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Apple could bring E Ink keyboards to MacBooks in 2018
You may have to wait a while if you want a Mac with an E Ink keyboard. Wall Street Journal tipsters understand that Apple wants to make Sonder's e-paper keys a "standard feature" on MacBooks, but that it's aiming for a 2018 launch. Don't expect to see anything at that reported October 27th event, then. At least we're getting a hint of the functionality. As you'd expect, E Ink would let your Mac use "any" alphabet, along with special characters and media editing shortcuts. You could write emoji more like you do on a smartphone (where you replace the keyboard with an emoji picker) instead of using a keyboard shortcut and wading through an on-screen dialog box.
Apple reportedly wants to use changeable E Ink keyboards
Apple's plans for advanced laptop controls may extend beyond that rumored OLED touch strip. Both 9to5Mac and TrustedReviews report that Apple has been in talks to use a laptop version of Sonder Design's dynamic keyboard technology, which uses E Ink to change key labels on the fly. Just how Tim Cook and company would implement the hardware isn't clear, but it might work the way these keyboards have operated since the days of Art Lebedev's Optimus Maximus. If so, you'd get handy labels on keys as you switch contexts, such as brushes in an image editor or different characters when you switch languages.
