Apple is pretty infamous for its huge arsenal of design and product patents. I’d almost be as bold to state that most of them never make it to market, nevertheless, many of them bring up some very interesting ideas. One of them is a new Smart Cover design that features an in-built mini display.

It connects to the iPad when it’s magnetically attached to the side of the tablet, and presumably runs off the iPad’s huge battery. The image above – from AppleInsider – shows that it could utilize the display to host an extra row of application icons. Personally, I’d find this incredibly useful if that row was exclusively used for multitasking. Meaning that instead of four-finger swiping or double-tapping the home key, the most recent apps would have their icons displayed in a column on the Smart Cover.

Another intriguing feature could be using the Smart Cover as a keyboard or as a drawing pad. As mentioned in the caption, it’s a little Surface-esque, but it could potentially work. Apart from Logitech’s most recent keyboard release, there’s not been much innovation in the iPad keyboard market. We need one that attaches via the magnets on the tablet.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you find a multi-purpose Smart Cover/keyboard/display useful, or is it simply Apple registering a patent to claim that it got there first?

Via: AppleInsider