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Christina Bonnington, wired.com-August 17, 2011 at 6:31 PM UTC

Apple is keen to eliminate antenna problems in its products, even those products that you may not even realize that there is an antenna in the first place. A new patent won by the Cupertino giant illustrates a way to integrate cellular antennas into MacBook and iMac keyboards, especially by placing the antenna below some keyboard keys.

According to Patently Apple, this is Apple's fourth cellular-based MacBook-related patent in the past year, and the second patent for disguising the cellular antenna itself. Will we see a MacBook that supports 3G or 4G in the future?

The design and positioning of the antenna in the device is an important issue that Apple is fully aware of. Last summer, it was discovered that when the user touched an antenna frequency band of the iPhone 4, its reception effect would be significantly reduced. In the past, it was difficult for MacBook Pro users to make Bluetooth accessories (such as Magic Mouse) perform well because of the positioning of the Bluetooth antenna in the laptop. Recently, the 2007 MacBook Pro prototypes were equipped with Mag-safe rabbit ear 3G antennas, making a fortune on eBay before the auction.

In this patent, the antenna is hidden under several keyboard keys to improve its reception and transmission efficiency. When the user does not press the button, the resonant element of the antenna will be as far away as possible from the conductive metal casing. Therefore, ideally, the antenna should be placed under an infrequently used key, such as the print screen key (although Apple keyboards usually do not have a print screen key, the patent still lists it separately). According to the chart, a single antenna will be placed under multiple keys, and the device will use real-time information to determine which antenna is most suitable for use, for example, if one antenna has a stronger signal than other antennas.

The patent does not specify which antenna will be placed on the keyboard. It can be WiFi or Bluetooth, and can even be used for cellular communication or data services (3G or 4G reception). What type of wireless signal the antenna will receive or transmit depends only on the configuration of the antenna.

Therefore, in the iMac keyboard, the antenna may improve the reception of Bluetooth peripherals, while in the MacBook keyboard, the antenna may be used for WiFi or cellular services. This way you don’t even need to use your iPhone as a hotspot on the go.

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