While the Smart Cover for the iPad is a great accessory to have, it doesn’t really let you do anything special with your iPad, but that could change soon. According to a new Apple patent, there may be another Smart Cover in development. This new generation Smart Cover will include a flexible interactive touch sensitive display, a built-in keyboard, and inductive solar charging capabilities.
The flexible display on this new Smart Cover will flex with the cover when folded and practically act as a secondary display that will allow you to skip music tracks, check your notifications, and possibly even draw on it. Basically, one of the panels will be flipped to the backside of the iPad and allow for button-pressing (as seen below).
According to the USPTO application:
A tablet device with a flexible cover is disclosed. Thin flexible display technology can be integrated into the flexible cover without affecting the overall form factor of the cover or tablet device. Adding the integrated display to the flexible cover greatly enhances the overall functionality of the tablet device.
While we aren’t positive that his patent will ever see the light of day, it would definitely bring a much better meaning to the name “Smart Cover.”