Apple's potential "Magic Mouse Pro" patentSource: USPTO

What you need to know

  • Apple has filed a new patent with the USPTO.
  • It's possibly a "Magic Mouse Pro."
  • It would be dome-shaped and be an orientationless input control device for electronics.

Apple has filed a new patent #10,496,187 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a "Domed orientationless input assembly for controlling an electronic device." This could be an alleged "Magic Mouse Pro" if it becomes manufactured and ships out, going along with the recent trend of Apple having "Pro" versions of all products.

According to the patent text, the vague description for this input device is as follows:

An input assembly is provided for controlling an electronic device, where the input assembly may include a housing structure providing an orientationless surface with respect to at least one axis of an input coordinate system of the input assembly, a sensor subassembly at least partially protected by the housing structure, and processor operative to detect, with the sensor subassembly, a user coordinate system of a user with respect to the orientationless surface, detect, with the sensor subassembly, a physical use of the housing structure, and determine a control action for the electronic device based on the user coordinate system and the physical use.

Apple Magic Mouse Pro patent drawingsSource: USPTO

As claimed by CultOfMac, some images that were found with this patent show off a "mouselike device that can detect where the user is and orient itself to the user." From the patent images, the device appears to be round, so you can grab it however you want, but it will always be lined up correctly.

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Moving the cursor on the screen would also work a bit differently. Rather than the traditional method of moving the entire input device to move the cursor, this new Magic Mouse Pro patent seems to work like a dome-shaped directional pad. You would just tilt the top of the device in the direction that you want to move the cursor in.

Honestly, this potential input device doesn't sound like a mouse, but rather a trackpad-like device. And while Apple has filed the patent for it, that doesn't mean that it will become an actual product, unless Apple believes that there is a market for such a radical change in the Magic Mouse. However, the Magic Mouse has been around since 2015, so perhaps it is time for something new and different.