--- title: I don’t know what is Apple’s endgame for the Fn/Globe... description: A deep historical dive into the Fn/Globe key, tracing its origins from IBM's 1984 PCjr through laptop evolution, Windows key conventions, and Apple's... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-don-t-know-what-is-apple-s-endgame-for-the-fn-globe-key-and-i-m-not-sure-apple-knows-either-mjtgkzxfr twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I don’t know what is Apple’s endgame for the Fn/Globe key, and I’m not sure Apple knows either | daily.dev og:description: A deep historical dive into the Fn/Globe key, tracing its origins from IBM's 1984 PCjr through laptop evolution, Windows key conventions, and Apple's... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-don-t-know-what-is-apple-s-endgame-for-the-fn-globe-key-and-i-m-not-sure-apple-knows-either-mjtgkzxfr og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/mjtGKzXfR.png og:image:alt: I don’t know what is Apple’s endgame for the Fn/Globe key, and I’m not sure Apple knows either og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I don’t know what is Apple’s endgame for the Fn/Globe key, and I’m not sure Apple knows either **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 22 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A deep historical dive into the Fn/Globe key, tracing its origins from IBM's 1984 PCjr through laptop evolution, Windows key conventions, and Apple's increasingly messy handling of the key. Apple introduced Globe key functionality in 2012 (double-tap for dictation), expanded it significantly in 2021 with system-wide shortcuts, but created a fragmented experience where third-party keyboards can't access Globe shortcuts, menus show shortcuts users can't press, and behavior differs between macOS and iPadOS. The author argues Apple has no coherent plan, the current state is unsustainable, and proposes alternatives like repurposing Caps Lock as a system modifier key. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A better macOS Globe key](https://daily.dev/posts/a-better-macos-globe-key-htf6j64r6) · Justin Searls · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [MacBook Neo and How the iPad Could Be](https://daily.dev/posts/macbook-neo-and-how-the-ipad-could-be-ozxntlp8b) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Keyboard Shortcuts That Display The Correct Modifier Key per OS – Master.dev Blog](https://daily.dev/posts/keyboard-shortcuts-that-display-the-correct-modifier-key-per-os-master-dev-blog-dzveifmsr) · Frontend Masters · 2 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#apple](https://daily.dev/tags/apple), [#mac](https://daily.dev/tags/mac), [#human-computer-interaction](https://daily.dev/tags/human-computer-interaction) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-don-t-know-what-is-apple-s-endgame-for-the-fn-globe-key-and-i-m-not-sure-apple-knows-either-mjtgkzxfr) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I don’t know what is Apple’s endgame for the Fn/Globe key, and I’m not sure Apple knows either","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-don-t-know-what-is-apple-s-endgame-for-the-fn-globe-key-and-i-m-not-sure-apple-knows-either-mjtgkzxfr","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-don-t-know-what-is-apple-s-endgame-for-the-fn-globe-key-and-i-m-not-sure-apple-knows-either-mjtgkzxfr"},"datePublished":"2026-03-10T04:09:50.591Z","dateModified":"2026-03-10T04:10:15.323Z","description":"A deep historical dive into the Fn/Globe key, tracing its origins from IBM's 1984 PCjr through laptop evolution, Windows key conventions, and Apple's...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/3c2ea6ba5cbf4df126eaea7b94ccd4f6?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/3c2ea6ba5cbf4df126eaea7b94ccd4f6?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-don-t-know-what-is-apple-s-endgame-for-the-fn-globe-key-and-i-m-not-sure-apple-knows-either-mjtgkzxfr","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"apple,mac,human-computer-interaction","timeRequired":"PT22M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I don’t know what is Apple’s endgame for the Fn/Globe key, and I’m not sure Apple knows either"}]} ```