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Apple MacBook Refresh Could Bring E-Ink Enabled Keyboard (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes from a report via HotHardware: Apparently Apple has been working on some unique upgrades to its MacBook line, and not just underneath the hood. One of the bigger feature upgrades could actually be in the keyboard. As previously rumored, the new MacBook Pro is likely to sport a secondary touchscreen display at the top of the keyboard. It will sit in place of where the Function keys used to reside and display different graphics and icons, depending on the program that's up and running. However, according to an anonymous reddit user named "Foxconninsider," Apple's also planning to launch a new version of its Magic Keyboard -- one that takes advantage of E-Ink technology. Similar technology was developed by a start-up company named Sonder, the same company Apple is in the process of acquiring. What the tipster describes is each key having its own E Ink display. That means individual keys and/or entire rows can change based on whatever app is loaded. In any event, we should know more soon -- Apple's expected to announce new MacBook products later this month.
The only part of a laptop that has to be changed for each country is the keyboard, hampering logistics. If you can have a software-configurable keyboard, that would help reduce costs for unsold laptops, stock breaks, etc. Even in no application ever uses the facility, just that advantage should be enough, once you get to the right price-durability-functionality combo.
Also the resale value would be increased, as you can now sell it in any country.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
It "could" also bring ponies! Or unicorns! Rainbow farting unicorns. Each time you press a key, a unicorn farts a rainbow in your face.
Mmmmmmm, unicorn farts...
Bitten Apples are still better than dirty Windows...
That's nice, but purchasing an expensive laptop with only this addition would disappoint - the next MB is expected to improve significantly battery life and performance, unlike the current model compared to its predecessor ; and be cheaper... but "cheap" does not belong to any of Apple dictionaries, so I wouldn't expect a revolution in the price department.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
"secondary touchscreen display at the top of the keyboard. It will sit in place of where the Function keys used to reside and display different graphics and icons, depending on the program that's up and running. "
So just like the Lenovo X1 Carbon (Gen 2) then? The only difference being is it may change the icon depending on the application running.
Bah, nobody's yet designed a keyboard with integrated screens that doesn't look like ass.
That Sonder keyboard looks like ass. Clear keys over an eInk display that refreshes like a drugged Sloth. Apple won't adopt that! It would have to look good for Apple to adopt it.
The OLED keyboard from Optimus looked less ass, but the keys were large. And it was expensive as high-end ass.
I don't want to have to look at keyboard. I'm writting wile looking at the screen not keyboard.
So that sucks a bit.
I assumed that people who use their mac for work or are touch typists don't really look at the keyboard?
So what's the point?
Read the article. The rumour is the eInk keys will arrive on the Apple Magic Keyboard for standalone Macs, *not* the new MacBook.
People just wanting to do some search on my laptop tend to get irritated because I am working with a U.S. keyboard layout (having started my lots of my work on actual serial ttys which tended not to be localized and used bit 7 for parity if they even were ASCII) on whatever keyboard I actually have. I think my current keyboard was originally Scandinavian or something. I tend to buy used laptops with keyboards that were "made German" with stickers. That way I have a chance to peel the stickers off and arrive at U.S. layout (which is least comfusing to others). But recently this landed me with some exotic layouts, Swiss or Belgian and now something like Norse or Danish (no idea).
I don't mind.
I think there was one keyboard advertised at some point of time which had no lettering at all on its keys. Frankly, that's more or less what my keyboards tend to look like before the contacts start giving out... I wish I still had the keyboard of my first home computer, a Nascom II. It was contactless, using hall elements, and had a massive metal plate as the end of movement which blocked the complete outline of the travelling keys. This thing was indestructable.
How could you do this with backlit keys? That was one of the big features Apple introduced to keyboards.
Wonder what the public key field is for?
I can finally get a real APL keyboard layout on my Mac!
I'm a touch typist who keeps my fingernails to about 1mm most of the time. Right now the my 4-year-old 17" MacBook Pro keyboard has five keys where the black color on top has been eroded away: E A S D and left shift. The control and command keys area also showing some wear on the top coating.
So what happens when the key is an active electronic device? I guess at some point a key top will just stop working. At the worst it might even short something out. And I know they will want it to rewrite the key tops when you use the accent composing feature, so just hope that a key doesn't die right after you hit option-E!
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Wouldn't it be cheaper/easier/more comfortable for end user to have a replaceable keyboard?
Like some cell phones let you replace the rear panel of your phone to change the colour without using a case- you could have an empty tray with sensors on the bottom where the keyboard goes, and then just a clip in keyboard to go on the top that presses the sensors below. An interchangeable clip-in keyboard selection.
Want a different layout, buy a different keyboard insert for $10 (or $40 since this is apple) a cheap chip on the keyboard makes connection with the base to tell it the configuration (or even simpler, just a circuit being connected by pins in a binary code).
