Apple Patents iPhone Case That Can Charge AirPods

Right now, the only way to charge the AirPods would be to put it inside of its carrying case, which also doubles as a charger. This means that you need to have the case if you want to charge the earbuds. However, a patent discovered by AppleInsider suggests that Apple is looking at alternate ways.

According to the patent, it suggests that Apple is exploring the idea of maybe creating an iPhone case with a couple of slots for the AirPods to be inserted, in which it will then draw power from the iPhone to help charge the earbuds. This will dispense of the reliance on the case, and could be useful emergencies when your case is out of juice and you need to use the earbuds.

What’s interesting about this patent is that it seems that Apple is seemingly doing everything they can to be different. A lot of Android smartphones these days come with the ability to reverse wireless charge, meaning that they can be used to provide power to other devices like wireless earbuds.

Apple has yet to offer such a feature in its iPhones, and this patent suggests that Apple does not necessarily think that the current implementation of the technology is all that great, and that they think they might be able to do better. It’s an interesting design, although we have to wonder about practicality, but then again, we suppose it’s hard to say if this patent will ever manifest itself as an actual product or feature.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Audio, Cellphones, Gadgets
Tags: AirPods, Headphones, iPhone, Patent