Apple is reportedly in talks to acquire a Sydney, Australia-based startup called Sonder, which has developed a customizable peripheral device that it’s called the “magic keyboard.”
While one reliable source, whose identity was verified by Reddit, says she actually used a prototype of the keyboard in Beijing, China, the Guardian report shows that Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Sonder CEO Francisco Serra-Martins at an event in China during Cook’s visit there this week.
What is the “Magic Keyboard”?
Developed by Sonder, the magic keyboard is a dynamic keyboard interface that can be customized for multiple languages, symbols, special icons and so on. It uses the E Ink type of display seen on Amazon’s Kindle readers.
The company has also released a short demo on YouTube to show how the keyboard works. Essentially, the keys are the same, but the display under them changes according to the settings.
According to the Reddit user, whose name was not revealed, the one she used at the university in Beijing was different from the one shown in the video. According to her, all the keys had a screen and lighting panel, and there was no lag in the display changes from black to white.
While it’s possible that there are several prototypes being tested, it’s clear that such a keyboard is, indeed, under development at this time. There is no word on when such a product might make its way into Apple’s list of peripherals or even whether the acquisition will go through, but it’s more than likely that Apple will get its hands on such a technology very soon.
Dynamic keyboards aren’t new. Our smartphones have had them for several years, but these have all been virtual keyboards. This is probably one of the first times a physical keyboard is being merged with a virtual interface to give the best of both worlds.
And if Apple is keen on getting its hands on the tech, it could help them leap forward innovation-wise. Once perfected, it could replace standard physical keyboards as we know them. Of course, that’s not going to happen in the next couple of years, but from the looks of it this technology is ready to go into a full-fledged test phase.
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