Apple's latest patent idea: Projectors in MacBooks

I want this, as it would make my neighbors in the coffee shop uncomfortable, which is funny.

(Credit: USPTO)

I was recently at a friend's house, and we used a combo of an ancient Super Nintendo and a pico projector to play Street Fighter II on his wall, which became a 5-foot screen. It was fun.

The contraption was battery-powered and tiny, and it now looks as if Apple is also eyeing awesome tiny projectors, if this recent patent filing is anything to go by.

The idea is simple: Build one of the tiny projectors into the side (or the back) of a MacBook so that presentations (read: video games) can be projected beyond the laptop. This could, in theory, turn any MacBook near a vertical surface into a dual-monitor laptop, something many professionals have been wanting for quite awhile.

Personally, I would love to be able to watch "Lost" at the coffee shop as I type posts like this. I call it multitasking, though my old boss called it wasting time. But that's Apple, I guess: helping me slack through innovation.

(Via Patently Apple)