Apple’s Phantom Tech: Three Patented Ideas That Could Still Break Out of the Vault

A look into the products that Apple may or may not introduce some day soon.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

8/14/20252 min read

Every year, Apple quietly files patents for ideas that range from “world-changing” to “did an intern submit this as a dare?” Most never leave the vault in Cupertino, but occasionally one slips out, polished to perfection, ready to cost you as much as a small hatchback.

Here are three of Apple’s strangest-yet-most-plausible patents that we still might see, and how they could subtly change the way we live, work, and break our gadgets.

The Solar-Powered MacBook

Apple’s patent describes a MacBook lid embedded with photovoltaic panels under electrochromic glass. Translation: a laptop that drinks sunlight while you work.

You’re halfway up a mountain, tethered to nothing but 4G and your own self-importance. You open your MacBook, and instead of watching the battery icon drip away like your will to live in a Monday meeting, it climbs. Your office? Wherever the sun is. Your excuse for “laptop died”? Deleted from history.

It wouldn’t just be a green flex. In regions with unreliable electricity, it could be a game-changer. And in the first-world tech ecosystem, it would make “outdoor working” more than just a hipster-with-an-iPad aesthetic.

Likelihood of Arrival: 40%, Practical? Not really. Marketable? Absolutely. Especially with an expensive “Apple SunCloth” to wipe the panels.

2. iPhone/iPad With a Built-In Projector

Patents show Apple tinkering with tiny pico projectors, potentially turning your phone or tablet into an instant cinema, presentation suite, or gaming wall.

You’re camping. You whip out your iPhone, prop it against a rock, and beam The Mandalorian onto the side of your tent. Or you’re in a last-minute meeting, no HDMI cables in sight, you just place your iPad down and boom, your sales deck fills the wall. This isn’t just about watching videos; it’s about making your device a shared experience generator. Apple could spin it as “Spatial Sharing”.

Likelihood of Arrival: 55%, The tech exists, but will Apple let your iPhone run hot enough to fry an egg? TBD.

3. The All-Glass iPhone

Apple’s patent for a six-sided glass enclosure turns the whole phone into an interactive surface. No bezels. No obvious buttons. Just one continuous slab of fragility.

You could roll the phone in your hand to scrub through a video, swipe the edge to change volume, or tap the back to launch the camera. Notifications could slide down the sides like ticker tape, while the front and back swap roles on demand.

It’s a device you’d almost treat like jewellery, partly because it’s beautiful, partly because a single drop will cost you half a month’s rent.

Likelihood of Arrival: 60%, Apple loves “seamless” designs and hates ports, so don’t be shocked when they sell you one with “unparalleled hand feel” and “a repair fee that strengthens your emotional connection to the product like that of a first born child.”

Why This Matters

These aren’t just shiny concepts. They hint at devices that shift how we think about where and how we use them:

  • A laptop that charges itself changes where “work” can happen.

  • A phone that projects breaks the tyranny of the small screen.

  • A handset you can touch from any angle forces a rethink of mobile interaction entirely.

Apple has a long track record of making weird patent ideas into “essential” features, and of convincing you that you wanted them all along.

The Bottom Line

When that day comes, you’ll be sitting in a park with your solar MacBook, projecting a film from your iPhone, and casually stroking the glass edge to adjust the volume. And you’ll think: We used to laugh at this stuff.

Right before you drop it, and remember exactly why we laughed.