Apple Patent Describes a Mac in a Keyboard

pcmag.com:

Apple has filed a patent application for a Mac housed in what appears to be a Magic Keyboard.

Patently Apple discovered the patent application, which Apple originally filed in August 2020, after a revised version drafted in August 2021 was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Feb. 24. The application is titled "Computer in an Input Device."

Apple says in the filing that moving a desktop computer "can be inconvenient, awkward, and difficult, especially when frequently repeated." (As anyone who's been to a LAN party can attest.) It also notes that cables, peripherals, and the system itself can be damaged in the process.

Using a laptop or tablet can address those portability concerns, Apple says, but they "still require an additional set of input devices to imitate a desktop computing device." The fact that some of the limitations of these devices, such as not being able to use the primary display when an external display is connected, are the result of its own product designs is left unsaid.

Apple's proposed solution: cramming an entire system into a keyboard. The company says in the patent application that a specially designed keyboard would be able to balance power and portability by relying on little more than a power supply and a USB-C connector.

Not that Apple is the first to imagine putting a computer in a keyboard. Raspberry Pi released a $70 device based on that concept, the Raspberry Pi 400, in November 2020. Presumably the devices would be quite different in practice, but they're designed around the same principles.

There's no guarantee Apple will release a device based on this patent application, and even if it does, the final design could be quite different from what's described here. But