Apple Patent Envisions a Mac Inside a Keyboard | Hacker News Reader

Apple Patent Envisions a Mac Inside a Keyboard

extremetech.com

13 pointsFpUser25 comments

How did this patent get awarded? ZX Spectrum... C64... Atari ST... and countless other 8 bit computers were exactly this.

How does anyone at apple even dare to patent this?

It wasn't awarded. It was just filed by Apple (in August). It's likely in the review process now. It might be awarded, but patent applications get rejected every single day so this one might as well.

Because there are, as far as I know, no actual penalties for filing complete horseshit patents, and sometimes they even get granted.

Read the claims. Did any of those have internal power supplies (battery?), a touchpad, active cooling, and a single Type C port?

None of that is innovative in a way not obvious to any engineer in the field. It's basically a laptop without a screen. Being the first to combine a specific list of features is not necessarily patentable by itself. The combination would have to, paraphrasing various patent laws, surprise an expert in the relevant art with its originality or non-obviousness.

I'm not a lawyer, only someone who has a few utility patents. My opinion so far is that my patents are not particularly innovative, but I assume there's a numbers game to it for corp attorneys which encourages them to file these.

Also, afaik the more specific the patent (must have battery, screen, and connect A and B with wires), the less useful it is. So if the independent claims at the end of the patent come with a lot of caveats, they are less and less easy to find targets for enforcement.

Are any of those things the least bit non-obvious?

Looks kinda like Raspberry Pi 400 [0].

[0]: https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400/

> The patent filing is unambiguously titled, "Computer in an input device."

Aren't the microcontrollers in every keyboard considered computers in and of themselves? Is it possible to run a meaningful OS on a keyboard microcontroller?

Got to read the list of claims in the patent. It's got a single USB Type C port, a built in touchpad, some sort of additional capacitive touch controls, an internal fan with two vents, and an internal power supply. I think that means it has a battery inside as well since you can't plug Type C directly into the wall without an external power supply. Way more than just a regular keyboard running some sort of software on the microcontroller.

I guess this seems like an interesting idea. It's like a headless laptop which could be good if you only ever want to use this at a desk with a Type C monitor and maybe a docking station. Maybe good for hybrid work situations where you've got a home desk to work at but also can hop on a hot desk at the office. The downside is that you can't work at the coffeeshop or anywhere else but at a desk with a monitor. Maybe there could be a way to output video to an ipad when not at your desk but now you've got to carry that around. It would be cheaper than a normal laptop since no screen but at what cost? The thicker case and active cooling could allow for discrete GPUs alongside a max spec M1.

And we've come full-circle back to the Atari ST family of computers!

You misspelled C-64 :P

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30491135

Blogspam: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/02/25/apple-explores-mac-insi...

They don't even hide it:

> The lengthy patent filing, which was unearthed by Macrumors, ...

This makes sense given that Apple doesn’t want to cannibalize MacBook sales by bringing MacOS to the iPad directly.

What does not make sense is the ability to even try to patent something akin to blue sky.

I mean, it's not like they're short on cash or anything. Patents like these cost nothing to them, so it makes sense that they would try to protect an unfinished project or wild idea.

This thing is obvious and should be thrown out immediately by first reviewer in the USPO

I imagine the main selling point for this is portability, but a laptop is already about the size of a keyboard?

That was my first thought: this is a screenless laptop (more or less). And the only reason laptops aren't smaller is because of a touchpad, battery, and screen.

What if keyboard stops working? Whole case of computer needs to be changed?

Well, it's out of warranty and that repair would cost so much that you're really better off getting a new keyputer.

Assuming USB ports, you cheekily plug in another keyboard!

Or if it has Bluetooth (dunno why it wouldn't), use a bluetooth keyboard.

I would love this, especially id airbnbs started stocking nice monitors :)

More round corners I guess

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