Apple wants to put touch screens on every MacBook Pro metal surface

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware

Apple still won't make us a touch-screen Mac, but it is at least considering adding touch-sensitive displays on just about every surface that surrounds the MacBook Pro keyboard as the next best thing.

Diagram of a laptop displaying a rabbit on the screen and tags with animal symbols beside the keyboard.
Detail from the patent showing an image of a surprised rabbit perhaps being edited using the smaller displays by the keyboard



Unbelievably, it was 2016 when Apple first introduced the Touch Bar, the touch-sensitive display that sat atop MacBook Pro keyboards. For something that looked good but didn't really catch on, it lasted a long time, too.

But the end of the Touch Bar in October 2023 may not truly be its final demise. While the Touch Bar was not in any way updated during its seven years on the market, a newly-granted patent shows that it was only part of a plan to make more use of the base of a laptop. Called "Portable Computer With Dynamic Display Interface," it describes a laptop with "a light-transmissive cover defining a first touch-sensitive input region along a first side of the keyboard and a second touch-sensitive input region along a second side of the keyboard."

The base of the MacBook Pro could also include "a second display under the second touch-sensitive input region." And then a third touch-sensitive display could lie "along a third side of the keyboard."

So in this proposal just about every part of the base of a MacBook Pro becomes a touch-sensitive display. It doesn't appear to concern replacing the keyboard with a touch-sensitive display, but it certainly does propose changing the trackpad into one.

"Notably... the particular size, shape, or other characteristic of a trackpad region may change depending on the mode of the laptop," says Apple. "This may allow the user interface experience to be tailored for different applications or functions of the laptop computer."

A laptop with specialized function buttons near the keyboard, displaying placeholder text on the screen.
During word processing, the MacBook Pro could even dispense with the trackpad and instead give touch controls for features like copy and paste



Sometimes Apple refers to up to three separate displays, but other times "the dynamic display... may completely surround the keyboard." Curiously, even that description does not appear to intend to refer to a keyboard being entirely surrounded.

Instead, and perhaps ironically, the area where the Touch Bar used to go is not referred to as one of the options. That could be because the patent was applied for in 2019, when the Touch Bar was still there.

Or it could be that Apple has run scared of the reaction the Touch Bar got. Its chief criticisms, though, would seem to also apply to this new idea of having multiple displays on the MacBook Pro.

As good as the Touch Bar could be, it was not tactile. So since the controls it displayed would change depending on what application you were in, there was no facility to build up muscle memory and know where a control was without looking.

Sketch of a laptop displaying a US map on the screen with various annotations pointing to the laptop's functional components.
Perhaps one display could show the full image while the user zooms in on a portion on the main screen



Similarly, display control services dotted around the keyboard and palm rest don't sound conducive to concentrating on your work. However, the business of the Touch Bar not being tactile has been addressed.

"The dynamic display interface may also use haptic outputs to provide tactile feedback to a user," says the patent. "[The] second roughness that is smoother than the first roughness."

Here the idea is that you can sense when you swipe across from one region of the base to another, it's clear what controls you're going over. Therefore "touch and/or force inputs applied to a trackpad region may control other functions and/or operations of the device as well."

Back in 2018, Apple was granted a patent for changing the whole base surface of the MacBook Pro into a touch-sensitive one. In that case, it was specifically so that different keyboards could be displayed to suit whatever application was being used.

Apple does get very many patents every year and it's never evidence that a new product is coming. But that Apple keeps returning to this idea does at least suggest that it is serious about making more of the MacBook Pro base.



Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    What? Is this article dated April 1st? This will never catch on, either. Just imagine to be a developer. Every Mac should behave similarly. No point developing for a multitude of configs. "Pro" devices alienate users who don't own one.
    Make the screen touch sensitive and use that for cases where pointing with the finger really makes sense. I caught myself several times doing this on my wife's Macbook.
    williamlondon
  • Reply 2 of 10
    narwhalnarwhal Posts: 124member
    I feel bad for whatever engineer worked on this for many weeks or months. What a waste for something that won't ever happen. I can only imagine the guffaws at a press event if Apple tried to foist this on consumers again.

