Apple is always looking for the next big innovation. The latest sensation is a new Apple patent that was made public on Thursday, March 23, 2016. The company is looking into ways to turn your iPhone into a sort of “brain” that can power your own MacBook.
It’s important to remember that this is just a patent at the moment. That means the description of the future ability is currently vague and broad in nature. The patent explains a shell that appears to be a MacBook laptop lacking a processor. The shell is simply referred to as an accessory device. There is a spot on the laptop that resembles a dock, which is where you would place your iPhone or other portable computing device inside to provide the laptop shell with power.
The patent states the accessory device can include certain processing powers that support the normal functions of a laptop, such as a graphic processing unit. There are two illustrations Apple has presented that show how this idea would work with iPhones or iPads. With the iPhone, there is a slot in place on the device where a trackpad would normally be situated on a MacBook. On the flip side, an iPad would go where the screen is normally placed on a laptop.
As stated, the patent is considerably vague, but at the same time, it’s easy to envision how the accessory device would be useful for many people. For instance, if you used your iPhone in place of a full MacBook, you would have access to everything on your iPhone, yet gain the advantage of using a larger screen and a full keyboard to input data.
Apple knows that users rely on their iPhones and MacBooks more than any other devices. That’s why this patent is a great idea. It allows users to have even better access not only with each device, but also across devices so they can easily access personal data. Of course, iCloud is an option that already allows this, but it’s not as easy to rely on cloud services.
At the end of the day, this patent is a great idea that may even help users save money. It would mean the accessory device would be used with a person’s iPhone, and it would override the need to purchase a laptop. A single system would work extremely well and could run the device’s operating system directly from the phone. The storage and processor would also come from the iPhone, which could help users, especially those who rely on laptops while on the go. That said, we know all too well that Apple products are never cheap, so we can expect to have to pay handsomely for this feature should it ever become available to the general public.
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