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Microsoft accidentally reveals its own iPad Touch Cover

Microsoft accidentally reveals its own iPad Touch Cover

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Surface Touch Cover
Surface Touch Cover
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

Microsoft appears to be working on an iPad Touch Cover. The software giant has listed a mysterious “iPad Touch Cover (Model 1719)” in a download page for documentation related to Lithium batteries. Spotted by WinFuture, the documents were originally posted back in April and include other examples for Microsoft’s HoloLens, Band, and Surface devices.

It’s not clear when Microsoft’s iPad Touch Cover will actually be released, or whether the product was scrapped at some point. All we know for sure is that it contains a battery, which means it likely connects to an iPad through a Bluetooth connection. Microsoft’s “Touch Cover” naming could hint that the company’s iPad cover is similar to the old Surface Touch Cover that is just 3mm thick and uses pressure-sensitive technology for a full multitouch keyboard.

Microsoft’s mysterious iPad cover could also use Apple’s Smart Connector to connect to the iPad Pro. However, it’s likely that Microsoft is simply targeting the base iPad without the Smart Connector, simply because Apple doesn’t sell its own smart keyboard for the regular iPad. Microsoft has already released its own Universal Mobile Keyboard that works with the iPad, and was the best keyboard for the iPad Air 2.