Apple to implement Microsoft's Display Cover idea

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by Surur Davids 

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display cover

In August last year Microsoft Research showed of a Display Cover concept for their Surface, which would add a thin film e-ink display that extends the available screen real estate of the slate device by up to 8%. The display would  be  bistable due to electrophoretic ink, reducing the secondary screen’s impact on battery life.

The screen would be touch sensitive and would change function based on the app running.

Now it seems Apple is getting ready to ship a product implementing the same ideas, according to reliable Apple rumour monger Mark Gurman.

https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/739886080560766981

It is a pity that it seems Apple will make it to market faster than Microsoft but I think in both cases it will be somewhat of a gimmick, given that most applications would not support the feature and most devices, be they Surfaces or MacBooks, will not come with the screen either, making the feature superfluous for most application developers.

See a video demoing Microsoft Research’s full idea below:

More about the topics: apple, microsoft research

Surur Davids

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Surur Davids is the founder of WMPoweruser which later became MSPoweruser.com. He's a smartphone expert with over a decade of experience.