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Apple Imagines Mac-Inside-a-Keyboard Device Evocative of 80s Home Computers

Bug-Creator said:
So this would need to be confined to a 50% M1(M2...) chip, or to name it correctly an A14/15... with some minor tweaks.

Plenty performance even at that level so not really an issue. But for what use?

At home? You either need a USB-C monitor with power delivery and a good hub (since running more than 1 cable would be a hassle) or use a dock/breakout-box (why not put the computer in there, aka a MacMini).

On the go? Fiddle with adaptors to whatever screen you may find there, or use Sidecar to an iPad which has the same or better HW already.

-> pointless outside some obscure niches and thinking back to my Amiga500 and 1200 the keyboard being the computer was the one thing I hated on them with a vengeance (you should have seen the hacks I done to put them into a desktop and tower case).
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There's been no evidence of the A series CPUs being paired with USB-C output capabilities. As it is the A15 in the iPhone Pro has 2 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores, 5 GPU cores but only a rumoured 6Gb of RAM despite up to 1Tb of SSD.

I can't see how Apple could make this work unless they think they can profit from a hobbyist Nano competitor vs much cheaper Raspberry Pi for around $400 with HDMI port and ethernet only.

This kind of spec would be great running in an AppleTV mark 7 running tvOS though.
 
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Love the idea. I would immediately get one to use as an 'enhanced' external keyboard with my iPad. macOS when I need it wherever I am, BUT with the benefits an iPad over a laptop.

I use a Mac mini and an iPad atm, and remote in to the Mac mini if I need it when I'm away from my desk, but its dependancy on a solid connection is a downfall. I prefer an iPad and iOS/iPadOS for most tasks - but need macOS for some stuff. I already carry a keyboard and mouse for the iPad, which I also share with my Mac - would be great if that keyboard actually contained the Mac!

EDIT: Of course, this does assume it would be able to work in this way using a combo of Universal Control and Sidecar
 
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sublunar said:
There's been no evidence of the A series CPUs being paired with USB-C output capabilities. As it is the A15 in the iPhone Pro has 2 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores, 5 GPU cores but only a rumoured 6Gb of RAM despite up to 1Tb of SSD.
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Not sure what your aiming at, but I can just hook up my iPadMini6 (A15) to my 4k monitor. Sure it will only mirror the iPad's res but that more like a SW issue.

My point was that an M1 (or M2) would be to power hungry for such a small&thin device with pretty much no cooling so that it would need to use a SoC scaled down back to A-series levels.

Now sure that ship would need some extra I/O and other tweaks but there is no reason that Apple couldn't do that for the A17/18/whenever_this_would_be just like they did it to the A14x when they rebranded it the M1.

Edith:

For me all this is like the 20th anniversary Mac, a cute idea maybe even looking nice (not in my eyes) but ultimately a totally flawed design for "a computer".
 
It is definitely an interesting idea if it can support iPads, standard external monitors, television sets, other Macs and even iPhones. I am extremely happy with my MacBook Pro but could see this as being useful in some environments.
 
Bug-Creator said:
Not sure what your aiming at, but I can just hook up my iPadMini6 (A15) to my 4k monitor. Sure it will only mirror the iPad's res but that more like a SW issue.

My point was that an M1 (or M2) would be to power hungry for such a small&thin device with pretty much no cooling so that it would need to use a SoC scaled down back to A-series levels.

Now sure that ship would need some extra I/O and other tweaks but there is no reason that Apple couldn't do that for the A17/18/whenever_this_would_be just like they did it to the A14x when they rebranded it the M1.

Edith:

For me all this is like the 20th anniversary Mac, a cute idea maybe even looking nice (not in my eyes) but ultimately a totally flawed design for "a computer".
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Fair comment - omitted the iPad mini and iPad Air while I was thinking about the higher performance iPhone Pros. As for display mirroring, that happens even to the Thunderbolt equipped M1 iPads which only go 'native' when replaying video content.

It's mirroring otherwise which is a massive no-no for people hoping to use an iOS device to drive a big external monitor meaning that MacBook Air M1 is the only game in town for anyone who wants to run major apps on an external screens.

Not sure that Apple would want to put macOS on such a 'low spec' device even though performance is likely to be adequate for running MacOS for many users - Apple may disagree with the experience as those devices currently top out at 4Gb RAM.

Yes, 6Gb might be available for the iPhone Pro models but the software support just isn't adequate for people looking to spend around or under $1000. The MacBook Air is just too good of a deal if you're not stuck on iOS apps - and the M1 Air can even run some M1 apps if software is an issue.

And remember the I/O may be limited on the A series chips for technical reasons - not just marketing segmentation reasons.
 
Im curious how much this would cost. I wouldn't mind picking one up (if the price is right) to use at work. I currently bring my MBA for when I am mobile, but when I'm sitting at my desk I use the Dell tower that was provided to me. I can't stand using windows for more than what is absolutely necessary, so I could just Remote Desktop into the windows machine which I could stuff in the closet out of the way.
 
sublunar said:
It's mirroring otherwise which is a massive no-no for people
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In the context of this MacKeyboard it wouldn't be mirroring it would be just the primary (and maybe only) screen.

Apple could also put as much RAM as they want/need into the A18 which would be used in this device (aiming for 2024/25 launch) so thats not an issue.

I just don't see the need for such a product and for sure hope Apple will never find one.
 
