“While Apple’s trademark filing only covers International Classification 009, it should be noted that Apple covers some very interesting elements under this classification, such as: Touchscreens, Light Pens and Graphics Tablets,” Purcher reports. “In July 2009, Apple was granted a patent for a trackpad that never came to market which covered advanced imaging, infrared & optical emitter-detector sensors that could be used in future iterations of Apple notebooks.”
Purcher reports, “The question now becomes, is the ‘Magic TrackPad’ related to the upcoming MacBook refresh or an iPad accessory that will address graphics and light pen text generation?”
Full article here.
Tricorder here we come!
Where the heck did the light pen come from?
What a weird blast from the past.
My guess is that they want their competitors to run after these light pens as a lark!
Want to see a cool idea? Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=7H0K1k54t6A
How on earth do they get from Magic TrackPad to light pen?
It falls under a broad classification that includes light pens. In other words, alternative input devices.
That’s just poor reading comprehension.
It would be cool to have an external input device that uses multi-touch and a pen. Oh, wait, Wacom already makes and sells tablets that use pressure sensitive styluses and multi-touch. I have one. It’s great!
http://www.wacom.com/bamboo/bamboo_craft.php
http://www.wacom.com/bamboo/bamboo_pen_touch.php
Hmm….if they develop a new bus, I wonder what they will name it…..
The current MacBook trackpad is very capable, with some very cool multi-touch input gestures (two-finger scrolling, etc) that I suspect are not utilised by most users, perhaps because it looks like every other trackpad, only simpler. I think the next step is to make it a touch-screen, similar to the iPod Touch, with a user interface that is customised for OS X. Desktop users would have the option of a stand-alone track-pad with the same specs, or one that is built-into a keyboard. Perhaps such a touch-screen could be used to run iPhone and iPod Touch applications from iTunes too; surely any current Mac could emulate those devices with ease.
All speculation of course and I am assuming there would be enough touch-screens available to bring such a product to the market.
TT
Scenicruiser