Future MacBook may use the iPhone as a touch screen

From the point of view of device functionality, Apple has always insisted on the position of separating a touch-screen device such as an iPad from a Mac computer. In other words, this means that Apple will not immediately launch a device with a traditional touchscreen (such as the MacBook Pro), which is similar to Microsoft’s Surface.

However, in 2016, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a groundbreaking Apple patent application that described the concept of “inductive charging between iOS devices and even MacBook Pros”. Apple’s original patent basically described the redesigned MacBook Pro concept, and its traditional Force Touch trackpad was replaced with a “docking station” (as shown, through this docking station, the iPhone can connect and interact with the Mac. vice versa).

Of course, this is a distant concept, and we are unlikely to see this on Apple’s final product right away, but the fact that it was originally released suggests that the company has been at least exploring the MacBook concept with additional touchscreen capabilities.

Interestingly, the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) recently announced a new patent that is a continuation of Apple’s original patent, which involves more details of the invention and adds new technical claims, perhaps to protect this. The integrity of the concept.

According to Patently Apple, the following are more details of the new patents Apple has applied for:

– Apple’s new patent claims to use a touch-sensitive display of a portable electronic device to receive input touchpad response measurements.

– The new patent also technically describes how the MacBook Pro touchscreen works, such as “When a user uses the touchpad of a MacBook Pro to charge an i-series device, the inductive charging coil allows the user to still receive input using the touchscreen.

– At the same time, Apple’s new patent indicates that the first induction coil is placed under the touchpad, and the touchpad can be used to provide inductive power to external electronic devices or receive inductive power through it. The other coil is docked to the portable electronic device to provide charging sensing capability or receiving sensing capability.

So the question is, does this mean that the MacBook Pro with a touch screen is coming soon?

In fact, the current continuation patent (No. 20180212455) is only a patent application. It should be mentioned that any patent published by the USPTO does not guarantee that the concepts they describe apply to consumer devices. Apple has always applied for a large number of patents, but from the current situation, most of them are not used in current Apple products. Apple’s continuation patent application was filed in March 2018.

It’s worth noting that although Apple may have a firm stance on “merged products,” there is growing evidence that the company may be rethinking the idea. For example, there is news that Apple plans to launch the iOS 13 system next year, which includes the final product of the “Marzipan Project”, which Apple engineers hope will enable iOS applications to run seamlessly on Mac computers.

Apple also won the first patent on the concept of touch-screen iMac, which is absolutely crazy. In addition, we reported last week on Apple’s other Apple patent application called “Inductive Charging between Electronic Devices,” which describes how two devices, such as laptops and smartphones, are charged. For example, a depleted iPhone can be charged by a MacBook Pro that still has remaining power.

Via: tongbu