If you’re into Prime Day deals, you should be following Thrifter!

For Prime Day, there’s only one place you need to visit.

Amazon Prime Day is basically a national holiday. Seriously, you should ask your boss for the day off.

But even if you have to work on Monday, July 16, don’t sweat it, because Thrifter is the only place you need to follow to get up-to-the-minute news on the best Prime Day deals.

Here’s how it works. Go to Thrifter right now and sign up for their special Prime Day newsletter. Then, go follow Thrifter on Twitter, because they will be posting Lightning Prime Day deals throughout the event’s 36-hours. (Yeah, these folks aren’t sleeping much over the next few days.)

Amazon is already trickling out a few great deals, and Thrifter is rounding them up for you on its dedicated deals page, so take a look there, too. Even if you’re only interested in deals during certain times of the year, like Black Friday, you should think about paying attention to Prime Day. Last year, there were some incredible discounts on Amazon products like its line of Echo speakers, Instant Pot pressure cookers, Nintendo Switch accessories, and lots more. This year, we’re expecting even better prices on some of our favorite items.

If you’ve read this far and are still not sure what Amazon Prime Day is exactly, we’ve got a great explainer, including times and dates, what discounts to expect, and tips and tricks on how to get the best prices on your favorite products. Head over there now.

Then, when you’re ready to party (and by party, we mean save some money), sign up for the Thrifter Prime Day newsletter. There’s even a LIVE chatroom for all your Prime Day discussion!

See you on the other side 👋

See at Thrifter

2018 MacBook Pro Features ‘Fastest SSD Ever’ in a Laptop According to Benchmarks

The 2018 MacBook Pros just went on sale yesterday, but Apple was quick about shipping them out and some customers already have the new machines in hand.

Laptop Mag was able to get one of the new 13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro models and performed some benchmarks to give us an idea of how it measures up to competing PCs. According to Laptop Mag, it the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is the “fastest system in its class.”

The site’s tests were performed on the $1,999 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar equipped with an 2.3GHz quad-core 8th-generation Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

A file copy test of the SSD in the new MacBook Pro, which Apple says supports sequential read speeds of up to 3.2GB/s and sequential write speeds up to 2.2GB/s, led Laptop Mag to declare the SSD in the MacBook Pro “the fastest ever” in a laptop. Higher capacity SSDs may see even faster speeds on disk speeds tests. A BlackMagic Disk Speed test was also conducted, resulting in an average write speed of 2,682 MB/s.

I had to do a double take when I saw how quickly the new 13-inch MacBook Pro duplicated 4.9GB worth of data. It took 2 seconds, which comes out to a rate of 2,519 megabytes per second. That’s insane.

So we also ran the BlackMagic Disk Speed test for macOS, and the system returned an average write speed of 2,682 MBps.

To be fair, Apple’s relatively new APFS file system is designed to speed up file file copies using a technology Apple calls Instant Cloning. But a win is a win.

On a Geekbench 4 CPU benchmark, the 13-inch MacBook Pro earned a score of 18,055 on the multi-core test, outperforming 13-inch machines from companies like Dell, HP, Asus, and Microsoft. That score beats out all 2017 MacBook Pro models and is faster than some iMac configurations. 15-inch MacBook Pro models with 6-core 8th-generation Intel chips will show even more impressive speeds.

The MacBook Pro took 16:57 minutes to transcode a 4K video clip to 1080p using Handbrake, faster than most competing machines and two and a half minutes faster than the 2017 13-inch MacBook Pro. It didn’t win at an Excel VLOOKUP macro matching 65,000 names to corresponding addresses, but at 1 minute 16 seconds to complete the task, it was competitive with the Dell XPS 13 and Asus Zenbook, while beating out the Surface Book 2 and the Huawei MateBook X Pro.

One area where the MacBook Pro didn’t quite measure up to other machines with similar specs was GPU performance. The 13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro uses Intel’s Iris Plus Graphics 655 with 128MB of embedded DRAM and was unable to compete in a Dirt 3 graphics test, getting only 38.8 frames per second. All Windows-based machines tested offered much better performance.

Apple did team up with Blackmagic to offer a Blackmagic eGPU for gaming purposes and system intensive creative tasks, but the device is priced at $700. It does, however, offer super fast performance with a built-in Radeon Pro 580 GPU.

