Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to the iPad using magnetics to attach Apple Pencil and, more importantly, a possible future specialized keyboard that includes a slide-out accessory that could be used as a trackpad, a charging dock or touch input gaming accessory.

Magnetic Attachment System for iPad

Apple's granted patent covers both an Apple Pencil attaching to a side of an iPad via an internal magnet system. More importantly, the magnetic  system also applies to a specialized keyboard that includes a stationary portion and a movable portion. The movable portion may include a keyboard accessory that includes other types of input devices instead of or in addition to the keyboard, such as a trackpad, directional pad, microphone, or the like, and may communicate inputs received at those input devices to the iPad via a wired or wireless communication interface.

Apple's patent FIGS. 5A and 5B below illustrate an example computing system #500 that may employ a magnetically actuated latch mechanism. The computing system may include a computing component, illustrated as a tablet computer #501, and an accessory, illustrated as a keyboard accessory #502 with a movable keyboard structure.

Apple's patent FIGS. 6A-6B above depict partial cross-sectional views of an example computing component and accessory, illustrating an example latching mechanism

To review the full details of this invention, check out patent application 12093075.