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Apple Patent Hints At Magnetic Ear Hooks To Keep Future AirPods In Your Ears (digitaltrends.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the over-priced-accessories dept.

Patently Apple has recently uncovered a new Apple patent that may help AirPods stay in your ears. The patent details a magnetic mechanism that wraps around the user's ear. Digital Trends reports: The magnets attract each other through the ear tissue, keeping the AirPods in place and ensuring that they don't get lost. Of course, it's not certain if Apple filed this patent with AirPods in mind -- one of the images clearly shows a wired pair of headphones, and the patent was filed in June. The concept, however, would help keep both wired and wireless earbuds in place. The issue of keeping AirPods in the ear has been arguably the biggest issue related to the AirPods, and for good reason -- they're pretty expensive little devices, so losing them is definitely not something you want to do. It's possible that Apple decided against using the ear hooks for aesthetic reasons -- Apple is known for its excellent design and the ear hooks in the patent don't exactly look great. Not only that but the design of the charging case would have to change with the ear hooks. Some reports indicate that the patent could be implemented with future versions and given the hullaballoo surrounding keeping AirPods in, we wouldn't be totally surprised. It's also possible, however, that Apple patented the design but ultimately ended up nixing it.

10 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. the ancient Assyrians tried this too by turkeydance · · Score: 3, Funny

    well, without the magnets, and their slaves really liked it since they didn't have to have hooks in their lips.

  2. for all you apple fanboys and fangirls by FudRucker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://www.dailydot.com/debug/...
    now i know why i never bought apple products, they attract too much of a cult following, and i am just not in to that, enjoy your apple koolaide

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    1. Re:for all you apple fanboys and fangirls by Known+Nutter · · Score: 2

      4 core 6502?

      --
      Beware of the Leopard.
    2. Re:for all you apple fanboys and fangirls by Nethead · · Score: 2

      Not four core but back in the mid 80s I was using a CMOS 6502 that would do 4MHz (HC65C02P4) from Hitachi. We were building a product that had internals very closely based on the VIC20 (okay, it would run VIC BASIC) that we built our own boards for. On my development board I had built out the I/O for the 1541 disk drive, the problem was the CPU was too fast to talk to the drive. I put in a clutch and gearbox. The clutch was a push button that would ground the HALT line on the CPU (CMOS, so we could get away with it and all the RAM was static) and the gear box was a switch that threw in a 74LS74 TTL flip-flop that would divide the clock by 4. To use the disk I would engage the clutch, down shift and let off the clutch. Then I could access the disk. Once the code was loaded I would shift back in to high gear and test the code. It was a nice board for the day, 4x 6522 PIA and 88KB of EPROM/SRAM space and would map like a VIC-20/C64.

      Too bad it was used for telemarketing.

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      -- I have a private email server in my basement.
  3. Revolutionary! by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If only someone else had thought of a way to use magnets to attach things to your ear! This is courage taken to a new level, we're talking iCourage levels here...

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    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  4. So, about these magnets... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Will these cost another $40-50?

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    #DeleteChrome
  5. Early failures by sjames · · Score: 2

    Of course they had a few problems to overcome and had to adjust the strength of the magnets down a bit. The first version was great except for the horrible clacking sound they made when they met in the middle.

  6. Trend... by 101percent · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Make cellphone smaller. Release extended battery case that restores original size and costs you $100.

    Release laptops severely limited in ports. Tons of dongles to enable previous functionality.

    Release wireless headphones sold as a solution to reducing wires. Release extra co-product to re-establish the fit of wired headphones.

  7. I have an idea by slashmydots · · Score: 2

    Given who their customer base is, I suggest they also say the magnets are magic and prevent cancer and give you a quantum aura alignment boost or some BS like that. If you're about to correct me, keep in mind Steve Jobs thought juice drinks would cure his cancer and died because of it.

  8. Metal detecting at the beach will be fun! by DirkDaring · · Score: 2

    I do metal detecting. I can't wait to start finding these things at the beach.