Apple investigating iPad Smart Cover with secondary display

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  • Reply 21 of 78
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    gplawhorn wrote: »
    Why not just make a Macbook AirTouch, or a Macbook ProTouch? Hey, there's a new product line for Apple - the AirTouch. Dual screen tablets have been dead in the water for a long time. But then again, this is Apple - if anyone can make it work, they can.

    I think there is a space for a tablet with a keyboard. There are a lot of people who use their tablets for email or memos and the lack of a physical keyboard can be a problem. However, instead of a MacBook Air Touch, I would go the other way. Don't add touch to a laptop, add a keyboard to the tablet. Something like an iPad Pro - an iPad with keyboard that folds out of the way so it can be used as a tablet, but with a keyboard that's available for when you have to type more than a few words.
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  • Reply 22 of 78
    wovelwovel Posts: 956member
    And.....cue the fanboys who try to say this is not stealing MSFT ideas. Listen, I love Apple as much as anyone, but lets call a spade a spade here, they got beat to the punch.

    Lol,

    Apple did good copying them 10 months before they announces it. Seems a lot more likely that MS has a mole in the patent office,


    Please remind which cover MS made with a display again?
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  • Reply 23 of 78
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    I read somewhere that the smart cover brings in almost $1B annually in revenue for Apple. And to think it allegedly came about because Steve saw a magazine article on magnets, dropped it off on Jony Ive's desk and 'let's do something with magnets'.
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  • Reply 24 of 78
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    jragosta wrote: »
    I think there is a space for a tablet with a keyboard. There are a lot of people who use their tablets for email or memos and the lack of a physical keyboard can be a problem. However, instead of a MacBook Air Touch, I would go the other way. Don't add touch to a laptop, add a keyboard to the tablet. Something like an iPad Pro - an iPad with keyboard that folds out of the way so it can be used as a tablet, but with a keyboard that's available for when you have to type more than a few words.
    So basically MS's touch cover.
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  • Reply 25 of 78


    I thought the same thing!  Nice to know I wasn't the only one.  http://q10a1.blogspot.com/2012/06/crazy-ipad-stuff.html

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  • Reply 25 of 78
    wovelwovel Posts: 956member
    rogifan wrote: »
    Try again troll. MS had a concept called Courier which would have been a dual screen tablet. But it was complete vaporware. And the project was killed, presumably to focus on Windows 8 and what would become the Surface. This patent shows a flexible screen which can fold back to be a stand (ala the smart cover today).


    Not sure MS patented the courier concept anyway. Can't find it anywhere. They knew they would never build it.
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  • Reply 27 of 78

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by namot View Post


    The perfect Smart Cover for me, should have a secondary E-ink display (reading books-reports, browsing outside etc...) I have no idea why some company didn't invented something like that already...:(



    fully agree and glad I'm not alone - sorry for repost but haven't used the new comments system yet and realized I replied to the main post rather than this comment.


     


    http://q10a1.blogspot.com/2012/06/crazy-ipad-stuff.html

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  • Reply 28 of 78
    ochymingochyming Posts: 474member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Wovel View Post





    Lol,

    Apple did good copying them 10 months before they announces it. Seems a lot more likely that MS has a mole in the patent office,

    Please remind which cover MS made with a display again?


     


    Yeah!


     


    It is so obvious that Apple explored many potentials before arriving at the announced iPad. People are just SO stupid not to figure it out, even from a company that - as Jobs put it - get rid of the unNecessary stuff ( which now wisely they patent ). When i saw the Microsoft surface keyboard i though Apple did that already, it is so obvious.


    The end design is always a result of various failures, and hardly the 3rd or 4th take.

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  • Reply 29 of 78

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post





    MS touch cover is a physical keyboard. I think this would be touch screen?


    surface was presented with two different screens.  one was a touch screen (non traveling buttons) and the other was a more traditional keyboard (buttons have travel).

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  • Reply 30 of 78
    umrk_labumrk_lab Posts: 550member
    My guess is : Apple explored the idea, and found out it was not a good one. Because of this, it decided not to implement it, but to patent it.

    Competitors implementing this idea will have to carry TWO burdens :

    The one of having a product implementing an inadequate feature
    the one of having to pay royalties to Apple for it

    Brilliant ...
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  • Reply 31 of 78
    realisticrealistic Posts: 1,154member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RaptorOO7 View Post


    Once again Apple is copying another companies products.  Did Microsoft unveil a dual screen tablet not too long ago?  Sure this is a cover, but it still follows the same concept of two screens to use in concert and transfer data between screens.  That is what MS product did.  Just saying Apple takes inspiration and doesn't get sued, but others take inspiration from Apple and they get sued.





