Apart from the always controversial price, the characteristics of Apple’s AirPods Max continue to speak for good among users. However, although it does not seem imminent, Apple is already thinking about future generations of these headphones or at least that is suggested by their patents. They have recently approved up to 51 documents in which they precisely talk about new functionalities for these AirPods.
Touch controls and increased intelligence
Among the functions of the first and only AirPods Max to date is to offer playback controls through a digital crown and a button in the purest Apple Watch style. Controls that, however, fall short for what perhaps many expect. This would be solved if finally Apple carries out the changes it describes in the aforementioned patents, highlighted these days by PatentlyApple.
According to these documents, he is proposing that the surface of each ear muff admits different tactile levels and even in some section it is suggested that they could even have haptic responses. It is not too detailed what these would consist of, but we intuit that they would be aimed at actions such as raising or lowering the volume as other headphones on the market such as the popular Sony already have.
It also describes what we have classified as “greater intelligence” and that basically lies in the fact that the AirPods could be able to detect, for example, if we want to attend to a conversation or television content and then stop playback. This would be detected by movement sensors that would have to be helped with small gestures such as resting the head on the shoulder.
These are features that, although it is true that a priori do not seem revolutionary, would serve to continue polishing a product that Apple expects a lot in the long term, at least for a certain niche of the public. Of course, it is expected that this type of functionality could be added to improvements in sound level or in modalities such as noise cancellation.
When are the AirPods Max 2 expected?
It must be said that these patents do not directly confirm the news of future AirPods either. In fact, it is curious to see how they were published in the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2018 and were not approved until February 2020 (the AirPods Max were launched in December).
However, knowing now that these patents are approved and based on others that have been published these months, we can get used to the idea that Apple wants to continue improving these headphones. Whether they arrive in the second generation AirPods Max or not is another story. Be that as it may, these are not expected yet. Considering that Apple is renewing its range of AirPods headphones every 2 years, it is possible that until the end of 2022 or even 2023 we will not see anything.
We remember that according to the sources of some analysts such as Mark Gurman, at the moment the only thing we could see in relation to these headphones are new colors. And it would not have to be in a second generation, but could be new variants of the already known in the same way that has happened recently when Apple announced that the HomePod mini launched last year will be available in more colors within a few weeks.
