More indicative of desire for alternate methods

A newly-disclosed Apple patent application would let people charge iPhones, iPods and iPads using their headphones. The core of the idea involves a charging station in a tower configuration. In order to get power flowing, users would have to wrap part of their headphone cable around the tower while leaving the headphones plugged into a portable device; one of the earpieces would also have to be attached to the back of the handheld through a contact.

By running a magnetic field through the tower the charging station would induce a current in the headphone cables, sending power to the handheld's battery. Apple notes that while a charging coil could be built into a device, this would increase its size. The company also remarks that a long coil -- enabled by something like its charging station -- increases the speed with which a device can be recharged.

"Moreover, for some extremely small media players, such as the iPod Shuffle, the weight of the media player is approximately the same weight of the headphones and associated cable," part of Apple's filing reads. "Hence, by using the headphones as inductive coils, an extremely small media player can effectively use about half of its mass as a charging coil." To get around having to attach a contact to an earpiece, Apple suggests using a conductive metal mesh to guard the sound drivers.

Because of the relatively cumbersome procedure for charging, Apple is unlikely to move the tower concept into production. The company may be keen on exploring wireless inductive charging though, in spite of device sizes, since the technology is beginning to gain traction in the industry and would allow handhelds to operate totally wirelessly once iOS 5 enables Wi-Fi sync, over-the-air updates and full iCloud functions.

by MacNN Staff