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iMac Patents Apple Hardware Technology

Apple Imagines iMac Built Into Curved Sheet of Glass (theverge.com) 59

Posted by BeauHD from the think-outside-the-box dept.
Apple applied for a patent for an ambitious design for a new all-in-one computer which integrates both its keyboard and screen into a single curved sheet of glass. The Verge reports: The patent application, which was first spotted by Patently Apple, and which was filed in May last year, describes how the iMac-like computer's "input area" and "display area" could be built into a single continuous surface, while a support structure behind the display could then contain the computer's processing unit, as well as providing space for all the machine's ports.

It's a pretty striking design for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the amount of curved glass involved is far more than Apple has ever used in one of its products before. It's also interesting to see that the company is thinking about taking the iMac's all-in-one design even further, by integrating not just the computer and display together, but also a keyboard and touchpad as well (although the application also describes how the keyboard could be detached during use). The patent also describes how one could dock a MacBook into the device and output the screen to the iMac's display, while its keyboard would pass through a hole in the middle of the machine to let you use it as normal.

Additionally, "the application suggests that its single sheet of glass could fold down its middle to allow you to pack it away when not in use," reports The Verge.
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Apple Imagines iMac Built Into Curved Sheet of Glass More

Apple Imagines iMac Built Into Curved Sheet of Glass

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  • My review (Score:2, Insightful)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 )

    No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

  • Peak Apple (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Monday January 27, 2020 @08:13PM (#59662678) Homepage Journal

    Easily smashed all-glass body.
    Near impossible to repair or upgrade.
    Ergonomic nightmare but looks good

    • But it is one step closer to Apple unifying all of its computing devices under one paradigm, again.

      • But it is one step closer to Apple unifying all of its computing devices under one paradigm, again.>/quote>
        Yeah, because the Mac mini, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro and iMac are such similar form-factors.

    • One expensive as shit screen replacement

    • Easily smashed all-glass body.
      Near impossible to repair or upgrade.
      Ergonomic nightmare but looks good

      No matter, will sell like hot cakes because Apple.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          They seem to be giving up almost with the new Mac Pro. It's priced such that only pro shops are going to pay for it, like they have abandoned the "prosumer" end completely.

          Linus Tech Tips did a video on this subject recently if you are interested.

          • They seem to be giving up almost with the new Mac Pro. It's priced such that only pro shops are going to pay for it, like they have abandoned the "prosumer" end completely.

            Linus Tech Tips did a video on this subject recently if you are interested.

            Prosumers can use the iMac pro, and to a large extent, a nicely outfitted iMac.

            The Mac Pro is very cool, I used to use them exclusively, but over time the other Macs came close enough to catching up.

      • Easily smashed all-glass body. Near impossible to repair or upgrade. Ergonomic nightmare but looks good

        No matter, will sell like hot cakes because Apple.

        If it looks good and works, I'll buy it. My concern is the keyboard.

        But really - some folks like Toyota Yaris', and some folks like Maseratis. Both get you where you are going. Sometimes y'all are a bit like the two geeks I knew that came to blows over a 5 cent difference in RAM price. If cheap is your touchstone, then go cheap.

    • Ergonomic nightmare

      No shit. I can't decide which would be the bigger nightmare...having my screen 16 inches from my face, or typing all day with my arms at maximum extent. Who the fuck thinks of this shit?

    • Re:Peak Apple (Score:4, Funny)

      by HalAtWork ( 926717 ) on Monday January 27, 2020 @11:56PM (#59663266)

      Burma shave

  • More of the same (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Waccoon ( 1186667 ) on Monday January 27, 2020 @08:43PM (#59662766)

    Looks like an ergonomic disaster to me. I remember all of the keyboard computers from the 80's, and I hated having to shift around a big, lunking device to get my wrists into a comfortable position. It's bad enough that they force chicklet-style laptop keyboards onto their desktop computers, and now they want to turn them into some bastard laptop/tablet/kiosk/terminal disaster?

    But, hey... striking design! No doubt if it were to go into production, it'd be the only model available, too.

    • I remember all of the keyboard computers from the 80's, and I hated having to shift around a big, lunking device to get my wrists into a comfortable position.

      The Altos and Northstar computers come to mind. And the old TRS-80. If this was for a fixed kiosk application I can sort of see it. Like the building lobby check-in or public terminal type of thing. Other than that if I was given one I'd go for the Bluetooth peripherals.

    • I remember when the Apple Lisa was introduced (predecessor to the Macintosh, 1983), one of the features they touted was that the keyboard was detachable, so you could position it wherever you wanted for comfort. This was an improvement over the earlier Apple II and Apple II, as well as competing machines like the TRS-80 and common terminals like the VT-100, and put it on even footing with the detached keyboard on the IBM PC.

      It seems Apple's courage is now leading them to backtrack on their own ergonomic

      • The TRS-80 Model I and Model II featured a detachable keyboard; the Model III and Model IV didn't so they kinda went backwards there for some reason...

        I agree this design looks lousy. I'm hoping it's just a case of filing a patent just to have a patent and it will never really see the light of day.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by anegg ( 1390659 )

        The DEC VT100 (introduced in 1978) had a detachable keyboard. If I recall correctly, its predecessor the VT52 had a fixed keyboard, however.

        Mildly amusing story... I bought my first Apple computer, a Macintosh Plus, in 1987. I got it out of the box, plugged it in, and used it for about 1/2 hour before I realized that I had forgotten to plug in the keyboard. The power of a "point and click" windowed interface over a character-oriented command line interface was pretty clear.

