Apple files a patent for a new, more flexible MacBook clamshell design
A patent filed by Apple suggests future versions of the brand's MacBooks may get a Microsoft Surface Book-style hinge.
Apple appears to be working on a new concept for the Macbook. According to a patent filed with the European Patent Office, the Cupertino-based tech company is developing a laptop enclosure with a "flexible portion" that "may allow the rigid material to be folded in half and thus acts as a laptop clamshell.”
The Apple patent reads “A top portion may support a display screen and a bottom portion may support a keyboard, track pad, and the like, while an interior defined by sidewalls of the rigid material may house a variety of electronic components....In this manner, the enclosure (or a portion thereof) may be created from a single rigid material, while still providing flexibility and bending for the enclosure.”
Images from the patent demonstrate the curve of what the brand has dubbed a “living hinge,” which doesn't follow the trend of slimming down the laptop; in fact it's the opposite, it appears bulky, however it could give a more seamless look.
Microsoft did something very similar in 2015 -- with an added bonus. The company's “dynamic fulcrum hinge” supports a detachable screen allowing the Surface Books to have two functions. It looks and acts like a laptop, however when the screen is disjoined, turned 180 degrees and clipped back down, the Surface Book has a new tablet mode. It has yet to be seen whether Apple's version will come with added advantages, or when the brand even adopts this new design, if ever.
from Daily News & Analysis https://ift.tt/2L8FlWv
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