Apple’s just patented a second screen for your iPad with smart cover display
As if we aren't already assaulted by screen after screen on a daily basis – such is modern life – Apple wants to give you another one.
The iPad helped create the concept of "second screening", but Apple thinks you need a second screen for your second screen, raising the prospect of third screening as an actual thing (my eyes!).
The tech titan has patented a new concept – the smart iPad covers.
Apparently, you're iPad isn't smart enough on its own, and Apple has come up with creating a second screen on the cover encasing the device.
Read more: Someone spent thousands on this one-off Jony Ive designed iPad
The smart cover, or "cover attachment with flexible display" as the patent states, features a flexible touchscreen display that could be used for a variety of things – to show notifications on the outside, for extending the display of the iPad on the inside, while it also suggests using solar panels on part of the cover to power it.
Apple notes in the filing that this is a way of extending "the usability and functionality of a tablet device without making it any larger".
While there's no indication that Apple is working on making this a reality right now, patent blog Patently Apple which first reported the news, notes that the granting of this patent also includes a smart connector for the cover, something used in its newest device, the iPad Pro, which comes with a smart keyboard that connects in a similar way.
Check out the pictures from the filing below.