Apple has a habit of filing bizarre patents, but sometimes they end up paving the way for products like the Touch Bar on the 2016 MacBooks Pro. One such patent published on Thursday could end up making its way into a future MacBook Pro, or even your clothes.
The patent in question describes a “woven display” made out of individual light transmissive fibers woven together to create a display on a fabric-like surface. This is not just any flexible display though.
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These light transmissive fibers create “light pipes” which differ from embedded LEDs in that they are not actually generating the light themselves. The fibers receive light from the electronic devices and just “pipe” it to the woven display area. So, when it is off, presumably it would behave just like a tightly woven fabric — there are not any electronics in the woven fabric itself.
“Light tubes or light pipes are optical waveguides used for transporting or distributing natural or artificial light for the purpose of illumination,” the patent application reads. “The light pipes receive light from LEDs in the electronic device at the point of connection. … The light pipes can function as an electronic display.”
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The images accompanying the patent show some potential uses including bands for the Apple Watch, with embedded fabric displays, and even a laptop with a secondary display made of woven fibers.
That all sounds great, but will Apple actually do anything with this patent? That remains to be seen but there are some indications we could see this light fabric be put to use. For instance, this is not the first light-fabric patent Apple has filed. This application is a follow-up to an earlier patent filed in May 2014 — building on a technology Apple has apparently been working on and incorporating newer methods for using the fabric.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.