This way, not only can you buy the layout you want cheaply/easily without adding bulk- you can customize the keyboard to look like you want it: black, white, red, blue, zebra stripes. You could have a special keyboard for teenage girls that has shortcuts for emojis.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
reddit user "exFoxconninsider"
__
Sigs are like arse-holes, everybody has one
omg idiot Cook, we need touchscreen display not some fancy ass keyboard. Trackpad is fine, keyboard is fine, we need touchscreen and detachable if possible.
http://www.keyboardco.com/blog/index.php/2014/11/optimus-popularis-hands-on-review/
Time to refresh my APL skills!
Apple has not even finished the acquisition of the company. After that they have to rework the design so it looks less, I don't know, bad.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Touch screens on keyboards? What the hell is Apple thinking? They came out with the perfect computer UI years ago and still haven't released it. And with Siri you can do automatic spell checking too!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
It's about time. I had this same idea back in 2000 (minus the e-ink) of making a keyboard that was essentially a gigantic touchscreen and could be completely configured by defining areas as certain keys. It would allow for non-traditional keyboard use (gaming, foreign keyboards, etc), plus you could make the keyboard have backgrounds, high contrast, etc.
My additional idea was to make low-cost capacitive screen covers that would sit on top, essentially replicating more of the feel of a keyboard (soft keys, granted, but better than typing on a flat surface.) This would allow more of a keyboard feel, and also allow for customized key placement (imagine being able to put any key where ever you wanted!)
Alas, now it's finally coming around (though it seems like it's still just a novelty function at the moment). Too bad I didn't have the money to patent that idea back when I had it.
The Optimus Maximus and others did this with OLED and it was customizable per application.
Maybe you want the ErgoDox - fully programmable keyboard (open source) with multiple "layers". Although for $240 the the non-cherry switches were too fragile, and super-cheap key-caps that cost $35 feels like a major rip-off in what should be a premium keyboard from end to end.
No "J" was harmed in producing this post.
While this will look cool and sounds cool we really do not have to look at the keyboard - we want to look at the screen.
This is just a shiny hi-tech version of those per application cardboard templates people used to have on their keyboards in the 1990s when on-screen menus were shit.
I can see this being fun for five minutes and then annoying as fuck - just like all those menus which change with context only on a keyboard that we've got used to thinking is static.
See the annoyance of "soft keys" on monitors and other situations you are already familiar with.
But on the bright side my employer makes e-ink screens so this is probably very good for my job security so carry on.
Think about what they've done with their trackpad - made it a fixed non-moving unit which measures pressure, using a vibrating module underneath to simulate the tactile feedback of a click when sufficient pressure is used.
Isn't that the logical conclusion for where they're headed with this? A keyboard with no moving parts, and reconfigurable e-ink "keys" which simulate a keypress with a little synthetic click when you press the right location with enough pressure.
This was tried in the late 1970s with membrane keyboards (the click was simulated by a speaker underneath the keyboard). Those were terrible for typing, but I guess technology has progressed enough that it might be worth trying again.
"electronic paper" is a technology.
Which is it actually?
When you can't make a laptop that is better in a way that matters to users, like making it faster, then you start to throw gimmick on it.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
But my 6.5 y/o MacBook Pro needs a fresh blood for this year's X-mas. If it weren't for it being top-of-the-line offered back in late 2010, it would have lost its breath at least 18 months ago :-)
But I can still edit HD video in FCP X with relative ease, which I find remarkable feat from 6.5 y/o laptop.
From the summary: "It will sit in place of where the Function keys used to reside and display different graphics and icons, depending on the program that's up and running." Also from the symmary: "That means individual keys and/or entire rows can change based on whatever app is loaded." THE program that's up & running? Whatever APP is loaded? Hey dumbass, what about when multiple apps are running concurrently?
What about the risk of iPhone "touch disease"? What about touch-typing?
It nice in theory, but I wonder how many software developers will put for the effort to add keyboard change functionality when the market is limited to those who have this keyboard. This is the chicken, we'll need the egg.
There is no backwards compatibility problem, no limited availability problem. The image displayed on the key may change but the character generated by the key can remain the same. Consider a video game that uses ASDW for movement. The displayed images could be changed to directional arrow while the keys still generate 'a', 's', 'd' and 'w' characters. So the only software change necessary would be to check for the new keyboard and if present update the key images for these keys.
Parent is right... what user wants to constantly look at the keyboard and then look at the screen, back and forth? Shortcuts like F1, F2 etc make sense rather than icons on the keys. This is just another superfluous technology, like $160 wireless earbuds.
Redefining the images displayed on the keys would be useful for video games. No bringing up the help screen to figure out what key some functionality is on. Just a glance down at the keyboard.