Charging your phone from a laptop isn’t new, but how powering your laptop with just your phone? Apple has been attempting to do something very similar. The company filed a patent in September which was published on Thursday with an image of a traditional clamshell laptop and i-phone sized slot instead of a touchpad.
As the patent read,
The following relates to an electronic accessory device that can be used to extend functionality, including input/output resources, of a separate host electronic device, which can be a portable computing device. In various embodiments, the electronic accessory device can be considered a “thin” device, in that it extends the functionality of another device but is inoperable by itself as a stand-alone device. As such, the accessory device can have little or no independent processing resources in the form of a CPU or similar comprehensive processor. The accessory device, however, can provide auxiliary processing resources, such a graphical processing unit, or GPU, or other processing resources that can support the functions of the portable computing device. However, in the context of this discussion, it is anticipated that the accessory device is not a stand-alone computing device but only acts in concert with a host device. The host device can be a portable computing device, such as, for example, a smart phone, media player, tablet computer, or other portable computing device.
In one embodiment, the accessory device can have a form factor of a laptop computer having a display and a keyboard as well as other output/input devices known to be available with a laptop computer. The accessory device, however, does not have the processing resources (such as a CPU) generally associated with a conventional laptop computer. In this regard, the host device can provide the necessary computing resources, but it is the accessory device that provides additional functionality, such as a large display, enhanced audio capabilities, and further input means. These can include, for example, a mouse, track pad, keyboard, and the like.
The idea of such a device is not new to us, other hardware manufacturers like HP and Motorola have already tried and failed. Yet, when Apple attempts it, we know they are going to think different and might succeed in its trials.
