While Apple recently launched an all-new Bluetooth keyboard, the company doesn’t seem to stop there as Apple may be working on a Force Touch keyboard as we speak.
The new Magic Keyboard is the latest iteration of Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard for Mac, and instead of relying on alkaline batteries, it comes with a built-in battery, different keys similar to the keyboard of the new 12-inch MacBook, and some very important changes. an overall smaller footprint than the last version.
Perhaps the biggest change users will notice is the difference in key trips. The keys on the new Magic Keyboard have much less movement than the previous iteration, meaning the distance it takes to fully press is much less this time around.
This isn’t a bad thing in itself and can save time while typing, allowing you to hit keys faster and type faster overall.
In any case, this is likely to be Apple’s keyboard for the next few years, but they’re at least working on what could be the next Apple keyboard to implement a Force Touch component.
A Apple patent published It turns out that Apple had the ingenious idea to apply Force Touch technology to the Bluetooth keyboard.
Essentially what this means is not only that the keyboard will have Force Touch capabilities, but that the keyboard will basically have no keys, or at least have very low travel distance of the keys. This will allow the keyboard mechanisms to be even thinner and could eventually lead to thinner MacBooks.
As for the Force Touch technology applied to the keyboard, it essentially works the same as the Force Touch trackpad on the MacBook Pro; here you can press like normal to select something and then press harder for alternative options. The patent even says that each key will offer haptic feedback, just like the Force Touch trackpad.
As for the uses of the Force Touch keyboard and how users are going to use this thing, that’s still up in the air, but here you can let your imagination run wild. If you’re typing in a different language, it could offer a similar feature to the iOS keyboard where you can hard-press a key to bring up alternative characters for that letter, like umlauts or accents.
Also, it would be great if users could set emoji for Force Touch actions, and with Force Touch we could see more in-depth keyboard shortcuts.
Sure, the Force Touch keyboard is probably years away, so we probably won’t see anything like it for a while, but it’s interesting to at least see what Apple has planned for the future.
Also, the current Magic Keyboard has been released and offers some improvements over the previous generation. However, there are some things that can turn you off, like the built-in battery that will eventually wear out, and the low travel keys, which is pretty controversial with keyboard lovers, especially mechanical keyboard enthusiasts.
Also, the new Magic Keyboard still lacks backlighting, a feature many users want, especially since MacBook keyboards are backlit. Sure, the LEDs will drain the battery a bit more, but I think that’s something Apple could address and minimize with a new keyboard release in the future. Hopefully we’ll see a Force Touch keyboard sooner or later because of the improvements Apple can still make to its keyboard.
