One way to learn some details about Apple’s (or any other company’s) future products is to look at the patents it has received. Some of them, however, are not implemented in new gadgets. But sometimes it works.
Last September the company filed patent application for a new case for wireless earbuds. Something new here is the placement of a touch display on the case like in the Apple Watch.
In general, the display on the case of wireless earbuds is nothing new. Similar models were demonstrated by JBL and HP. A similar principle of operation is announced here. But along with controlling media playback, this display can also show apps like weather, maps, and notifications.
What’s more, such a case can support control using the Siri voice assistant and even transfer music playback to the HomePod smart speaker. Among the controls, the possibility to squeeze the case to change the operating mode is additionally specified.
This, of course, does not mean that the earbuds will not need to be connected to the iPhone. Such a display can act simply as an additional control element, while a “main” gadget such as an iPhone or Mac will still be needed to realize all its capabilities.
Unfortunately, so far this is the first mention of a possible AirPods update. Insiders have also not yet mentioned such a significant update of TWS earbuds from Apple. So we should expect only USB-C instead of Lightning from the next updates. But if the AirPods case still gets a display and built-in memory, it can reincarnate the iPod.
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