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Apple Explores Using An iPhone, iPad To Power a Laptop (appleinsider.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the two-in-one dept.

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple has filed a patent for an "Electronic accessory device." It describes a "thin" accessory that contains traditional laptop hardware like a large display, physical keyboard, GPU, ports and more -- all of which is powered by an iPhone or iPad. The device powering the hardware would fit into a slot built into the accessory. AppleInsider reports: While the accessory can take many forms, the document for the most part remains limited in scope to housings that mimic laptop form factors. In some embodiments, for example, the accessory includes a port shaped to accommodate a host iPhone or iPad. Located in the base portion, this slot might also incorporate a communications interface and a means of power transfer, perhaps Lightning or a Smart Connector. Alternatively, a host device might transfer data and commands to the accessory via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or other wireless protocol. Onboard memory modules would further extend an iOS device's capabilities. Though the document fails to delve into details, accessory memory would presumably allow an iPhone or iPad to write and read app data. In other cases, a secondary operating system or firmware might be installed to imitate a laptop environment or store laptop-ready versions of iOS apps. In addition to crunching numbers, a host device might also double as a touch input. For example, an iPhone positioned below the accessory's keyboard can serve as the unit's multitouch touchpad, complete with Force Touch input and haptic feedback. Coincidentally, the surface area of a 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus is very similar to that of the enlarged trackpad on Apple's new MacBook Pro models. Some embodiments also allow for the accessory to carry an internal GPU, helping a host device power the larger display or facilitate graphics rendering not possible on iPhone or iPad alone. Since the accessory is technically powered by iOS, its built-in display is touch-capable, an oft-requested feature for Mac. Alternatively, certain embodiments have an iPad serving as the accessory's screen, with keyboard, memory, GPU and other operating guts located in the attached base portion. This latter design resembles a beefed up version of Apple's Smart Case for iPad.

14 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So they just reinvented the docking station? by alzoron · · Score: 2, Funny

    But none of that prior art was an Apple product. Everything Apple makes is innovative and new therefore worthy of a patent.

  2. Sounds a lot like USB-Câ power delivery by Hadlock · · Score: 2

    My eyes kind of glazed over reading the description but none of this sounded like anything you can't already do with USB-C power delivery mode. You can already run a 1080p display off of your cell phone, both power and data on the same cable. If you hook it up to a capable hub you can plug in your mouse and keyboard too

    --
    moox. for a new generation.
  3. Motorola Atrix Lapdock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "Quite close" seems like an understatement when I remember this http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Motorola-ATRIX-4G-Laptop-Dock-Review_id2667 from 20011/12.

  4. Already done by BlackBerry by Baron_Yam · · Score: 2

    ...and probably everyone else.

    What else do you call it when you can connect your phone to an external keyboard, monitor, and control devices? The phone did most things by Bluetooth but video (and audio optionally) over HDMI. It would also connect to Samba shares for file access.

    Now, if I can put my phone down on the opened 'laptop' and it's smart enough to act as a trackpad for the external device while drawing power from it and sending video and audio to it, that'd be nice.

    I don't really need massively upgraded processing power or video - my phone itself is already good enough for most purposes, and if the external device has all those upgrades, I'd probably use it instead of the phone and not bother with the whole 'docking' part.

  5. Totally abandoning their core userbase by Solandri · · Score: 4, Interesting
    There are two primary reasons graphics professionals love Macs.
    • Support for color profiles. Profiles are important not just for accurate screen colors, but for previewing how something will look when printed. Like newspaper and magazine editors need to do. Like poster and billboard advertisers need to do. Like packaging artists need to do. Windows' support for color profiles is half-hearted. It still dumps your loaded color profile if the damn UAC elevation prompt pops up (their method of darkening the screen outside the dialog seems to do it). It's done this since Win 7 and Microsoft still hasn't bothered fixing it. The companies which make color profiling equipment have had to make software work-arounds for it. On the Macs it just works.
    • Resolution-agnostic fonts. This has been a part of Macs since their inception, and Apple developed Postscript based on the same concept. When you plug a monitor into a Mac, the Mac queries it for its model and dimensions. Then based on the screen size and resolution, it automatically scales fonts so that e.g. a 11 point font is the correct size. This is why layout artists love the Macs - what they see on the screen is exactly what it'll look like when printed, not just in terms of layout but also size. Postscript does the same thing except for fonts on printers. Windows doesn't even try to do this. You get that silly 100%-200% scaling option, where 100% is based entirely on resolution without any regard for screen size. This is why OS X had no problems switching to high-PPI "Retina" screens, while Windows still has problems with it. On the Macs it just works.

