Touchscreen

Apple patent envisions a MacBook powered by your iPhone or iPad

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Thursday published Apple’s patent application for an “Electronic accessory device” acting as a dock that would turn your iPhone or iPad into a touchscreen-enabled Mac notebook, something many people have been craving for. The patent application outlines an ultra-portable MacBook of sorts with a special dock into which an iOS device could be inserted to provide compute power, software, storage and other features.

As with many other Apple patents, there’s no telling when this particular invention might see the light of day, if ever.

Apple Watch Series 3 with glass-film touch display to ship in second half of 2017

A third-generation Apple Watch is expected to adopt a different display technology based on glass-film panels versus touch-on-lens panels utilized on Apple Watch Series 2 and glass-on-glass (two pieces of glass) ones on the original Apple Watch. Shipments of the tentatively named Apple Watch Series 3 are expected to start in the second half of 2017, as per sources cited in a Tuesday report from DigiTimes.

AirBar gives your MacBook Air a touchscreen display

You’ll soon be able to give your MacBook Air a touchscreen display, courtesy of AirBar. Neonode on Tuesday unveiled a Mac version of its laptop dongle at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that will allow you to navigate macOS via touch.

The AirBar magnetically attaches to the bottom of your 13.3-inch MacBook Air display and connects via USB. It uses Neonode’s patented zForce AIR technology to emit an invisible light field that can sense touches from fingers, gloves, and even a paintbrush.

Apple spent years testing if touchscreens made sense on the Mac

As first reviews of the new MacBook Pro hit the web this morning, Apple’s marketing boss Phil Schiller took to Backchannel to dispel some of the myths saying his company has been stubbornly dismissive of the idea of a touchscreen Mac for no apparent reason. Schiller reveals that Apple has actually spent years testing if touchscreens made sense on the Mac before realizing that touching things on a 27-inch screen quickly becomes “absurd”.

Video: Apple’s Craig Federighi on the new MacBook Pro, Touch Bar and a touchscreen Mac

The MacBook Pro controversy isn’t dying down yet so Apple dispatched Craig Federighi, its Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, who discussed the new Pro and thinking behind the Touch Bar feature in a short video interview with CNET in which he also defends no-touchscreen Mac stance.

He goes on to reveal that Apple had in fact built several touchscreen prototypes that however didn’t impress Apple executives enough to greenlight the project.

Jony Ive speaks on MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar, touchscreen Macs & more

Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, sat for a Q&A with CNET’s News Editor in Chief Connie Guglielmo following last week’s “Hello again” Mac event. Ive talked about various topics, including design considerations behind the creation of the Touch Bar, a marquee new feature of the new notebook, saying it’s “just the beginning of a very interesting direction”. He explained why Apple’d rejected a touchscreen iMac “many, many years ago” and more.