Apple has denied any plans for a touchscreen Mac. However, a newly granted patent certainly hints at a device (number 11,409,332) that combines Mac and iPad functionality into one device.
About the patent
The patent, dubbed “computer with keyboard,” involves a device with a flexible input surface. It involves a keyboard that can be removed and/or rotated on the base of the device.
Conventional keyboards include movable keys that are actuated by a user striking them with their fingers or another object. Some devices include touchscreens on which virtual keyboards may be displayed. In the patent Apple notes that users may select individual keys of virtual keyboards by pressing on the part of the surface of the touchscreen that corresponds to a desired letter, character, or function.
The surface of the touchscreen may be flat and featureless, and may thus occupy less space than a mechanical keyboard but may require users to identify the location of the keys by sight rather than by feel.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “A device may include a display portion that includes a display housing and a display at least partially within the display housing. The device may also include a base portion pivotally coupled to the display portion and including a bottom case, a top case coupled to the bottom case and defining an array of raised key regions, and a sensing system below the top case and configured to detect an input applied to a raised key region of the array of raised key regions.”