Additional benchmarks and details about the 2018 MacBook Pro models will surface over the course of the next few days as orders arrive and retail stores begin stocking the machines.

The new 2018 models can be purchased from the Apple online store, with prices on the 13-inch machine starting at $1,799 and prices on the 15-inch machine starting at $2,399.

Related Roundup: MacBook ProBuyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

Best Android games to play with family and friends

Technology often gets a bad rep for sucking kids and adults alike in for hours at a time, removing them from their peers and families and engulfing them into a fantasy world.

But throw in a good game into the mix and smartphones can quickly be turned into the tool that can help people connect and family members bond with each other.

With this in mind, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best family-friendly games for Android to keep family and friends entertained for hours — regardless of age.

Tic Tac Toe Glow

What it is:

The mobile version of one of the most popular games in the world. You can play against a human opponent or the computer.

Why we like it:

• Tic Tac Tow Glow features a new cool glow design which gives this classic game a modern look and feel.
• The game has 3 difficulty levels.
• The app includes four other games you can play including Block Tower and Bubble Shooter. But they don’t have a multi-player option.

Install Tic Tac Glow

Where’s My Water

What it is:

A fun app for parents and children alike developed by Disney. Features cute graphics and many challenging levels.

Why we like it:

• Fun storyline: help Swampy the crocodile to take a bath by cutting through dirt and guide fresh water to his bathtub through increasingly challenging scenarios.
• Three more characters (Allie, Cranky and Mystery Duck) to play with.
• Develops creativity and problem solving throughout a series of 500 puzzles.
• New levels are added each week. Just make sure you play them before they expire.

Install Where’s My Water

Sleepwalker’s Journey

What it is:

A beautiful journey into dreams developed by 11-bit studios. The app is perfect for imaginative kids of all ages who love fantasy.

Why we like it:

• Beautiful graphics create an immersive visual story, players of all ages will love to immerse themselves in.
• Invites you to solve environment puzzles where you move obstacles, use elevators to create a safe path for Moonboy, so he can go to his bed.
• Over 45 dreams to explore. More are added with updates.

Install Sleepwalker’s Journey

Party Games

What it is:

A family party app which includes a series of 12 games which you can play with up to 4 players. Developed by MalyaWka.

Why we like it:

• Let’s you play fun games with family and friends. Available options include Squares, Collapse, Highway, Races and more.
• Some games let you set the difficulty level.
• Colorful and friendly graphics will ensure you and your family have a great time.

Install Party Games

Pettson’s Inventions Deluxe

What it is:

A fun, pedagogic app that helps kids of all ages boost their logic and creative skills.

Why we like it:

• Players are tasked to help old man Pettson and his kitty Findus to build their wacky inventions.
• Simply drag and drop the parts to the right spot. The game boasts a multi-touch layout.
• You can compete against a friend or a clock in VS mode.

Sidenote: This is a paid app. It costs $3.99 to download.

Install Pettson’s Inventions Delux

Heads Up!

What it is:

An addictive charades-style party game that became popular thanks to appearances on the Ellene DeGeneres show. What you need to do is guess as many words as possible from themed decks of cards based on your friends’ clues.

Why we like it:

• The app includes 18 themed decks to choose from including movies, animals, characters and lots more.
• Drawing a card is super easy. Just tilt your phone.
• Records your friends giving clues. You can easily share the best moments afterwards.

Install Heads Up!

Draw Something

What it is:

The game which has been described as “Pictionary” on a phone has players draw an image, while the others have to guess the word that inspired the masterpiece.

Why we like it:

• You don’t have to be an artist to play. Simply draw as well as you can on the phone. Don’t forget to add a bit of humor to your images for extra fun.
• Extensive library of new and updated words to draw. From Science to Pop Culture and more.
• Unlock color packs to make your drawings even more compelling.

Install Draw Something

2018 MacBook Pro’s ‘Quieter’ Keyboard Compared to Previous MacBook Pro Keyboard

Apple’s new 2018 MacBook Pro models feature a third-generation butterfly keyboard, which Apple says has been improved for a “quieter typing experience.”

The difference in sound between the quieter 2018 MacBook Pro keyboard and the older butterfly keyboard in an earlier version of the MacBook Pro has been demoed in video by TechCrunch, with the difference in sound clearly audible.