    1) iOS doesn't support color profiles. While Apple does calibrate the screens, there's no way for users to add their own color profile. No way to add a printer profile. No way to switch to AdobeRGB if/when the iOS devices get OLED screens and you want to edit the full color information captured by your DSLR.

    2) iOS relies on a fixed resolution. That's why when they increased resolution on the iPhone and iPad, they had to do it by doubling the resolution. It was the only way to insure that apps written with the old resolution would still display properly. Basically they have the same problem with old apps on high-PPI screens as Windows does. (Ironically, Android does support arbitrary scaling based on PPI. So Android is more more like MacOS and OS X in this respect than iOS is.)

    An iOS-based laptop may suit the needs of the casual user (browser, facebook, office apps). But it's totally unsuitable for graphics/photo/video professionals.

    1. Re:Totally abandoning their core userbase by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They're putting short term profits ahead of the long game. Long before the iPhone came out OS X came bundled with XCode. Anyone wanting to learn to code for the Mac could do it out of the box starting with 10.3. For a college student that wasn't quite ready to get started in Linux (And this was Linux 2003 mind you) it was amazing that I could compile stuff out of the box without dealing with cygwin on Windows XP.

      If you coded in XCode the PPC-64, x86 and x86-64 migrations were relatively painless. When the iPhone finally got a dev kit the tools had been out for 5+ years. People were able to hop in to iPhone development. Distributed builds over ZeroConf have been supported for a while as well. Have a dozen machines sitting idle? Hit compile and distribute the load.

      Apple has fallen completely on their face supporting the people that make the pretty widget iPhone apps. Unless they start churning out development tools there isn't going to be a machine to do iOS n+2 development on.

    2. Re:Totally abandoning their core userbase by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You have xCode available for free in the App Store. What's more important: now you can run your own apps in your iOS devices without an Apple Developer account so the situation is better in this aspect than before.

  6. Conversion therapy by PCeye · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can't wait to see the cluster fuck of dongles Apple will require for this union of parts.

  7. Re: They don't fit by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    Oh, come on. The battery life on the iPhone isn't that bad.

    Sent from my iPh

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  8. Re:So they just reinvented the docking station? by BronsCon · · Score: 2, Informative

    Prior art, indeed! My Motorola Atrix did this in 2011. I still have the Lapdock and use it with a RasPi; it provides power, keyboard, trackpad, 1080p display, and a pair of USB ports.

    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  9. Sorry Apple... by XSportSeeker · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...but the Asus PadPhone is a 5 years old product by now. No need to patent it, just pay for royalties.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Also, isn't it kinda weird how Apple is adamantly against a touchscreen MacBook, yet they go and patent something like this?

    1. Re:Sorry Apple... by MikeMo · · Score: 2

      They are not against touch screens, obviously, and they've been selling iPads with keyboards for some time. What they're against is trying make the existing Mac world (programs and OS) touch aware.

  10. Re:So they just reinvented the docking station? by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

    This is a fundamental misunderstanding of patents. All patents have prior art. Indeed they list the prior art in the patent. Patents take something that is already patented, and add some new things. Patents are never for something that is entirely new, the always build on what came before.

  11. Someone at the patent office needs to be fired by ausekilis · · Score: 2

    ..Located in the base portion, this slot might also incorporate a communications interface and a means of power transfer, perhaps Lightning or a Smart Connector.

    Perhaps it will have a Firewire adaptor, a db-25 port, or attach directly to your favorite adult toy. "Perhaps" is such a non-specific word this alone should fail any sort of novelty test.

    Alternatively, a host device might transfer data and commands to the accessory via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or other wireless protocol. Onboard memory modules would further extend an iOS device's capabilities. Though the document fails to delve into details, accessory memory would presumably allow an iPhone or iPad to write and read app data. ...
    Alternatively, certain embodiments have an iPad serving as the accessory's screen, with keyboard, memory, GPU and other operating guts located in the attached base portion.

    So, just like the Microsoft Surface, then? Or is this more like any of the android tablets that have cases with bluetooth keyboards built-in?

    This latter design resembles a beefed up version of Apple's Smart Case for iPad.

    Oh, so they have their own prior art.