Apple has experimented with many different keyboard and mouse ideas, and it hasn’t always gotten them right — just look at the butterfly keyboard and the “hockey puck” mouse. Despite all this, the company is apparently thinking about an even more bizarre idea that could come to future MacBooks.
As revealed in a recently granted patent, Apple is working on a MacBook keyboard that includes a removable key. The patent suggests that this key could be used as an extremely small mouse that would potentially be no larger than the Shift key. It’s a very strange idea, even compared to Apple’s previous designs.
The miniature mouse can be stored inside the keyboard case or placed with other keys. In the latter case, it will work like any other key, notes Apple. However, when it is removed, it will work exactly like a mouse, which means it must have a battery and be able to detect its position so you can use it to move a pointer around the screen. To be able to do.
Storing it inside such a small key is terrible. Apple suggests that multiple keys can be grouped together and used as a mouse, but still, it’s unclear how long the battery will last when the device has to be so small. That – plus the potentially uncomfortable size and shape – means this probably isn’t a mouse you can use for long periods of time. This makes us wonder: what’s the point?
a mouse for ants
According to the patent, Apple believes that carrying a mouse along with a laptop could be cumbersome and take up too much space. Additionally, the MacBook’s built-in trackpad may not be as accurate as a mouse for some tasks. This seems to have prompted Apple to look for alternatives.
This all sounds reasonable enough, except that we’re talking about a key that can be at most an inch long. This is hardly the kind of shape you’ll find in a mouse that’s even remotely comfortable or ergonomic.
If the idea is to completely replace a mouse, a small mouse with a short-lived battery doesn’t seem like an ideal candidate. This also raises the question of what happens if you lose the removable key – in that case, you could lose both the key and the mouse at the same time.
Since this is a patent, it’s entirely possible that Apple is just exploring ideas. Given all the shortcomings of this idea, it’s hard to imagine that Apple will ever implement it in a MacBook, and it’s unlikely to become one of the best mice any time soon. Then again, Apple has made some very questionable design decisions in recent years, so anything is possible.