The sound coming from the 2018 MacBook Pro keyboard is noticeably muffled compared to the sound coming from the previous-generation MacBook Pro, which, as TechCrunch points out, sounds much more like a typewriter.

Multiple hands-on experiences with the 2018 MacBook Pro shared by various media sites yesterday have also confirmed that the new third-generation butterfly keyboard is a good deal quieter than previous keyboards.

When it comes to feel, though, reviews have said that the keyboard doesn’t feel any different, as it’s using the same butterfly switches with the same amount of key travel.

According to Apple, the focus with the third-generation keyboard was dampening key sounds, and the company has not confirmed if specific changes were made to address keyboard failure issues present in 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro models.

Some 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro owners have experienced issues with sticky, unresponsive, or repeating keys, leading Apple to launch a repair program for those machines. Apple is offering free repairs for affected MacBook Pro models, but it continues to be unclear if design changes have been implemented to prevent the issue, both in earlier machines and the new 2018 machines.

More information will be available on the 2018 MacBook Pro keyboard when it’s unveiled through the teardowns that should be coming soon.

Related Roundup: MacBook ProBuyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

Texture Drops Premium Pricing to $9.99 for Existing Subscribers

Texture, the digital magazine service that Apple acquired earlier this year, recently dropped its $14.99 Premium price point for existing subscribers.

Texture Premium, which allows for access to both weekly and monthly magazines, is now priced at $9.99 for all customers, new and existing.

The price change was shared in an email from Harry McCracken yesterday, and confirmed today by Texture. Texture is streamlining its pricing plans and opting to sell a single $9.99 plan instead of multiple plans.

Texture, now owned by Apple, just got cheaper. pic.twitter.com/lqEekkuDjU

— Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken) July 12, 2018

The price of Texture Premium for new customers was dropped to $9.99 some time ago, while existing customers had still been paying $14.99 per month. With the new pricing update this week, all Texture customers are now paying the lower cost for full access to all Texture content.

Prior to the pricing change for Texture Premium, Texture charged $9.99 per month for access to monthly magazines, and $14.99 per month for access to both weekly and monthly magazines, but now there’s just one plan.

For customers who may have been paying less than $9.99 due to previous promotions, pricing has not changed, and they will still get access to Texture at the lower price point.

Texture provides unlimited access to more than 200 digital magazines, including titles like People, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, GQ, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, People, Wired, and more.

Rumors have suggested that in the future, Texture will be bundled into an Apple subscription news service that will offer digital magazine content.

Tag: Texture
Discuss this article in our forums

Thanks to CERN, your next X-ray scan could be in full color

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Mars Bioimaging

Mars Bioimaging

Mars Bioimaging

Your next X-ray could be a whole lot more colorful — and you’ve got Europe’s CERN physics lab and a New Zealand startup to thank for it.

The color X-ray technology, which could help improve the field of medical diagnostics, utilizes particle-tracking technology developed for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. According to the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, it could be utilized to produce clearer, more accurate images compared to the traditional black-and-white X-rays hospital doctors have been using routinely since at least the 1930s. This should prove particularly valuable in diagnosing diseases, including cancer and heart disease, because it provides greater detail concerning the body’s chemical components.

The technology is now being commercialized in the form of a dedicated scanner by a New Zealand startup called Mars Bioimaging, which recently performed the world’s first ever color X-ray of human body parts — in this case, the ankle and wrist.

“Mars scanners use a detector that uses the color or energy information of the x-rays that traditional x-ray detectors don’t use,” Professor Phil Butler, a physicist working at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury who helped invent the Mars scanner, told Digital Trends. “This color or energy information from the x-ray, also known as spectral information, is used to distinguish different atoms or materials from each other, [such as] calcium from iodine. In addition, Mars scanners have a much smaller pixel size, meaning its possible to generate 1000x more information than existing CT systems for the same dose.”

Phil Butler co-developed the scanner with his son Anthony Butler, a radiologist and professor at the Universities of Canterbury and Otago. The technology is already available in the form of a small-bore scanner for carrying out medical research. The pair now plan to produce commercially available body part scanners for use on patients.

“There are wide applications for this technology,” Phil Butler continued. “We have already demonstrated using our small-bore system that it can be used for investigating composition of plaques that cause strokes, measuring the deterioration of cartilage, viewing bone-metal implant interfaces, and detecting small cancers in mice.”

