Apple Files Patent for a MacBook with Virtual Keyboard and Invisible Trackpad

[Valantar]

Are keyboards really that much of a burden to develop? Geez.

If you're obsessed with form over function, as current-era Apple is, yes. Apple used to produce an unrivalled balance of high-end form and functionality, but that curve has been pointing downwards for quite a few years now. While early adoption of USB-C was good, having only that on their first PC to use it was just silly. Then there's the butterfly keyboards, which - while a lot of users find them okay - are clearly worse at being keyboards than all earlier Apple keyboards. Then there's the touch bar, which ... doesn't really look good either, but I suppose it counts as "cool" and "futuristic". Maybe we should call it "courageous" like dropping the 3.5mm jack? That is another clear-cut example of the same tendency, of course. Then there's the soldered-on everything in their current PCs (RAM is par for the course these days, but soldered SSDs? Really?), and their utter refusal to allow people to repair and service computers that they own (and no, I'm not only referencing the iMac Pro LTT debacle - this is a more general trend).



Still, it's fun to see Apple try to patent something that other companies have been doing for years. I wouldn't be surprised if they got the patent, given how utterly broken that system is. They probably have some obscure and functionally irrelevant additions and tweaks that somehow makes this a "new idea".

 

[AsRock]

Found it.

Yup that looks like it, i would hate to use it or any thing like it for a keyboard simply due to their being no real sense of knowing were your fingers are. I would buy the ASUS before a Apple as with Apple repair sucks and on top of that it's probably glued together.

Small ipads are nice to use even for a keyboard but larger ipads are horrid, this is even bigger.

But a again due to being basically 2 ipads in one will require a good slapping time to time later it's life.

 

[AltCapwn]

Yup that looks like it, i would hate to use it or any thing like it for a keyboard simply due to their being no real sense of knowing were your fingers are.

That's why I bought a Blackberry KeyONE. Very underrated smartphones unfortunately.

 

[ssdpro]

Problem is Apple doesn't have anything innovative in tbe works. We are on iPhone 9 they called X. MacBook 16,2 or whatever. They are inventing/copying innovations to something that doesn't need innovation. Just build a keyboard well. Make a trackpad work like a mouse. Make voice recognition actually recognize. "Siri, what time is it?" Siri: Did you say popups?

 

[StrayKAT]

Problem is Apple doesn't have anything innovative in tbe works. We are on iPhone 9 they called X. MacBook 16,2 or whatever. They are inventing/copying innovations to something that doesn't need innovation. Just build a keyboard well. Make a trackpad work like a mouse. Make voice recognition actually recognize. "Siri, what time is it?" Siri: Did you say popups?

Some say it's Tim Cook's fault.. but it's been the most profitable under him. So it's not like he's going anywhere. It might've been more of the old Apple if Scott Forstall had taken over.. he was kind of the closest in design philosophy to Steve Jobs (and just as hated apparently). Tim Cook fired him.

 

[Valantar]

Some say it's Tim Cook's fault.. but it's been the most profitable under him. So it's not like he's going anywhere. It might've been more of the old Apple if Scott Forstall had taken over.. he was kind of the closest in design philosophy to Steve Jobs (and just as hated apparently). Tim Cook fired him.

It seems they've timed their slide from pro-level to high-end consumer design quite perfectly to coincide with the appearance of a large-scale market for high-end consumer goods, and they're framing their products perfectly for this. Need ports to do your work, or need to type a lot? Go somewhere else. Want a slim, nice-looking computer with decent performance and heaps of brand cred tacked on? You've come to the right place!