Two recently-published Apple patents suggest that the company is working on an evolved Bluetooth headset and a smart sneaker.
The "Wireless Headset with Integrated Media Player" seems the most practical of the two, giving you something else to do with that piece of plastic dangling from your ear. In addition to sending and receiving voice for wireless calls, the headset in Apple's patent plays MP3s, responds to voice commands, records your voice and stores voicemail for offline playback. Music would be loaded directly onto the device through a computer or through the phone itself.
Then, there's the "Shoe Wear-Out Sensor, Body-Bar Sensing System, Unitless Activity Assessment and Associated Methods." To put it in plain English, the patent describes a method to tell when your shoe has worn out and a way to monitor the repetitive motions you make during exercise. This information would be transmitted to your MP3 player or cell phone (read: iPhone) for measurement.
The shoe patent may sound wild, but consider that in March, another Apple patent showed something quite similar, only for extreme sports such as skiing and snowboarding. The patent described a device with sensors that could detect factors like pressure, strain and location. It'd certainly be weird to see Apple turn up in sporting goods stores, but I suppose it's not unfathomable.
As for the Bluetooth device, I'm skeptical of whether people would want it. Listening to music in just one ear can be awful, and having to wear a wrap-around band, as seen in the patent drawing above, defeats the discretion a Bluetooth headset provides. And if anything, people need a reason to take the piece of plastic out of their ears, not leave it in for longer.
