanded panel (width & height, live preview)
- System HUDs (volume, brightness, battery)
- Audio output switcher (speakers, AirPods, monitor)
- AirPods connection manager & battery
- Magic Mouse, Keyboard & Trackpad battery + low-battery alerts
- Quick notes & Calendar widgets
- Camera Mirror (check your appearance)
- Keep Awake (caffeine toggle)
- Teleprompter (Cuely) for Zoom calls
- Focus-aware alerts & native haptic feedback
- Lock screen widgets & hide-the-notch mode
- 133 languages, fully localized
- Native SwiftUI, tuned for Apple Silicon
USB devices on Mac — FAQ
How do I check what USB speed a device is running at on a Mac?
The usual route is System Information → USB and reading the tree. Notchy's Devices card puts the negotiated link speed on every connected device in the notch, updated as you plug things in.
Why does my USB 3 drive show a slow speed?
Because it negotiated a slower link — usually a charge-only cable, a USB 2 hub, or a port on a dock that shares bandwidth. The card shows what was actually agreed, which is what makes the cause obvious.
Does it show Thunderbolt docks and their devices?
It lists the devices the registry reports through whatever they are connected by, including things hanging off a dock, with each one's own speed.
Does it list internal devices too?
No. Built-in controllers and root hubs are filtered out so the list stays the things you attached.
Does watching devices drain battery?
No. It reads the registry when the card is on screen and when the set of devices changes, rather than polling continuously.
Is the Devices card on by default?
It is one of the Home cards you can add, arrange or remove in Settings → Home, alongside battery, weather, clipboard and the rest.