No doubt, Apple will include a new Magic Keyboard on its MacBook Pro 2020 laptop, but it may go a step further and add True Tone display technology to the keys.

At least that's what we can read from Apple's new patent (flagged by Apple Insider) published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which explains how the brightness of the keyboard's backlight can be changed on the fly using an "adjustable white dot." Apple's True Tone works that way, so one can speculate that the technology in the latest MacBook and iPhone 11 Pro could be used in the Magic Keyboard as well.

For those unfamiliar with True Tone, the technology is currently used in Apple's Retina displays, which use sensors to automatically adjust the color and brightness of the display to the ambient light of the environment.

This is favored as a way to make displays clearly visible under bright lighting or to provide warmer tones to reduce eye fatigue in low-light environments.

This patent effectively takes this concept and applies it to keyboards, describing how keys can be made visible in all different lighting environments.

"Without care, changes in ambient light or changes in the operational settings of components within a laptop computer can alter the appearance of keys, displays, and other input/output devices on a keyboard in visually unappealing ways," the patent explains.

The patent describes how such an ambient light sensor could be used in conjunction with a color-adjustable backlight. This suggests that the next generation MacBook Pro may feature some form of colored keyboard lighting.

However, we would be surprised if Apple were to adopt a full RGB keyboard like those found on gaming laptops, as it would be incompatible with the clean, industrial aesthetic of the MacBook lineup. However, some form of color macro key writing for shortcuts to video and photo editing apps, for example, would not be too much of a stretch.

The TrueTone keyboard concept will likely never get out of the patent stage. However, the next MacBook Pro models will undoubtedly feature an improved Magic Keyboard, replacing the unreliable butterfly keyboard mechanism on the current 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro. MacBook Pro 16 inch and the latest MacBook Air both use this improved scissor keyboard mechanism, so this would be logical.

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro could have a larger 14-inch screen in the same size chassis, but it remains to be seen if it will feature a mini LED display, a much bigger upgrade than the True Tone keyboard There is no word.