  • If Apple's highest embodiment work product...short sellers will be delighted

    OR

    AAPL encrypts the future in, in-decipherable patent

  • Integrated keyboard, display, mass storage. Like the Comadore Pet of the 1970s.

    The patent application does show removable keyboard concepts, which would be essential for ergonomics. If you have to separate them for usability, why increase the footprint of the main unit?

    I am not an Apple basher. I have Macs and own some Apple stock. I just think it sacrifices too much practicality for style.

    • I just think it sacrifices too much practicality for style.

      That's what I thought too. This is especially true for the strange laptop dock where the keyboard of the laptop slides in the back of the dock so it can be used from the front. This would require someone to have access to the back to make this work, which is unlikely in any kind of cubicle environment or for people that tend to put a desk up against a wall. Laptop keyboards are also usually not all that great, people tend to want a keyboard with more keys and/or greater key travel when at a desk. The mo

      • I don’t think it will be made or sold as an actual product. Companies like Apple patent bizarre stuff like this that will never see the light of day all the time. They already spent a lot on the R&D and prototypes, so why not just get a patent? You know, just in case it becomes relevant in ten years.
  • Great. Some stupid fucking shit that Apple will force on Mac users who just want a regular laptop that isn’t weird.
  • Apple patents a lot of things that either don't get made or only form part of a larger solution used in a novel way.
  • I imagine a laptop with every peripheral and port that I would ever need and a removable battery... remember those?

    • I imagine a laptop with every peripheral and port that I would ever need and a removable battery... remember those?

      Yes, I remember those and they sucked.

      Those were the days when a laptop was 2 inches thick, weighed several pounds, and the batteries lasted for an hour if you were lucky. The removable batteries then were a necessity, because it would take 4 or 5 batteries to last the whole day. I remember laptop bags with pockets for three spare batteries, that was just expected then. I don't want to go back.

      I don't mind needing dongles to plug into things. I just put the dongles on the cords I pack with my laptop, th

      • Not to gainsay your experience, but Apple themselves made laptops with removable batteries that lasted 3-4 hours under normal usage. And they had a reasonable assortment of ports. And a modern laptop achieving 8 hours isn't because they use the space the battery connection mechanism used up for more battery, it's because everything shrank so much that the battery volume is larger AND let's not forget power-saving efficiency improvements.

        Point being it isn't battery life vs. removable batteries, that's a fal

        • I made the same mistake ... Tracked down and bought an old 'new' battery for a Fujitsu laptop it had been sitting in a Fujitsu warehouse for years and years and was barely better than the old one it replaced.

          Well - I've learnt since then there's something ' battery repacking' (old case, new cells) and that's what I plan on for future needs of this sort.

      • My old Lenovo X220 has all the ports, and doesn't weigh any more than a book.

        And it always weighs as much as the size of the batteries and the screen. The rest is almost negligible.
        So nothing changed. Only CPUs got more efficient, lasting longer and doing more on smaller batteries. Making people use and waste more of that energy too, so batteries didn't shrink that much.

        In any case there is no relationship between weight and number of ports. They are a negligible part of the total mass.

        And you are acting li

  • When I click on the first, USPTO, link firefox puts a tiny Sun [NOW OWNED BY ORACLE] Microsystems logo on the tab. Larry ought to pull in some ad revenue off my click if he's not doing it already.
  • Woz would/could obtain the rights to the Apple IIgs and bring us a modern version of that wonderful creation. I can only dream. I really miss the old Apple that sold me so many wonderful computers.

  • Microsoft, as usual, is playing catch up. They put a full Windows OS and computer into a pane of glass, and displayed it at a show, and even hired a star to demonstrate it [awesomegifs.com].

  • Does not look patentable (Score:3)

    by Misagon ( 1135 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @04:24AM (#59663618)

    I don't think this is novel enough for a patent. For a Design Patent maybe, but it does not read like a Design Patent application. (experts on design patents, please correct me!)

    The only thing I see here that is somewhat special is that the screen and front area is one continuous surface of glass.

    The folding version, where the front area (with or without keyboard) can be folded up on a flexible living hinge has been done, sort of: with conventional hinges. Like several times before, Apple is copying Sony VAIO here, the Sony VAIO W all-in-one desktops (Sony W10 [manualslib.com]).

    Also with the variation that has a slot under the flat screen for sliding a keyboard, there is prior art also from Sony VAIO all-in-one desktops.
    And of course there are many bigger desktop computers made to fit a keyboard in a slot under the main unit: the oldest one I know of being the Dynalogic Hyperion [oldcomputers.net] from 1982.

    • Came up with it, 20 years ago. Didn't think of it as being any more than a small idea, not worth to be called an invention. Still do.

      Although, looking at it, they can claim independence on grounds of theirs being so much shittier that it's a different thing.
      Thanks "function follows form"! You saved Apple yet again!
      (Glass over aluminium... seriously...?)

  • It was an obvious progression from having a keyboard, a screen, and a touch screen on a 45 degree angle between them.

    Although only Apple would be stupid enough to use glass. Hey, why not go all the way, and use origami paper and sugar crystals so it absolutely puts looks over sturdy reliability??

    (I imagined it in a painted aluminium casing. Oh, and proper keyboard switches too. And as soon as we get stretchable displays, we can implement tactile buttons in the touch area too.)

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