Apple patents a revolutionary keyboard for MacBooks inspired by the Touch Bar: keys with fully configurable LED micro displays and dynamic controls
A few hours before the end of the year, Apple secures a new and interesting patent. This time, the undisputed protagonist is the one that in the future should become the new keyboard of the MacBook, completely inspired by the Touch Bar already present on the MacBook Pro and equipped with micro display configurable on each key.
Registered through the Patent and Trademark Office of the United States, according to the first rumors spread by the site 9To5Mac could be a fully configurable keyboard, according to the needs of the end user. There are many features that suggest a total revolution of its structure, a bit 'as happened with the introduction of the Touch Bar that, however, still separates the fans of the bitten apple because of some difficulties encountered during use. What is certain is that great news await the next generations of MacBooks, to be added to the processor with great potential, Apple M1.
New Apple MacBook keyboard: the features
The patent includes some key information about the new Cupertino keyboard. Among the most tantalizing is the ability to support dynamic key configuration, meaning associating each key with a specific function or letter, regardless of the basic configuration. To show the function, right on the surface of the key, there would then be an LED display. This, therefore, would allow a completely revolutionized labeling, without limits of any kind.
To be able to benefit from the new keyboard, of which obviously nothing is known yet in terms of release dates, could be several Apple devices. In fact, in addition to the keyboard integrated in the MacBooks, Air and Pro versions, the new technology could also become part of the equipment of Mac desktops such as Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro, obviously in standalone format as already happened with the previous models.
Apple's new MacBook keyboard: the advantages
Obviously this feature, which in any case provides for the use of a physical keyboard and not a virtual one as could be imagined given the peculiarity that characterizes it, could be useful to Mac users especially in particular contexts, such as gaming and programming, where particular key combinations allow to streamline operations and reduce the use of the mouse.
The same goes for Apple. In fact, this would allow the production of a single keyboard model, without requiring geo-localized combinations for the introduction of special characters related to individual idioms. It would then be the end user who would choose which layout to use, setting it up directly from the system and with clean, automatic labeling management, as each individual character would appear directly in the small, low-resolution LED screen on the top surface of the key.