Apple Could Revive MacBook’s Glowing Logo, If Patent Is To Be Believed
Photo 69898973 © Radek Ziemniewicz | Dreamstime.com
You could spot a MacBook user from a few feet away by the light-up logo on the back of their laptop. The insignia was as ubiquitous as the notch—and now Dynamic Island—is on iPhones today. So imagine users’ dismay when Apple took away this sleek yet futuristic feature in 2015.
Fans speculate that the Cupertino tech giant removed the illuminated branding as MacBooks got slimmer and slimmer, rendering their lids unable to accommodate the multi-depth logo technology.
However, just as Apple has brought back and reimagined the flat-edged iPhone 4 frame for the modern era, it might also rekindle the magic of the backlit logo. It now seems to be taking a shine on this retro detail again. One can only hope, as a new patent published by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which the company applied for back in May, suggests that the Apple cutout could one day beam across laptops—and possibly other devices—again.
The design, entitled Electronic Devices With Backlit Partial Mirror Structures, is described to be applicable for electronics constructed from metal, glass, polymer, ceramic, fiber-composite components, and/or crystalline materials. In spite of this, the accompanying illustrations (via MacRumors) exclusively depict the configuration on laptops, so it’s clear that Apple is pretty much looking at resuscitating the backlit logos for MacBooks only.
As outlined by Apple, the logo would sit on the rear of a product’s housing, which “may be provided with a backlit partially-reflective mirror.”
It continues: “The mirror may provide the logo or other structures with a shiny appearance while blocking interior components from view. At the same time, the partial transparency of the mirror allows backlight illumination from within the device to pass through the mirror… The mirror may have a neutral color such as light gray or may have a non-neutral color such as gold.”
The company says at least one thin-film layer could be used on the mirror, which it imagines as only one-way, to create the ideal light reflection, transmission, and absorption.
Patently Apple, which sighted the patent, noticed that three engineers who only joined the company in 2018 were cited in the filing, suggesting that they have some fresh ideas about how the glowing logo can be reintroduced into MacBooks. As per Wccftech, mini-LEDs might be used in place of the traditional LEDs, though those can be quite expensive.
[via MacRumors, Wccftech, Patently Apple, cover photo 69898973 © Radek Ziemniewicz | Dreamstime.com]
