Undercurrent of interest at Apple?

Apple may continue to have an interest in building a touchscreen Mac, a newly disclosed patent application hints. Titled Scheme for Authenticating without Password Exchange, the filing refers to several possible input types, including "a keyboard, a microphone, touch screen input and mouse input," interfacing with a central chipset and then components like displays, storage and networking. Apple adds that displays could use DVI or HDMI connections, and/or be associated with notebooks, "small form factor personal computers" or smartphones.

The company has been rumored to have an interest in a touchscreen Mac for some time. Recent claims have centered around a 22-inch iMac, which would be distinct from the current 21.5- and 27-inch models. Some former Apple employees have argued, though, that multi-touch could be difficult to add to Mac OS X beyond the limited approach used for MacBook trackpads. The OS is a "kludged mess of code from past operating systems," one worker observers.

[via Patently Apple]

by MacNN Staff