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New Apple Patent Imagines an OLED Screen As a Keyboard For MacBooks (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the two-is-better-than-one dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple a patent titled "dual display equipment with enhanced visibility and suppressed reflections." The documentation for what is patent number 9,904,502 outlines a device that would use a second display as a dynamic keyboard. Two implementations of this design are described in the patent application, according to Patently Apple. The first utilizes a permanent hinge, while the second allows the screen to be removed and used separately, along the lines of Microsoft's Surface Pro range and other two-in-one computers. The patent documentation makes it clear that the implementation is not intended as an accessory that would allow two iPads to be paired together, with one serving as the keyboard. Additionally, illustrations associated with the application explicitly state that one screen is an OLED display, while the other is an LCD. A double-display set-up could provide easy access to a different keyboard layout language, context-sensitive controls, or even a large sketching surface to use in conjunction with something like an Apple Pencil. However, that flexibility would come at the cost of the traditional typing experience offered by a mechanical keyboard.

6 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Seems like evolution of the TouchBar? by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    An external OLED screen you use as a configurable keyboard basically describes the TouchBar.

    Maybe Apple means to make a larger version of it for desktops - one of my biggest gripes is that I actually LIKE the TouchBar and the features it offers across different apps, but I can't get used to them because I often use an external keyboard with my laptop in clamshell mode, and so I never really get used to use the TouchBar as there is no external keyboard that has one.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Seems like evolution of the TouchBar? by dromgodis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Real power users use external keyboards.

      Real power users don't tell other power users how to use their power.

  2. NO! by Kenja · · Score: 3, Insightful

    DO NOT WANT!

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  3. Typing would be a nightmare by imgod2u · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I already have trouble with the low-profile keyboards on the new MacBooks.

    A touchscreen would make it even worse.

    1. Re:Typing would be a nightmare by maglor_83 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Exactly what I came here to say. As if their existing keyboards aren't bad enough.

  4. Nintendo DS? by tepples · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The first 21 claims are based on a claim of the device having two display separated by a hinge.

    What in the claims distinguishes this invention from Nintendo DS?