A new iPad Pro 2 keyboard to feature special share, emoji and Siri keys
While little information is known about the next generation iPad Pro, rumored to be unveiled in a couple of weeks, a patent concerning a possible new Smart Keyboard 2 for the iPad Pro has recently surfaced.
The updated accessory won’t look any different from the current model, aside from a few additions to the keyboard layout. These will include a special Share button, emoji keys, and a shortcut key for Siri.
The Share button, according to the illustration accompanying the patent, will bring up a Share menu, which will display typically available options like social media, print, save to file, email, and iMessage.
The share feature will likely work with anything that’s in focus on the iPad Pro’s screen, including screen grabs, apps, web pages, notes, and other multimedia items.
The emoji button, like the Share button, seems to be equally self-explanatory. Judging by the images from USPTO, as reported by Patently Apple, the emoji button will summon a simple menu from where to pick an emoji to add to a message, or social media post.
The Siri and, by extension, Search shortcut button, will add a quick way to use voice commands by activating Siri directly from the keyboard.
Currently, the same thing can be done with the Home button, but there is word that Apple might do away with the Home button in future updates of the iPad Pro, and even iPhone, which means that Siri will need an alternative way to be summoned when the iPad is docked with a Smart Keyboard.
Oddly enough, the new keyboard layout seems to feature other shortcut keys using the Command key like on a Mac, but in a slightly different way. For instance Cmd+P has been revisited as a Paste command. It’s not clear whether these new shortcuts will be implemented, and Apple might ultimately stick with well-known shortcuts like the classic Cmd+C/V for copy and paste, which is what everyone is used to since the early days of PCs.
This new patent should come as no surprise, since Apple has been pitching the iPad Pro as a laptop-killer since its unveiling, and a proper new set of keyboard functions could reinforce that message.
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