With the Microsoft Surface we’ve seen how the idea of a cover that acts as a keyboard could truly add both beauty and function to the tablet experience, but it seems that Apple has an even more ambitious smart cover system in mind. A year-old patent filing from Apple has now been made public, in the filing Apple details out a cover that can take power and data from a dedicated connector on the side of a tablet and then can use at least one segment of the Smart Cover to augment the main display with useful information such as notifications, additional icons, multimedia controllers and similar functions. The drawings included with the patent even suggest that the inner surface of the cover would have the ability to work as a drawing area or a virtual keyboard.

While a patent doesn’t necessarily mean that Apple will ever build such a cover, it is certainly a unique idea that I wouldn’t mind seeing come to light. What about you?

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