Home
Laptops
Laptops News
Apple Patent Envisions Turning Your iPhone or iPad Into a MacBook

Apple Patent Envisions Turning Your iPhone or iPad Into a MacBook

By Sanket Vijayasarathy | Updated: 24 March 2017 14:13 IST

Photo Credit: USPTO

Highlights

The patent filing was published on Thursday
Design shows an iPhone fitting into a slot on the laptop
The iPad could act as a touchscreen display for the laptop

Apple has filed a patent that could see a future where an iPhone and a MacBook combine to make a hybrid. A patent filing published on Thursday reveals possible future designs where an iPhone or an iPad can be used as accessories or components for a MacBook.

Apple's patent application, which was originally filed in September, was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The patent filing for an electronic accessory device shows a traditional laptop that will not function without a host device. Host devices would provide "internal components for portable computing devices having a thin profile." The host device, in this case an iPhone, will fit into a slot on the laptop and will act as the CPU. Essentially, this would turn it into a iPhone-powered laptop.

"It is anticipated that the accessory device is not a stand-alone computing device but only acts in concert with a host device," the patent says. "The host device can be a portable computing device, such as a smart phone, media player, tablet computer, or other portable computing device."

Theoretically, the host device could serve a number of purposes to "expand usefulness of a portable device" such as acting an extended storage device, or, in the case of the design above, using the iPhone as a multi-touch trackpad with Force Touch and haptic feedback. Another design shows an iPad acting as touchscreen display for the laptop, fitting into a slot which is usually meant for the laptop screen. This certainly looks like a way to achieve a touchscreen MacBook.

It's worth remembering that most patent filings usually never come to fruition, but this one does offer an insight into what Apple thinks could be the future of its product lineup.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.