Apple patent application reveals expandable illuminated MacBook trackpad
“Last week we posted an exciting Apple invention covering a game changing notebook design that disclosed the elimination of the physical keyboard and trackpad that would be replaced by an illuminated surface outlining a keyboard and trackpad,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“Such a design would also allow a MacBook Surface to transform into a gaming gamepad or other configuration,” Purcher reports. “Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals their possible evolutionary process of first eliminating just the physical trackpad to get users used to the idea of it not being a fixed-positioned physical component of the MacBook.”
“A MacBook’s tradition keyboard would remain in place. The new design discussed today will allow a user to change the position of an illuminated area trackpad to anywhere along the width of the MacBook,” Purcher reports. “Once users are familiar with the new illuminated based trackpad, Apple could then move to the more radical step of replacing the physical keyboard with one based on illumination.”
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve long imagined what a MacBook would be like if it had an configurable display surface embedded where its keyboard and trackpad are today. The possibilities are endless. Especially with advanced haptics that make trackpads and keys seem to “click.”
Now, building off a somewhat related Apple patent application, is anyone in the market for a device that’s an OS X-powered MacBook when docked with its keyboard base and an iOS-powered iPad when it’s undocked?
Illustration from Apple’s hybrid Mac-iPad patent application
