“In what could be the biggest innovation since the computer mouse… Apple is planning a giant leap forward with the introduction of the simple yet revolutionary idea of user programmable ‘Mini-touch finger LCD’s.’ In one bold move Apple will redefine the notion of function keys from their now dubious state of uniform confusion, to a visual interactive user experience. The new touch finger LCD’s will appear first on Apple’s Macbook Pro along both sides of the scrolling touchpad, as an addition to the manual numeric function keys, but will eventually replace them all together,” New Tech Spy reports.
“The keys themselves do not move vertically, they are however separated by the aluminum face, which will give them a more positive individual feel, and protect them from unintentional palm activation. Each key panel will change it’s image depending on the users programmable desires. Functions could be almost anything, ranging from simple screen clips to a set of automated tasks; and application specific duties,” New Tech Spy reports. “Introduction plans are not set, but could come as early as January 2007.”
Full article with images here.
Engadget calls it the “latest crackpot rumor” in their coverage of New Tech Spy’s article here.
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I’m with Engadget on this one.
Crackpot rumor?
HERE?!?
Naw…
I’m still waiting for that media hub connected to the Apple-branded big-ass plasma set that downloads movies from the online video vault, whilst making appointments in my Palm-iPod which is also an Apple-branded phone.
im all for innovation but—-what I would like to see is a deal with IBM for those 5 to 6 ghz chips are supposed to come out next year — and a deal to put CELL into notebooks. I think Apple can demonstrate true flexibility by using INTEL inside gadgets, some mini’s and some note books while maintaing a flag ship line truly spectaculr IBM powered Macs. Id also like to see durable displays. And why cant a phone deliver internet search capability as well as e-mail and I-Tunes? Why are phone companies allowed to essentially close the market on phones by tying the phone to service? Shouldnt any one be able to introduce a phone into the market that can be purchased by the consumer and used with any phone service? I think GPS should be on phones along with the star charts keyed to the area located by the GPS–why? just so people can begin to identify the local stellar objects and begin to have a true sense of where they are. How about it? Apple should make a deal with the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Apple should buy Apple and the MJ Beatles portfolio. Apple needs to make a deal with HBO pronto. A ITUNE a day keeps the doctor away. So say we all.
This may be a load of crap, but google “oled keyboard” for a similar cool idea!!
Might be fun but I don’t think Apple will ever go the cluttered route.
And..I’m getting withdrawal symptoms as we’ve gone two weeks without any new Apple products…! Hope you’ve sent your birthday card to Uncle Steve for his 51st on Thursday. (No I haven’t – in case someone believes me).
Not so crackpot, check out the Optimus.
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/
Which was announced last year.
I’m playing the Devil’s Advocate here so please, flame with restraint…
The Dell that I have here at work already has “hot” buttons on the keyboard…one for the internet, one for email, one for search, etc.
My question is: Is this really considered “innovation” on Apple’s part?
so say we all.
Great, just what we need, keys that change what they are continuously.
How about a new key layout? My fingers almost never find the right keys, but maybe it’s just my problem. My left and right hands think they were switched at birth.
The dashboard key suddenly becomes the “instant pr0n” key right before you click it. Just what I need in a presentation.
If anyone can make this work right, it’ll be Apple. Why do we keep saying that? Cellphone services suck because of monopolistic predatory behavior from cell networks. But if Apple were to make a phone, everything would change.
What the fsck? Why Apple? WHY NOT ANYBODY!!!??? What’s wrong with this planet? Is SJ from Xena, the 10th planet, or firther out, with a better perspective? Is every other technology company run by politicians? Is that the problem? The people that make CEO are not the kind of people you want as CEO. Same with politicians. The people we elect are the least qualified for the friggin job.
What if SJ dies? Will the human race collapse. I think it will. That’s why God (make your choice) let him survive cancer.
SAVE STEVE JOBS!!
To Horaa Haras,
“I feel your pain.”
This way I could program all the different function keys to different varieties of pr0n, depending on my mood. Only problem is it will take me a few days to remember which key is bondage, g-bang, and all the other good ones. When is apple going to start making adult films???
Yes!
Apple laptops need more buttons. They don’t look nearly as hideous as those button-centric POS PC laptops.
This should do the trick nicely.
Is it just me or do more morons visit this site every day?
It’s just you. You’re the only moron.
Kind of makes sense they would do something like this, seems every new feature Apple brings out (Expose, Dashboard, FrontRow) uses another function key, combined with display contrast, volume, eject and external monitor display keys, all of ’em are pretty much used up!
I think that this concept will work well.
We’ve seen ‘soft buttons’ on everything from bank ATMs to cellphones. The label alongside a physical button changes according to what you’re about to do. It’s much more intuitive to actually have the graphics on the button change to reflect what it’s going to do. If you press a modifier key, the graphics on the key would be able to change to reflect the new function of that button.
This idea would only work well for functions that are used less frequently, as you might prefer to look at the key to see what it’s about to do, but for the purposes described, it seems entirely sensible.
more morons every day.
it’s a part of the growing market share.
i was happy with where we were.
If they do something like this certainly the implementation of it needs to be very well done. I don’t see Apple inundating their hardware with bajillions of unneccessary LEDS and whistles like the PC manufacturers do.
This is what separates Apple from the rest of the industry. Apple follows the ‘just because you can doesn’t mean you should’ design axiom, while the rest of the manufacturers follow the ‘if one is good then fifty must be way better’ axiom.
And what of productivity applications that make power-user commands of those function keys. I’m not seeing this happen.
Even better I think would be if every key on the keyboard had an LCD, which changed according to what application was running.
Apple_Fan: Please see my above post.
This is getting me so hard right now. I really hope this comes out, because after about a month, my laptop’s trackpad will get all crusty with my man juice. With the LCD buttons, I wouldn’t have to worry so much about my errant sprays.
I think someone (I’m not mentioning any names) needs to get laid, like very quickly.
I don’t want them, would probably look like crap and they would probably be too small to display anything usefull. They should get their act together and give us a bluetooth version of the mighty mouse (right now it’s about as mighty as win 3.11).
Why not just replace all those function keys along the top of the keyboard with a touch-sensitive LCD stip instead? That would seem more practical in my eyes.
Although, I could see applications that try to add their own functions battling existing ones. Clever new malware writers changing functions of these meta-keys to wreak havoc…