An Apple patent, first picked up by news website Inverse and then also reported by other Apple websites, suggest that Apple may be working in a laptop with a Retina display and a second ‘massive’ touchscreen that would work as both a keyboard and a second display.

Jobs, when alive, had said the concept of giving laptops a touch screen was a bad idea because the strain on arms over any length of time would prove uncomfortable. However a glass screen to replace a keyboard so that the user can continue working in the same way marries both technical advancement with the concerns expressed by Jobs.

Inverse writes;

“The application, filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, is the latest patent that could chart a new course for the MacBook. While the iPhone and iPad have readily embraced touchscreens, the Mac line has held off and focused on giant multi-touch trackpads coupled with a regular keyboard that allow the user to focus on the screen. Apple added a thin touchscreen to the MacBook Pro, enabling users to slide the volume and choose from emojis among other features, but chose to leave this feature out when the MacBook Air launched in October 2018. The company’s patent notes that touchscreens “may be flat and featureless, and may thus occupy less space than a mechanical keyboard but may require users to identify the location of the keys by sight rather than by feel.”"“

Now if the idea of a second screen were true and it acted like a second monitor then the option to have your faders sitting right under your fingers on a laptop would make using DAW software a whole lot easier, perhaps the somewhat limited Touchbar on current Macs would be extended to the second cover the entire keyboard area.

If this comes to fruition is a dual screen MacBook with the option to use the second screen for mixing something that would interest you?