Cool! This computer could be one of their key products. Some customers might get bored with it. 😉
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Imagines Mac-Inside-a-Keyboard Device Evocative of 80s Home Computers
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Is reduction to a single port sufficiently novel? I’m not familiar with the USPTO’s track record on these things, but folding on one or more axes was the only claim that seemed to tick all the boxes. Something about the way they tied it down to functionality kind of jumped out at me.
Next they’ll be coming out with a matching cassette-tape drive to save your “Programs” and data. I bet it comes with a free subscription to Family Home Computing.
Have you got any idea how long the time to market is when developing CPUs?? Intel is years behind on this one!!
It's a shame that those Raspberry PI keyboards doesn't feature a built-in trackpad as well. The company should have taken inspiration from Logitech K400 combos.
I haven’t read all the replies, so someone may have already suggested this, but this is the computer that goes with Apple Glass, which provides the display.
Yup. I had this back in 2010. The LED backlight on my white plastic MacBook died so I took it apart to replace the inverter. It didn't work out and since I used it docked 99% of the time anyway I just put it back together without the top screen and used the lower case + keyboard hooked up to an external monitor. Even back then, the logic board for that Macbook was only the size of the Apple wireless keyboard. It fit nicely underneath and I contemplated DIY-ing a custom case for it to house the logic board and wireless KB together as one unit. Never got around to it coz I'm a professional crastinator but I'm sure someone in the world has done it. Not a unique idea. Nice to see that Apple might be considering it as an actual product potentially. Always felt something like this would be really cool.
Byte or compute, so you can type in their centipede clone in basic. The iDatasette!
This is beautiful actually. The simplicity of this paired with an AirPlay Monitor and a wireless trackpad or mouse is really something to think about.
If you look at the teardown of the last iMac, you can see how tiny the motherboard is. They could literally take the iMac motherboard and stick it in a keyboard, and call it a day.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is trying to hit low price points, and has particular use cases in mind. They built precisely what they wanted to build.
Much harder to make the case for the Apple ][ being a computer hiding under the keyboard. It’s a box with a keyboard in the front.
The screen is an interesting dilemma... You could use AirPlay to cast the screen to any available nearby display. You could easily also sell aware displays separately, for an iMac of the future. It might also make a good partner with a TV and an Apple TV box. But you're going to start selling processors double, most of Apple's devices already have a built in processor.
I still have a Timex Sinclair in storage. First programming - a simple clock that used a television as a monitor.
Nostalgia aside, it would be rather interesting to have MacOS in these keyboards and be able to use an iPad with it for portability. This way you can use either OS. (Assuming some sort of battery powers supply can be worked out.)
Nostalgia aside, it would be rather interesting to have MacOS in these keyboards and be able to use an iPad with it for portability. This way you can use either OS. (Assuming some sort of battery powers supply can be worked out.)
