Kind of cool…. put computing power in keyboard and use a VR/AR for display.
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Apple Imagines Mac-Inside-a-Keyboard Device Evocative of 80s Home Computers
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Now you're just being silly. The closest comparison to a keyboard having keys separate would be not having the number pad. That's because unless you do a lot of number crunching it's not needed thus why it's not attached to all keyboards. Most people don't use the trackpad just like the number keys. I'm not against having a combined set though.
I'll bet it does not come with the block of wood. What a stupid design that you have to use a block to get the correct angle. Let's hope Apple is not this dumb.
Seems plausible with Apple Silicon. If this was done with Intel there would need to be a fan.
So I had a look and there are actually no "computer inside a keyboard" patents out there across 124 jurisdictions, so a patent search would give it the all clear. The question is from a novelty perspective, there are clearly computers inside keyboards such as rasberry PI keyboards and also the 80s ones mentioned in this thread. Below are the independent claims for the invention. The first claim is of highest significance, where the only unique feature vs. the prior art (anything similar from the past) mentioned in this thread is "A singular output/input port". In my opinion that does not constitute an inventive step.
Without a case of blatant apple favouritism at the PO this should be denied as it does not meet the novelty requirement. But im not a patent lawyer so IDK
Without a case of blatant apple favouritism at the PO this should be denied as it does not meet the novelty requirement. But im not a patent lawyer so IDK
A product like this would allow Apple to have a low price entry point...even lower than a mac mini.
Likely because the articles (or titles) are glossing over that the patent is for some specific implementation or detail, not for the general idea of a computer in a keyboard, which is not novel.
BTW, one can currently buy a Pi 400, which is a Raspberry Pi in a keyboard. Quite a nice little Linux machine.
But you can get a Pi 400 for well under $100, and if you manage to spill something on the keyboard, you can get a whole new one for... well under $100. If Apple makes a $500-$1000 Mac-in-a-keyboard, fixing oopsies is quite a different proposition. Macs are expensive enough that having a separate keyboard (where possible, like on a desktop) seems prudent.
"Just a keyboard" but with a bunch of cables hanging off (at a minimum, power and video) doesn't seem very Apple. I suppose it could make a neat living machine, if it displayed 100% by AirPlay to a 4k TV. Hmm.
Agreed on the Pi 400.
Apple has no reason to use the butterfly mechanism - they've moved on. You might as well hope they don't include a floppy drive.
As someone born in 1970, this pushes all kinds of nostalgia buttons for me, and I like it 😁
This is a vastly better (and greener) solution than building the CPU/memory into the monitor. It's absolutely insane to have to throw out a wonderfully functional display every time you need a performance bump... I absolutely HATE the iMac business model this way.
I am. The claims in the initial application are often not at all the same as the claims in a patent when it finally issues.
Of course, applications change between publication and grant... duh? but they need to find a way to formulate a claim that passes the novelty requirement... and here isn't much to go on. The whole patent is like - we put a computer in a keyboard and it has one port! They would need to change the scope of the invention to a specific feature of a computer in a keyboard, and one port doesn't cut it. It has to be something like heat sink or a specific layout that improves performance or something. Nothing in that regard is in the patent. Apple publishes a lot of speculative patents. It will likely en up on Jesse Scott Pullias desk and be denied. His allowance rate for apple is around 80%. He sits in art unit 2657 and deals a lot with apple patents of this nature...
The even reference a PIPO keyboard in their NLP section of their IDS form..... I don't see this going anywhere
There are more details in the specification that can be claimed, including things about cooling, cord routing, etc. Not every patent needs to change the course of technology history.
Yes, that was a problem for those 2016-2019 laptops. I believe they have made the keyboard a separate unit on the more recent ones.
This comment just triggered my memory of an old WebTV device I used to have. That could certainly be better implemented nowadays but I still don’t think mice and keyboards are well suited to TV viewing.
TVs just aren’t meant for consuming text and the web is full of it. It can obviously work, I just never find it ideal. I like looking down or forward when I read, not up.
Why would it be lower than a Mac mini? You are getting a keyboard on top of basically a Mac mini.
Yep. and cost of assembly is undoubtedly higher. Arguably the cost of this might be less than the cost of Mac mini *plus* keyboard, though. So you save money if you don’t already have a keyboard (maybe).
That said, such a machine would be pretty compelling in a lot of office environments.
