The Future of Cellphone Accessories is in the Lanyard

Apple is starting it. They filed a patent for the oh so typical lanyard you string around your neck to hang the iPod to make it do more things. Like flash lights to the beat of your heart when jogging or interface with other wireless devices. The future of the lanyard is now!

Apple’s documentation notes that the connector unit may include additional ports, jacks, connectors so that additional peripheral devices can be coupled to the handheld device (e.g., audio, video, data, power, etc.). In some cases, the connector unit may even include a wireless interface so that the handheld device can remotely communicate with other devices. In the case of a music player, the connector unit may for example allow the user to broadcast music to other music players.

Mainstream “lanyard” technology combines the technology of an FM radio transmitter with the set of earphones that plug into most phones. Nokia has been doing this for a while now and maybe, just maybe, it is time to reinvent the lanyard cable to do more than just act as a hanger.

Via TWiT and MacNN