Apple’s AirPods case may one day get a touchscreen.

It seems we’re moving towards a future where every imaginable object has a built-in display.

Case in point: Apple’s new patent application AirPods With a built-in touchscreen display case.

of Patent(Opens in a new tab)Filed in September 2022 and accessed by Hard work Apple(Opens in a new tab)It describes a more advanced AirPods case with a display that allows users to control music playback but also provide other information such as weather conditions or maps.

In one example, there is a movie playing on the screen, with the audio output to the headphones themselves. Other examples show the radio or audio books playing, the source being an external device (perhaps a iPhone) and the handle provides basic controls such as a slider to jump to another part of the track.

For this to make sense, the AirPods case needs to be a little bigger.
Credit: USPTO/Apple

The patent also describes haptic touch controls built into the case, allowing the user to press the case to change audio modes.

While this doesn’t turn the AirPods into a fully standalone music player, it does transform their case from something you use to charge them into something that looks like a much more advanced and revamped iPod. Apple in 2010 It discontinued the iPod nano in 2017And iPod touch – the ultimate music player – in 2022So this can be a way to bring back the music player.

Of course, since this is a patent, this product may take years to see the light of day and may never happen.