Appletell

Yet another patent rumor discovered by AppleInsider, this time it sounds really cool: A keyboard with every key containing an OLED display so that the keyboard layout can be easily changed.

“The most common physical arrangements of keys on keyboards in Western countries are based on the “QWERTY” layout (including closely related variants, such as the French “AZERTY” layout). However, in countries that do not use the Western alphabet, the keyboard layout is often very different,”

This is a really cool idea, and I’m sure Apple are not the first to think of it (although first to patent it). Having the ability to change the physical keyboard layout as well as the Cyrillic layout means that no longer will separate versions of keyboards for different countries need to be produced. For example, even the small differences like a £ instead of a $ on a UK keyboard means that Apple has to create a different keyboard layout. And in the future, if Apple decides to introduce new features like the play, pause and next track buttons on their keyboards (like they have on the new Apple keyboards), then these can be added at the click of a button. The only disadvantage is the cost of producing these keyboards will be very expensive. An OLED display in every key also means if a key breaks off, it will be even more expensive to repair.

Via [AppleInsider]
Photo credit [Flickr]

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