MacBook Pro could get this radical glass keyboard upgrade

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MacBook Pro could go this radical glass keyboard upgrade

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Apple'south glass Force Bear upon trackpads accept long been one of the best features on the MacBook Pro and Air laptops. Now, the folks at Cupertino could go one pace farther and add together glass keycaps to future MacBook keyboards.

An Apple patent application has been published by the US Patent and Trademark Function (USPTO) detailing how a glass polymer could be used as transparent keycaps allowing for lite and "glyphs" to be seen through them. The keycaps themselves will be curved inward then as to reduce the stress of being striking thousands upon thousands of times.

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Encounter-through glass keycaps could offering more durability than plastic keycaps. Likewise, the symbols that are normally printed upon them can be placed beneath them, preventing sustained use from wearing the symbols abroad.

Apple's patent explains that a calorie-free-blocking layer will be used beneath the keys and above a blacklight to effectively permit the keyboard symbols to be defined and illuminated underneath the keycaps. However, the entire key will be illuminated, which could give Apple tree the potential to get more artistic with its keyboard backlighting.

(Epitome credit: USPTO)

But immovability seems to be the key here, with Apple seemingly acknowledging that low-travel plastic keycaps, such as those in the pre-Magic Keyboard MacBooks, trade longevity for aesthetics.

"Many visually pleasing solutions lack the durability for such extended function. This tin be especially truthful when electronic devices and/or associated input devices are fabricated smaller, thinner, or otherwise reduced in dimension," Apple's transparent keycaps patent noted. "Reduced dimensions of keycaps, for case, can atomic number 82 to keycaps that are less structurally sound and have a shorter lifetime than thicker keycaps fabricated of the same cloth."

After dropping the Butterfly mechanism of its older MacBooks and moving towards the scissor-switch mechanism first shown off in the MacBook Pro sixteen-inch, Apple's MacBook keyboards accept received more praise. But going by this patent, Apple tree clearly thinks it tin do better.

The patent was filed in May 2019, and then at that place's an exterior hazard that adjacent-generation MacBooks could come with glass keycaps. But we wouldn't await to encounter them before 2021.

Roland Moore-Colyer is U.K. Editor at Tom's Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he's also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk-bound Roland can be plant wandering around London, often with a look of curiosity on his face.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/macbook-pro-could-get-this-radical-glass-keyboard-upgrade

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