Hopefully it won’t be long before this is a standard piece of equipment in hospitals everywhere.

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Ironically, tech will save us from the horror of Cell Phone Courtesy Month

July is National Cell Phone Courtesy Month. An entire month dedicated to back-patting among those who likely already display such values, and chastising the poor saps unlucky enough to use their phone in a situation deemed inappropriate by the tech police.

It’s an almost complete waste of time. The boorish, the rude, and the cretinous will continue to use their phones in places where it’s a common courtesy not to, entirely unaware of what month it is, while the rest of us have to hear about what a societal blight we are every time we dare to look at a notification.

The good news is seismic changes in the industry itself have the potential to stop it happening from 2020 onwards, but in the meantime we could all do with adjusting our phone use a little, to make sure we don’t need similarly irksome courtesy months in the future.

Stop the hate from spreading

It’s genuinely astonishing the message still hasn’t got through to people that sometimes, it’s best to put the damn phone down. Not only have smartphones been around for more than 10 years — the iPhone launched in 2007, and they were around before then — but even National Cell Phone Courtesy Month isn’t a new idea either. It pre-dates the iPhone itself, with coverage being found online as far back as 2005.

Let’s be clear. I hate National Cell Phone Courtesy Month.

Let’s be clear. I hate National Cell Phone Courtesy Month. I hate that it has to exist at all, and I hate that there is a website where you can buy a t-shirt of a mug with the name splashed across it. The turgid smugness that comes with vocally “supporting” this cause is no different from the eye-rolling calls for kids to spend more time kicking balls, and for adults to disconnect and go convene with nature. It’s the domain of busybodies that should really mind their own business.

The busybodies do have a slight point though, and in preparation for a more pleasant tech future, we can make a few behavioral changes now.

Three steps to heaven

Carry on using your phone on the street, in the office, at dinner, in bed, in the bath, in Starbucks, and even in the middle of a conversation. It’s fine. It will still hurt the feelings of a few, but not to worry. That tweet needed liking. This is not a call to use your phone less, it is a call to curb usage in a select few very specific situations. They’re sensible ones, and will go along way to placating the complainers.

An easy one to start with: The movie theater, or anywhere a performance is happening. We’re there to watch and be entertained by someone, so let’s do that. Few establishments take measures beyond an on-screen announcement, apart from the Alamo Drafthouse, which clearly states on its website that it has a zero tolerance to phone use and says, “We’ll kick you out, promise. We’ve got backup.” Good for it.

Musician Jack White took a more drastic approach when he banned phones at several gigs earlier this year. He called it an art experiment, and complained people can’t clap anymore because they’ve got a phone in one hand and a drink in the other. We’re sure the lack of attention is frustrating, so let’s appease Jack and our fellow cinema-goers by just not touching our phones for 120 minutes or so.

Next is in the car. All the tools are there to help us not touch our phones. For example, the Android Auto app minimizes interruptions by automatically activating Do Not Disturb, or use Apple’s driving mode in iOS that does the same. If you have a new car with Android Auto or CarPlay, use it instead of your phone. The AAA says it’s safer in many situations. Don’t become, or force someone else to become, another of the 3,500 deaths on the road due to distracted driving.

Don’t become, or force someone else to become, another of the 3,500 deaths on the road due to distracted driving.

Finally, on a plane. Like the movie theater, someone always loudly tells you to put your phone in airplane mode when the door is secured. Countless people don’t, because obviously the rule applies only to other people. I’ve sat next to someone who hid their phone away when the steward walked past to check seat belts, and continued sending messages after they’d moved on. Congratulations on being a complete arse. Just turn on Airplane Mode and go to sleep.

See a theme here? They’re all easy, and situations when we’ve actually got something else to occupy our time, so boredom can’t be used as an excuse. The effort, in the long run, will be worth it.

Tech has the answer

While National Cell Phone Courtesy Month squarely puts the onus on you to make changes, ironically it’s the tech industry itself that has the long-term solution. Screens, and our need to stare at and touch them, are the main reason smartphones are considered “rude,” as we’re seen to be giving it our complete attention. That’s going to end, and with it the view that the geeky are all ignorant, or socially inept. Gartner, in a late 2016 report, predicted that by 2020, “the majority of devices will be designed to function with minimal or zero touch.”