    OTOH, when will Apple release touchscreen Macs? We've been clamoring for those for at least a decade.
    williamlondon
  • Reply 3 of 10
    Ugh.  The trackpad is already too big on current Macs, and that's the ONLY touch surface they should have.

    PLEASE no touchscreens.  Fingerprints on Mac screens are ANNOYING, I have a hard enough time discouraging users from sticking their dirty fingers on the screens now.
    libertyandfree
  • Reply 4 of 10
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 13,058member
    Not sure I’d say that patent = “wants to”. Companies patent all kinds of stuff. 
    williamlondon
  • Reply 5 of 10
    danoxdanox Posts: 3,286member
    This is just ongoing research and development by Apple.
    williamlondon
  • Reply 6 of 10
    Instead of the TouchBar they should have put a display under the trackpad. The trackpad is already a large glass plate with multitouch input and haptic feedback. So, nothing would changes if you use it in "trackpad mode".

    It could be used for menu's, clipboard and help with more complex gestures. Problem with a lot of gestures (like long press) is that the UI with all its minimalistic flat design doesn't give any hint about the supported gestures. That is something the "visual trackpad" could have helped.
    libertyandfreemattinoz
  • Reply 7 of 10
    oldenboomoldenboom Posts: 33unconfirmed, member
    Just no fingers near my screen, thank you. Maybe some function keys can be replaced with keys containing an oled screen but otherwise, it’s fine as it is now. Please, no screens at the palm rests and do not replace the speakers with touch sensitive areas or oled keys. Do not sacrifice the sound quality of the mbp. Interesting ideas though. Keep going.


    libertyandfree
  • Reply 8 of 10
    AppleZuluAppleZulu Posts: 2,141member
    What? Is this article dated April 1st? This will never catch on, either. Just imagine to be a developer. Every Mac should behave similarly. No point developing for a multitude of configs. "Pro" devices alienate users who don't own one.
    Make the screen touch sensitive and use that for cases where pointing with the finger really makes sense. I caught myself several times doing this on my wife's Macbook.
    You just identified a primary reason why Macs don’t have touchscreens (Every Mac should behave similarly), and then called for Macs to have touchscreens (Make the screen touch sensitive and use that for cases where pointing with the finger really makes sense).

    macOS runs every Mac from the Air to the Pro. Touchscreens would be an ergonomic nightmare for a multi screen Pro workstation. Making it possible to poke at the screen on an Air would only turn the OS into a bloated mess, while violating the wisdom of assuring that “
    Every Mac should behave similarly.”

    A line has to be drawn somewhere, and that’s why iPads have a separate OS designed from the bottom up as a touch UI, and why MacBooks and iPads will always be separate devices. 
    williamlondon
  • Reply 9 of 10
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,918member
    Apple most likely doesn't want to do anything like that. Just because they filed for a patent doesn't mean they're going to produce a product like patent. 
  • Reply 10 of 10
    mattinozmattinoz Posts: 2,449member
    AppleZulu said:
    What? Is this article dated April 1st? This will never catch on, either. Just imagine to be a developer. Every Mac should behave similarly. No point developing for a multitude of configs. "Pro" devices alienate users who don't own one.
    Make the screen touch sensitive and use that for cases where pointing with the finger really makes sense. I caught myself several times doing this on my wife's Macbook.
    You just identified a primary reason why Macs don’t have touchscreens (Every Mac should behave similarly), and then called for Macs to have touchscreens (Make the screen touch sensitive and use that for cases where pointing with the finger really makes sense).

    macOS runs every Mac from the Air to the Pro. Touchscreens would be an ergonomic nightmare for a multi screen Pro workstation. Making it possible to poke at the screen on an Air would only turn the OS into a bloated mess, while violating the wisdom of assuring that “Every Mac should behave similarly.”

    A line has to be drawn somewhere, and that’s why iPads have a separate OS designed from the bottom up as a touch UI, and why MacBooks and iPads will always be separate devices. 
    Except macOS already handles random assortments of attached touchscreens 
Sign In or Register to comment.