Apple keeps patenting gear for next gen iPads and MacBooks and everything in between. Patently Apple has found a patent application for a new type of keyboard folio that would feature a MacBook Pro style Touch Bar. We detail it below.
It’s a revised patent based on 2012 and 2016 inventions. The system includes a display within the Keyboard Folio, that completes it with an interactive list of shortcuts and media controls. Multiple applications can show up and there’s also a version with quite a large extra screen, that may even feature some useful info and maybe some extra UI elements. It actually feels like a bigger touch bar than the MacBook Pro one.
Apple’s granted patent 10.488.883 was published this week by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Fletcher Rothkopf has been with Apple for a while and he’s credited as the inventor of the product. He’s a Senior Director of Product Design at Apple. Such touch bars may also become useful with the recently released Photoshop app for iPad and other Adobe tools. As the gap between iPad and MacBook narrows we’re headed towards a time when the two will become one device.
Probably with a foldable part and an obscene price…
