Dynamic Keyboard and Trackpad Shown Off in Apple MacBook Pro Concept
- A new MacBook Pro concept created by a design student shows off a brilliant touchscreen keyboard while retaining Apple’s industrial design.
- Industry experts have been speculating that Apple will change how laptop keyboards are built and used in the future.
- The entire keyboard can double up as a trackpad, eliminating the need for a hardware trackpad in the concept design.
Apple innovated the recent MacBook lineup with its Butterfly keyboard that comes with a dynamic touchscreen bar. The bar showcases important notifications, app icons, web URLs and more. Industrial design student Furkan Kasap showed off a radically new MacBook Pro with a touchscreen keyboard. There is no hardware trackpad, and all of the real estates is occupied by the touchscreen. However, a digital trackpad is available on the bottom right corner of the screen.
Industry experts are expecting some innovative changes in the upcoming lineup of MacBook Pro devices scheduled for announcement at the upcoming Apple conference in September. While a touchscreen keyboard is unlikely, the design by Kasap may point towards what future laptop keyboards may look like. Losing the hardware keyboard can allow MacBooks to be a lot more productive and it can also lead to even thinner laptops.
The Touch Bar seen in the current generation MacBook lineup is still present in the concept design. Apple may opt for something similar by deploying a hardware dynamic keyboard. One of the biggest obstacles to creating a touch-based keyboard is replicating the feel of a real hardware keyboard. Haptic feedback and vibrations do not quite match up to the feeling of pressing hardware keys that many typists are accustomed to. However, advanced haptics that simulates the edge of a real keyboard can potentially overcome the issue.
With less than a month to go until Apple reveals its new hardware lineup including iPhones, iPads and of course its new MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup, we can definitely hope to see some innovative changes in their new products.
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