It foresees voice, gestures, biometrics, and ambient tech as being key replacements to the way we interact with devices now. By minimizing or completely doing away with touch interfaces, our reliance on screens will also lessen. In his book on the future of technology, author David Rose said screens slow us down anyway, but “enhanced objects” connected to the cloud and operated with gestures — an evolution of smart home devices we’re seeing now — will reduce distractions generated by a screen, and make tech more convenient and inclusive.

The emergence of artificial intelligence, augmented reality (AR), and next-generation hardware that supports it such as Magic Leap, is another piece of the puzzle that will shift us away from handheld devices, and towards something that doesn’t require that eyes-down level of involvement like a phone. Apple CEO Tim Cook said AR would change the way we use technology forever, and we’re not going to argue. At the moment we tend to think about AR being all about games, but it’s not. It’s a part of the complex equation that will shift personal tech away from the phone.

When smartphones are tech dinosaurs, then Cell Phone Courtesy Month will also become extinct. Worryingly, AR Courtesy Month will probably be ready to replace it. But if we all try a bit harder now, perhaps we’ll be better prepared, courtesy-wise, for the imminent future of mobile devices, leaving the busybodies with no choice but to turn their attention to something else.

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Microsoft patent paves way for a touch- and smudge-free tablet future

While touchscreens are great for navigating on smartphones and tablets, your greasy fingers leave annoying prints on the surface, blurring the view. Microsoft aims to change that, at least on future Surface devices, by implementing a design that relies on touch-free input. This design appears in a granted patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on July 10 simply named as “Touchless input.”

Similar to how Apple’s TrueDepth camera on the iPhone X maps your face to eliminate the need for login credentials, Microsoft’s design would rely on a similar camera that captures a series of depth maps of an entire scene, including a human subject. A detection system built within the device scans each pixel in each map to determine what is static junk and what consists of the device owner.

According to the patent, this process includes “modeling the human subject with a virtual skeleton including a plurality of virtual joints including a virtual hand joint and one or more other virtual joints.” These virtual joints are compared across all captured depth maps to determine a finger gesture based on machine learning. The system can track more than one human user and/or physical objects.

In an example, as the device owner is navigating the user interface, the integrated tracking system is tracking the position of the user’s finger in physical space. The device maps the physical location of the finger to the on-screen cursor. That said, the user can simply move the finger in physical space to move the cursor in the same direction without having to actually touch the screen’s surface.

But the tracking system doesn’t just support simple cursor movements. Given that it can track multiple fingers, users can click and drag files and folders, zoom in and out, pan across the screen, double-tap, rotate, and more. To that extent, Microsoft is emulating mouse functions and physical gestures used on touchscreens and trackpads, only they are performed in the air instead of on a hard surface.

“In embodiments in which the depth camera has sufficient resolution, fingerprints of a human subject may be identified and matched to a user,” the patent states. “In this way, the user can be identified, and cursor control or other computing attributes may be set to preferences associated with the identified user.”

Device configurations may include an additional visible-light camera that may or may not have the same resolution as the depth camera. It would be used to detect the light intensity of a surface using red, green, and blue values, thus adding color to the depth maps to provide more detail. Another configuration would use a “structured light” depth camera that projects a structured infrared illumination.

Microsoft notes that the touch-free control would be integrated into the operating system as a natural user input, joining your typical mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, and game controller. Processing the actual finger gestures via machine vision and/or gesture recognition may be handled on- or off-board, depending on the setup.

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A new digital picture frame is nearly indistinguishable from a real canvas

Back in the 1990s, the idea of having a painting on your wall which was actually a digital display was something only the likes of Bill Gates possessed. Today, digital picture frames are such old news that your grandparents might own one without you raising too much of an eyebrow.

The news, then, that yet another digital display has popped up on Kickstarter is hardly the kind of thing to get your blood pumping — except that Canvia has a pretty darn good hook to make it stand out from the crowd. As its creators describe it, Canvia uses proprietary image processing and built-in sensors which adapt curated art to your room’s ambient visual conditions and décor. To put that into real-world terms, it means that just as is the case with, for instance, a real oil painting on canvas, it will subtly alter its appearance to reflect surrounding light sources. That should make it superior to many digital displays when it comes to showcasing the color, texture, and brushstrokes of a particular artwork.