    Yes, MS recently did. Read the article, Apple applied for this patent in August 2011 well before MS announced Surface. So how can you accuse Apple of copying MS?

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  • Reply 32 of 78
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    rogifan wrote: »
    So basically MS's touch cover.

    Yes. I've stated before that I thought Microsoft's touch cover had some potential.

    Now, of course, I don't want to give the impression that all touch covers would be equivalent. Microsoft's version might be good or it might be bad and I won't know until I see one. Even if it's good, it's possible that Apple could make one that's better. Or maybe not. But I think there IS a place for a tablet with a connected keyboard.
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  • Reply 33 of 78
    ochymingochyming Posts: 474member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post





    So basically MS's touch cover.


     


    Apple obviously tried that before, anyOne with a brain would have though that. Apple just did not implement it.


    As this patent proves.


    Discussion on this is just futile.

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  • Reply 34 of 78
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by John Wright View Post


    And.....cue the fanboys who try to say this is not stealing MSFT ideas. Listen, I love Apple as much as anyone, but lets call a spade a spade here, they got beat to the punch.





    and Logitech has been selling the cover/keyboard for the ipad since 2011. Are you going to say Microsoft copied Logitech now? 

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  • Reply 35 of 78
    umrk_labumrk_lab Posts: 550member
    jragosta wrote: »
    Yes. I've stated before that I thought Microsoft's touch cover had some potential.
    Now, of course, I don't want to give the impression that all touch covers would be equivalent. Microsoft's version might be good or it might be bad and I won't know until I see one. Even if it's good, it's possible that Apple could make one that's better. Or maybe not. But I think there IS a place for a tablet with a connected keyboard.


    If I remember well, the separate physical keyboard was an option fot iPad 1 (I am not sure it still is, as it obviously had very little success).
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  • Reply 36 of 78
    namotnamot Posts: 3member


    http://www.pcworld.com/article/224698/apple_develops_eink_hybrid_display.html I really hope something like that will come in next or over-next generation. And not only for iPads, iPhone, but also generaly in every display, bc to sit 10 hours at work in front of the PC, laptop and then use iPad is killing my eyes! :(


     


    Just image reading long PDFs at your laptop e-ink screen. It would be amazing!:)

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  • Reply 37 of 78
    ochymingochyming Posts: 474member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by herbapou View Post




    and Logitech has been selling the cover/keyboard for the ipad since 2011. Are you going to say Microsoft copied Logitech now?  BTW the patent is for a virtual keyboard, not a physical one...



     


     


    Indeed. A thing Apple always said is against their view of the future - a physical keyboard for the iPad.


    I never understand WHY people who buy Apple product are called fanBoys ( if what they buy is almost always better comparatively with what the concurrence sell, or perhaps those who buys from Apple always make a conscience effort contrary to those who choose to buy from others.  ) ?

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  • Reply 38 of 78
    dbeatsdbeats Posts: 26member



    #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
    Totally brilliant.


     


    First of all, the basic form was introduced with a simple smart cover, still the best accessory for an iPad by a long shot. Secondly, they expand on this idea with a flexible touch screen to act as a companion. No doubt this is what Sharp can offer in the near future. This device makes the surface keyboard idea look like a caveman's club. If the patent was filed last year, then the R&D started probably 2 years before that. The surface keyboard and this have almost nothing in common, it's not a copy, it's an original extension of the smart cover. 


     


     
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  • Reply 39 of 78
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    umrk_lab wrote: »
    If I remember well, the separate physical keyboard was an option fot iPad 1 (I am not sure it still is, as it obviously had very little success).

    If I ever had to travel with just my iPad rather than with both iPad and MBP I'd have to take an external keyboard. Yes I can use the virtual one but for me it is almost unusable as my finger tips as a guitarist seem to lack sufficient living tissue to work! A lot of finger taps fail to work for me with my left hand. Not complaining, it's my fault for having odd finger tips on my left hand but I can't be the only one ... Or am I?
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  • Reply 40 of 78
    amoradalaamoradala Posts: 146member
    If I ever had to travel with just my iPad rather than with both iPad and MBP I'd have to take an external keyboard. Yes I can use the virtual one but for me it is almost unusable as my finger tips as a guitarist seem to lack sufficient living tissue to work! A lot of finger taps fail to work for me with my left hand. Not complaining, it's my fault for having odd finger tips on my left hand but I can't be the only one ... Or am I?

    I hear you.
    Typing with hard nerveless fingertips on the left, and long awkward nails on the left. I turned the key click sound effects off - but I think I'm louder.

    Like the display on the smart case ( but I,d want a little cover to protect it).
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