Apple has been working on how to make the iPad-centric Apple Pencil do the job of the Touch Bar on the C side of a future MacBook Pro. A newly disclosed patent from Apple titled “Installable Computer Input Tool” represents several hints. The inventor of the patent doesn’t seem to want people to draw and write on the MacBook Pro’s screen, but rather that they sometimes use the Apple Pencil to interact with the touch panel.
It’s just a patent, and Apple gets thousands of these every year, it doesn’t mean any actual product will appear. However, sometimes you have to doubt their thinking, as the patent image now shows that the MacBook Pro has a stand for the Apple Pencil. It was a Mac with a place for the Apple Pencil.
Apple says in the patent that some computing devices, such as laptops, can have a touchscreen in or next to the device’s keyboard that can be configured to provide more functionality than a traditional set of keys, however, in some cases, accessibility A touchscreen can be difficult to use because it lacks tactile feedback compared to a set of mechanical, moving keys.
The patent doesn’t seem to rule out a touchscreen Mac, but it focuses on a Touch Bar-like bar. Apple now believes that the touchscreen is also generally positioned close to the user’s hand, so it may be easily blocked by the user’s own hand, and, even if the user is looking at the touchscreen, it is positioned at a different focal distance than the main display, so the user Their head or eyes must be readjusted to effectively read and interact with the touchscreen.
The patent shows that the Touch Bar may be replaced by a touch panel and that the previous Touch Bar location now has a groove to store the Apple Pencil. A touch panel can include a touch-sensitive surface that, upon detecting a touch event generated by the user using the Apple Pencil, generates a signal that can be processed and used by other components of the electronic device, and the display component of the electronic device can display virtual buttons representing selectable or Icons are textual and/or graphical display elements, while touch-sensitive surfaces allow users to navigate and change what is displayed on the display screen.
Apple believes that using the Apple Pencil to interact with the touch panel is more natural than interacting with the Touch Bar with your fingers.
