Right now, we acquired a glimpse of the MacBook’s future in an authorized patent — Apple is seeking to sundown the aluminum unibody and substitute it with an all-glass keyboard space!
With all of the rumors and leaks across the upcoming 15-inch MacBook Air, it seems Apple has even greater plans.
If this authorized patent (shared by Patently Apple) is something to go by, you possibly can sit up for a totally reworked MacBook lineup with a glass development that for positive creates some pleasure, however raises quite a lot of questions too.
We’re by means of the typing glass
Apple has been busy submitting patents associated to glass MacBooks and iMacs since 2018. The truth is, we just lately wrote about a number of that hinted in the direction of a attainable twin display screen laptop computer popping out of Cupertino.
Nonetheless, patent US 11619976 B2 talks about one thing a bit extra attention-grabbing — form of the center floor on the way in which to this double display screen dream, which fully replaces the keyboard and trackpad deck with a sheet of glass.
To take care of the identical ergonomic typing expertise, Apple notes the glass might be softer and extra bendable. At a thickness of “about 40 microns or much less,” the sheet would have a flexibility to it which means it might bend underneath each finger press and offer you an analogous really feel to the actuation of a chiclet key being pressed.
On high of that, the patent means that the glass cowl could also be thermoformed to create raised areas for every particular person key on the keyboard — providing you with as stuffed with a conventional keyboard expertise as you possibly can with out there being any barely uncovered mechanical components just like the swap hinge.
Extra advantages than you assume
So positive, this patent talks concerning the typing expertise, however let’s mix this with different functions by Apple and see simply what else the corporate might introduce.
These embrace including wi-fi charging on your iPhone or AirPods into the deck, Contact ID positioned instantly underneath the glass (fairly than needing a devoted key), and including the likes of biometrics and even a blood oxygen sensor.
Past that, very like the explanations behind eradicating the mechanical nature of switches on the iPhone 15 Professional and updating it with a capacitive motion button, lowering the variety of components and sealing the MacBook up a bit additional like this might provide an opportunity for Apple to extend the water and dirt resistance.
Outlook
However none of this solutions the important thing questions we’d have right here. Will the typing expertise be simply pretty much as good as the normal chiclet keyboard you discover on the likes of the M2 Professional MacBook Professional? And what’s going to changing your entire deck with glass do for its sturdiness?
Regardless of the solutions are to those questions, this can be a mightily fascinating approach to broaden the potential makes use of of a keyboard deck. You are able to do much more with parts positioned underneath glass than you would ever do with an aluminum unibody, so shade me intrigued about what this basic design change might carry.
