MacBoard
A full Mac in a keyboard
It's not a keyboard with a TouchBar, it's a full Mac.
With full size usb-c ports and the power of M1. Thanks to WiGig (60 GHz wifi) it can broadcast its video feed with no cables, and use any nearby Mac as Hardware acceleration to get a power boost.
WiGig (60 GHz wifi) can broadcast heavy stream, up to 176 Gbit/s thanks to 4 streams MIMO. The range is short, but more than enough when it comes to connect a keyboard and a screen. The MacBoard and the screen both contain a Wifi modem compatible with WiGig.
If you are in a mobility situation, you can use your iPad as a screen. It will display your macOS session as if it was a regular screen. You just have to scan the Bar Code at the middle of the Touch Bar with any iPad to start using it as a screen. If it’s your iPad, you can take use its own SoC to get more computing power.
The iPhone screen is too small to be used as a monitor. But, if you scan the Bar Code on the Touch Bar, you will get access to the content stored in the MacBoard.
If you don’t have a screen near you, you can use your Apple Glasses to broadcast your macOS session in augmented reality.
WiGig (wifi 802.11ad and 802.11ay) allows for up to 176 Gbit/s bandwidth in a short range. Enough for the MacBoard to stream to a monitor and communicate with nearby computers. WiGig uses MIMO to increase its bandwidth. It can use 4 streams of 44 Gbit/s. A single stream can handle a Pro XDR Display at native resolution.
Whether you need CPU or GPU power, you can connect any compute unit over wifi and share compute power. Any iMac or Mac mini can share its hardware resources to complement the MacBoard computing power.
The MacBoard packages everything that makes a good Mac. A full SoC, storage, I/O. It is a computer on it’s own. Everywhere you need, any time you need. WiGig gives it unlimited modularity.
You are going to be away for a few weeks ? If you don’t want to carry your MacBoard, you can pair it with your MacBook. It will share its macOS session and transfer everything you need : documents, app, games...
The TouchBar in the MacBoard has a different role than in MacBook Pro. Here it allows to control and operate the MacBoard itself, displaying information about it status and current connections.
A new paradigm
(Local distributed system via Wifi)
The Retina Display uses its own hardware to complement the MacBoard, like a more powerful GPU and more I/O. The stand of the display hold a Qi wireless charger to charge the MacBoard. When you finished your work and leave the office, put your MacBoard on the bottom part of the stand to charge it up.
In case you need more power, bring in a MacBook Pro or Mac Mini. You will have access to their computing power through local Wifi (WiGig).
WiGig high frequency requires specific antennas. They are placed all arround the Mac Mini body to make sure to reach any device in any direction.
Each stage is focused on a specific need. If you need more CPU power, stack the corresponding Mac Mini. You can expand storage, add more graphics power or more Neural Engine Cores.
To add more computing power or storage, just put another Mac on top of it. You can build your very own Mac that fits your needs perfectly and make it evolve over time.
This allows for multi user sharing. Everyone in the room or the open space can access the computing power. This is perfect for an open space environment. The storage expansion can be configured to share access to everybody like a NAS or as a Time Capsule or set specific rules for each drive.
You can work together on the same file from multiple computers. For example, work on the same Photoshop file : the artist is drawing on iPad, the technician is editing the layers from his MacBook and the manager is validating from his MacBoard. They all use the Mac Mini stacked to benefit from the Neural Engine and computing power for rendering and export.
Currently you need to buy a Mac with the right storage space because you can't upgrade the storage later on. The Mac Mini Storage Expansion Pack works with Apple Space. It's a smart storage device that can be plugged or used via WiGig Wifi. Compatible with all Apple Devices.
Swappable Boards
Every Mac is modular, including the MacBoard
A developer who spends most of his time typing text and rarely work on the go can use a mechanical keyboard for a better typing experience. Someone who need a lighter more compact board can use the traditional keyboard.
Scribble brought to the Mac
The biggest iPad innovation now on the Mac.
Natural speech on MacOS.
This allows for a more natural and universal input. For example, writing a long e-mail is much faster this way because we are all efficient at writing while some of us might be slow at typing on a keyboard.
Currently, using Scribble is complicated when the iPad is standing and not resting flat on the table. With the TouchBoard you can use your Apple Pencil like you would on an iPad, getting the best of both worlds.
Using the TouchBoard with Final Cut Pro gives you direct control over the Timeline and more precision over the color grading tool. The right interaction technique for the right App.
GarageBand on iPad is a big success partly because its instruments are so easy to take in hand. With the TouchBoard we can bring that simplicity to the Mac and make even more with Logic Pro.
One more Thing
TouchPad
Futuristic Mac, futuristic TrackPad
At first glance it might look like a regular Trackpad, but it's much more.
When the option key is pressed on the MacBoard, the screen turn on and a numeric keypad appears.
When the command key is pressed on the MacBoard, the TouchPad displays a dock with all opened apps allowing to manage windows easily. The user can also access the most used app directly, program shortcuts, get Siri suggestions and much more.
New MacBook Pro
The frontier between Laptop and Desktop has never been so thin