Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to AirPods Max described as having glass earcups.
Jack Purcher for Patently Apple:
Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to AirPods Max described as having glass earcups.
To ensure that the glass doesn’t crack easily in a drop incident, Apple’s patent describes using an asymmetrical chemical strengthening process for the glass.
Apple’s granted patent covers various techniques for improving the drop performance of an earphone, in particular along the edge of the earphone’s glass earcup. In accordance with some embodiments, an earpiece includes a glass earcup having an outer exposed surface, an inner surface, and an edge extending around the perimeter of the glass earcup…
The earpiece further includes an upper enclosure to which the glass earcup is laminated, and a textile extending around the glass earpiece and to the edge of the glass earcup and having a wall facing the edge of the earcup.
MacDailyNews Take: This may be a patent for a prototype that didn’t make the cut after Apple chose the anodized aluminum earcups the AirPods Max sport today.
I really enjoy the sound of the Max, but I’m shipping mine back. The clamping force is brutal to my TMJs. I wish there was a way to adjust the pressure against your head.
It’s probably a disguised patent for a glass to be used AR eyewear.
If the batteries were easily replaceable I might buy some of these headphones. They’re too expensive to be disposable.