Why a touch-enabled MacBook might work
Apple’s new patent hints at a notebook with a iPad-style touchscreen instead of a keyboard, and we think it could be great
Could a super-slim MacBook swap a keyboard for touch?
Apple files many patents that don’t go anywhere, but one recent addition caught our eye. It depicts a MacBook with an iPad-style touchscreen keyboard on the base (rather than on the display), which seems like a totally Apple thing to do. In place of a physical keyboard and trackpad, the new touchscreen’s keys would indicate key presses by triggering haptic feedback (presumably from a unit like the Taptic Engine). They would also light up to display shortcuts that change on the fly, depending on what app is being used at the time. Described as “zero travel,” this keyboard from the future may form the basis for a new breed of wafer-thin MacBook.
We know what you’re thinking – a keyboard without physical keys? Why not just use an iPad? Well, for a start
this proposed computer would run OS X, meaning it would be better suited for certain tasks than a tablet. Second, it would make the current 12-inch MacBook look seriously bloated. With no physical keys, no USB-C port (let’s imagine it’s using next-gen WiGig for data transfer), and wireless charging (maybe), we’re talking one heck of a slimline laptop.
Would Apple ever make such a machine? Patents can be merely ideas on paper that companies don’t want other companies to turn into reality, but there are reasonable grounds to believe that it would.
You see, the rumor mill thinks that Apple is gearing up to update its MacBook Pro models this year with slim redesigned cases. (Maybe this will even have happened by the time you read this.) If they take a big leap forward in portability, while still catering for a more productivityfocused audience, Apple will have room to take the 12-inch MacBook to its natural conclusion: the thinnest, lightest laptop in existence.
Some people call the 2015 model a “Facebook machine”, which is intended as an insult but accurately conveys what the laptop described in Apple’s patent would be used for: namely tablet-like experiences such as checking social media, watching video, checking emails and so on.
Would we use one? Over a nextgeneration MacBook Air or Pro, maybe not. But there are millions of people out there who need a computer for basic tasks who we think would be seriously tempted. Aside from allowing such a MacBook to be razor-thin, the touch-operated keyboard would offer some interesting options for custom configurations and lighting up shortcuts under certain keys.
Apple could even embed a touchpad on the right of the keyboard that could be geared toward spreadsheets (for triggering formulas), GarageBand (for controlling loops) or even something like Ulysses (to display word counts and progress). We like the idea of replacing function keys that you don’t use with ones that show how many social network or email messages are waiting, for example.
Lenovo was the last to try something similar with the 2014 version of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Its Adaptive Keyboard replaced the traditional function keys with a row of capacitive ones that changed their icons according to what program was running. Sadly, the execution was poor and the idea was scrapped, but the prospect of an impossibly thin MacBook with a chameleon keyboard toting an infinite number of configurations is a mouthwatering one – though with one glaring problem: with no physical feedback from keys, the typing experience may be so poor that you’d be no better off than if you were tapping away on a tablet’s on-screen keyboard.
There’s a reason why Apple’s iPad Pro and iPad Pro 9.7 tablets come with physical external keyboards: typing on a touchscreen sucks. There is technology out there that could help – Disney Research created a technology that alters the voltage of touchscreens to generate friction with your finger, adding a feeling of texture, so could let you “feel” the edge of keys – but this could be an engineering challenge too far. Still, wouldn’t you love to try the concept anyway? We would.
The touchscreen’s keys would indicate key presses by triggering haptic feedback