Everyone in here repeat after me: No one cares about Rasberry Pi. They’re not real computers.
 
danmart said:
How can any company patent something like this, when as the first sentence of this piece says, this is how all home computers were like 40 years ago?
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if you are genuinely curious about how a company can patent something like this, read the parent application itself. Tim Hardwick links to that patent in his report.
 
I don't really see the point in it because you need a monitor so they still have the mini that serves that market. to me it seems a waste of resources to focus on that. in my expert opinion of course 😂
 
danmart said:
How can any company patent something like this, when as the first sentence of this piece says, this is how all home computers were like 40 years ago?
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1) In the U.S., companies cannot patent things. Only human inventors can. (Other countries differ in this respect). Typically when you work for a company, and you invent something, there is a clause in your employment agreement that says you agree to assign the invention to the company (if it relates to the business, the work you are doing, or you use company resources to achieve the invention - sometimes you agree to assign any invention unless you list it as belonging to you before you are hired).

2) You can’t get an invention for something that was publicly known or written about 40 years ago. But the thing that determines whether you can get a patent is not the blurb that is posted in a news article, but the specific claims that are found at the end of the patent document. These claims have to be different than the prior art.

3) In this case, we are looking at a published application, which typically occurs within 18 months after the application is filed. The claims we see in the published application may not be the claims that are currently in front of the patent office, and may not be the claims that finally end up in the patent if a patent ever comes from this patent application.

4) This is only a patent application - many patent applications go nowhere and never end up as patents, either because the patent office refuses to allow it, or because the inventor loses interest. An inventor may lose interest for lots of reasons, and may never have had interest in the first place.
 
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So basically they’re just building a better pi400.

If they can keep the price reasonable, this thing will sell. Run it off the charge from a type C monitor.

Can see it be useful for hot-desk setup, kids to plug into a TV, etc.

It won’t be for everyone, but like the pi400 its an homage to the 8/16 bit days of the c64, amiga, st, etc.
 
This will only satisfy people who love Apple keyboards (or in this case, this EXACT model of keyboard). For everyone else, it will look silly having an unused keyboard on your desk, next to your Keychron/Logitech/wired keyboard.

But who knows, maybe it’ll come in nice colours and I’ll want one.
 
mectojic said:
This will only satisfy people who love Apple keyboards (or in this case, this EXACT model of keyboard). For everyone else, it will look silly having an unused keyboard on your desk, next to your Keychron/Logitech/wired keyboard.

But who knows, maybe it’ll come in nice colours and I’ll want one.
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No, it will satisfy people who are *satisfied* with Apple keyboards. No need to love them to be satisfied by this.
 
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sublunar said:
However, for me, it's not practical to have a keyboard with computer inside it. Keys get dirty in no time - do any of us have keyboards over 3-4 years old which look brand new?
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Yes. I agree with you that a keyboard/computer presents some impracticalities, but it’s surprising what a little isopropyl alcohol and some q-tips will do to a keyboard, if used periodically. (And, frankly, if it’s hideously unclean, I don’t want to type on it.)
sublunar said:
My take is a virtual keyboard and trackpad, it would make keyboards easier to maintain as country specialisation would be a software configuration rather than a hardware SKU. Apple could also do this now as a virtual keyboard would be almost like making a special app on an iPad.
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I see some sort of smart glass keyboard as an eventuality someday, but it doesn’t just need haptic feedback. A big part of touch typing is being able to rest your fingers on the keys and press them to type. So, you’ve got to come up with a haptic mechanism that allows you to feel keys that aren’t really there, and then you’ve also got to have some sort of force feedback in the glass, so you can rest your fingers on it without it just thinking you’re typing all the home row keys at once. I think we’ll get there, but it think it’s a long ways off. And you’d need some sort of really enormous improvement in capability to outweigh the advantages of touch typing - being able to type while looking at data and not your fingers is nothing to give up lightly.
 
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My first computer was a TRS-80, without a hard drive or monitor, and my second was an Apple II. Both were all in one keyboard/computers and I was pretty happy with them at the time, but things have changed a lot since the late 1970's. I think if I was going to forgo a built in monitor/screen then I would prefer to use a Mac Mini just because I could choose which keyboard I wanted to use, rather than being stuck with what ANY company decided that I had to use. Apple has had a tendency to come up with poor performing keyboards, and my last iMac had a keyboard without a 10 key, which I find too useful to not have personally. Apple still sold keyboards that had a numeric keypad and thats what I have now. If Apple decides to quit making iMacs then I hope they still make Mac Mini's and that someone has a decent monitor to use with it.
 
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If it were standard for Monitors to have USB-C and integrated hubs I might even see a use case for such a device. But since that's not the case ... I don't. But it's fascinating that it's feasible to put a powerful computer into something as slim as keyboard these days. It would certainly be cool, just not very practical.
 
Those who lived through the 80's, what made computers like the ZX81, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Acorn Electron and many many more so popular was not the fact that it was a computer, it was the fact that you could plug it into a standard TV, any TV. Some were small enough to carry in a bag, and with power supply, rf cable and tape recorder leads, you could take it round your mates place who didn't have a computer, plug it into their TV and away you went.

Anything Apple make will always initially sell because there are far to many Apple fans for that not to happen but if this computer of theirs wants to be sucessful it would need to have HDMI because if Apple make the monitor connection proprietary then in my opinion it wont succeed.
 
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