Apple’s MacBooks haven’t changed much in the past decade. Some of the latest models have recently been redesigned with modern features, but their shape remains that of traditional laptops. It’s not because of a lack of ideas. Between each model update lies a barrage of patents conjured up by Apple inventors likely locked somewhere deep in the bowels of the Cupertino spacecraft.
Rarely do these ideas move from page to product, but they’re still fun to explore — if only to see what concepts Apple might explore in the future. In that sense, Apple was today granted a patent that describes how to turn the MacBook deck into a flexible input surface or a wireless charging pad for the iPhone.
stay here with me In this patent, Apple contemplates the use of transparent, dielectric materials such as plastic, glass, or ceramic to form a continuous touch-sensitive input surface. It then describes various ways this surface could be used to “improve the look and feel of the device without the disadvantages of some traditional device designs”.
One option is to replace a traditional tactile keyboard with an all-digital keyboard, made possible by a touch-sensitive glass surface. You can even change the layout of the keyboard: a patent image shows it in an ergonomic layout (see above). I envision something similar to the Halo keyboard on the Lenovo Yogabook C930. I cringe at the thought, and yet Lenovo found a way not to make an e-ink keyboard suck. Check out what Gizmodo alumnus Sam Rutherford had to say about it:
“I’m not going to dance around it and say it’s perfect, it’s not. But in a way I prefer typing on the flat surface of the C930 to the super-stiff and flat keyboard of a MacBook.”
Another version imagines the keyboard with a flexible “cloth cover” made of waterproof materials placed on a keyboard mechanism. The buttons would still actuate when you pressed them, and the membrane would allow the surface to be waterproofed and protected from “liquid, dirt or other contaminants”.
With a semi-modular palm rest, Apple says, you could leave the traditional keyboard in place and implant a wireless charging pad to charge an iPhone or AirPods. I wonder if there’s enough room for your wrists and smartphone—the phone in the picture below looks impossibly small, reaching from the bottom edge of the laptop only to the keyboard. From what we’ve heard, Apple is done with the iPhone mini.
Having such a flexible interface also gives Apple the option to build biometric sensors like fingerprint readers into the palm rest instead of integrating them into the power button. The company is also proposing to add various health sensors to track heart rate, blood oxygen levels and temperature.
Now imagine the entire palm rest acting as a graphics tablet. It could be fully customizable and customizable based on the program you are using. For example, opening Adobe Photoshop could turn the digital keyboard into a spin wheel with buttons for shortcuts to your most commonly used editing tools. It would have an improved palm rejection system and could sense how much pressure you’re applying, much like Apple’s Force Touch trackpads.
If all of this sounds familiar, that’s because Apple filed three similar patents back in 2018. Still, I’m not convinced these features will ever find their way into a MacBook, especially as Apple is slowly removing the divisive Touch Bar from its laptops (it’s still alive on the MacBook Pro 13). Never say Never. These ideas could one day form the basis of an entirely new product, or be revised or scaled down before finding their way into existing devices.