Between 2000 and 2010, Apple gained a reputation for astonishing the world with brand new products and designs that ultimately became iconic and popular on epically historic levels. In the last few years, they’ve been more synonymous with incremental upgrades to their gear as opposed to revolutionary and/or daring new ideas.
However, Apple was just awarded a new patent, and if they ever do anything with it, they could go back to holding “shock and awe” press conferences and product reveals at some point once again.
Cupertino was just granted a new patent that contains designs for a MacBook that has both dual displays and solar charging capabilities. The second display would be located on top of its lid, while photovoltaic cells embedded in the rear panel would allow the MacBook to charge whenever the cells made contact with light.
It’s worth noting that the notion of a dual-screen laptop isn’t exactly new. We reviewed the Asus Taichi notebook almost a year ago, which included dual displays. As you might expect, one of the Taichi’s drawbacks was battery life. However, if Apple shipped a MacBook with both dual displays and solar charging, that would at least address the battery life issue, though its unclear if that would solve it completely.
Keep in mind that companies often file applications for and are granted patents for stuff that they may never end up making, so don’t jump for joy expecting a radically new MacBook with a pair of screens and solar charging later this year. Keep those expectations tempered, for now at least.
What do you think of a dual screen, solar charging MacBook? Would you be interested in such a product? Why or why not? Sound off in the comments below.