“All artworks that we see — or for that matter any physical objects — are defined by the amount and types of light they reflect,” Thomas Stimson, vice president of Marketing and Communications for manufacturer Palacio, told Digital Trends. “We, therefore, spent a long time analyzing the behavior of physical art under a wide range of visual conditions, such as natural light, artificial light, low light, and others. [Our ArtSense technology] combines the ‘reflection profiles’ based on these findings with real-time sensor data to adapt digital images of artwork and ensure they behave as though authentic physical paintings or prints.”

As an example, Stimson said that when you cover your windows and turn on artificial lights at the end of a day, Canvia’s display will immediately adapt in a way that means it looks less like a screen than just a regular piece of art.

The other big selling point over regular digital photo frames is the library of content which you can choose to display, rather than only pictures you upload yourself. The service plans to offer a free tier — with works from more than 3,000 artists, ranging from old masters to modern and contemporary art — along with a premium subscription tier adding famous and upcoming current artists, illustrators, and photographers. An accompanying app will even recommend images based on your surroundings and previously expressed preferences.

As ever, we offer our usual warnings about the risk inherent in pledging crowdfunding campaigns. However, if you’re keen to get involved, head over to the Canvia Kickstarter page. A Canvia display starts at $250, which includes a three-month subscription to the service’s premium tier alongside the display. Shipping is planned to take place in January.

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Microsoft’s pressure-sensitive software keyboard is ripe for dual-screen laptops

Microsoft’s work on a new pressure-sensing on-screen keyboard virtual keyboard could make it easier to type on a new crop of laptops emerging this year with dual screens. Intel is working with partners Asus and Lenovo to bring its Tiger Rapids concept prototype to consumers — it’s essentially a laptop that replaces the bottom keyboard portion with a secondary touchscreen. While the second screen adds more versatility for users to view, create, and interact with content, typing on a glass surface will  be a challenge, and now Microsoft has a solution.

According to a patent application that was filed on January 9, 2017, with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and published just this Thursday, Microsoft wants to add support for pressure and gestures to the virtual keyboard to make typing faster.

“Virtual keys are often smaller and tightly packed and the mechanics of typing may differ from the mechanics of typing on a physical keyboard,” Microsoft said of the challenges of typing on glass. “Due to limited space, some key may be overlooked with multiple permutations of a character, multiple user steps or interactions may be needed to specify a permutation of a symbol associated with a virtual key. Generally virtual keyboards are less efficient to use due to obvious differences between physical keyboards and virtual keyboards.”

Image from Microsoft’s USPTO patent filing

So, in addition to being able to recognize that a key has been activated by touch, Microsoft’s innovation also calls for software to recognize if the pressure is hard enough to activate additional commands. For example, touch the key lightly and swipe to the right, and the keyboard will recognize that you’re typing a lowercase letter. Press down hard and swipe firmly to the left, and you can trigger a capitalized word. On virtual keyboards where multiple symbols are packed onto a single key, the swiping gestures can make it easier to use symbols and characters without requiring users to activate the function or alternate character key.

“By using pressure measures for symbol selection, it is possible for a touch input to control which symbol permutation (of a virtual key selected by the touch input) is selected without having to display additional graphics or user interface elements and without requiring possibly slow and elaborate interactions by the user to specify permutations of a virtual key’s symbol,” Microsoft said. Additionally, you can also map multiple key combinations using pressure sensitivity. Microsoft details that for the copy-and-paste functions, you can map it to the “c” key for cut and “p” key for paste. “When one of those virtual keys is selected with an appropriate pressure feature, the function mapped to the virtual key is invoked,” the patent application detailed.

For certain applications, the keyboard can also display additional graphics when a key is pressed to call on additional symbols or functions, Microsoft said, such as a radial menu or a pop-up palette of user-selectable permutation symbols.

While these innovations may be new to the desktop — and convertible laptops and tablets — they already exist in some similar form today on mobile devices. SwiftKey — which Microsoft acquired — creates a software keyboard for mobile platforms that makes it easy to enter alternate keys and symbols on a touchscreen by using a more primitive pressure-sensitive approach similar to the one Microsoft described in its patent filing. Microsoft is also bringing SwiftKey‘s swiping keyboard to Windows 10.

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