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The Touch Bar Could Replace the Keyboard on Future Macbooks (cnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

Apple's new patent applications hint at more touch-sensitive surfaces and virtual keyboards. From a report: In the wake of user complaints and multiple lawsuits concerning problems with the "butterfly switch" keyboard Apple has used in its laptops since 2016, the company may be developing new user interfaces that depend less on moving mechanical parts. The company has filed three new keyboard-related patents, Mashable reported on Monday. One of the patent applications describes a laptop with a digital panel where a keyboard traditionally sits. This could be interpreted as a plan to replace the conventional keyboard with technology similar to the Touch Bar -- the row of virtual, customizable buttons that Apple debuted on the Macbook Pro in 2016. The patent also includes information about sensors and haptics embedded beneath the envisioned digital panel, which would allow it to detect and respond to user inputs such as keystrokes, taps and clicks.

5 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. The Onion couldn't do better... by samwichse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As usual, life imitates art.

    https://www.theonion.com/apple...

    This is a stupid idea and Apple should feel bad.

  2. Outstanding by llamalad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I was hoping that someone would take my least favorite aspects of the newer macbook pros (a picture of an escape key (vi much?) and pictures of other buttons that take zero force to activate, littering my typing with garbage when a finger strays past the top row) and extend that frustration to every key on the keyboard.

    Hey, Apple- while you're at it, why don't you give me a nice papercut and pour lemon juice in it?

    1. Re:Outstanding by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Apple laptops aren't designed for work anymore -- they're made for hipsters to look cool.

  3. Alternative solution by lbates_35476 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Quit trying to make the damn laptop so thin and put a good keyboard in it. IMHO Apple's obsession with thin is form over function.

  4. How about FIXING THE KEYBOARDS? by mykepredko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When it comes right down to it, all smart devices need a text entry mechanism. I hate using the touchscreen on my iPhone for basically anything other than a text and the examples here seem to be pushing users in that direction.

    Apple Engineers: Rather than trying to come up with new ways for users to enter text into Macbooks, why don't you accept the input method that has been around for more than a century and come up with a keyboard that fixes the problems that were introduced in 2016? If you don't feel like they can be fixed than either go back to the old mechanicals or come up with new ones.

    When you have a problem with your hardware, the optimal solution is not to change everybody in the world's approach to interfacing with devices, you should fix the problem.

    --
    Mimetics Inc. Twitter