Your Apple Watch band options may soon extend far beyond leather,Request Movies "Sport" or Hermès.
Apple was granted a patent Tuesday describing "modular functional band links for wearable devices." The links are described to be "connected to one or more other of the band links and/or the wearable device and include one or more electronic components." The news was first reported by Apple Insider.
While the patent is broad, its potential uses include adding modules to the Apple Watch, thus expanding its functionality. That could mean anything from attaching a camera to an additional battery, GPS, buttons and more.
SEE ALSO: Now you can turn your Apple Watch into a mini retro Macintosh for $15
Several health-related modules are suggested, too -- a thermometer, a blood pressure sensor, a sweat sensor and more.
There's precedent for this. In 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted at a new medical product in an interview with The Telegraph. He said Apple didn’t want to put the Apple Watch through the FDA, but the company wouldn’t be opposed to making adjacent products.
"You can begin to envision other things that might be adjacent to it -- maybe an app, maybe something else," Cook said.
A modular structure would allow the Watch to be a lot more customizable. Users who require frequent blood pressure monitoring could purchase a module for that, while other users who want to have a SIM card for the Watch could add that and so on. One could imagine modules receiving a lot of third-party support, too.
There's no way to know if the modular watch strap will ever be launched, but Apple has signaled that its wearable offerings, especially in the health space, will likely go beyond the Apple Watch. Stay tuned, in other words.
Topics Apple Apple Watch
(Editor: {typename type="name"/})
Language Once Removed: An Interview with Sara Deniz Akant by Lauren Kane
Staff Picks: Miners, Mauretania, and Melancholy by The Paris Review
America’s Dead Souls by Molly McGhee
Shop the Google Pixel Pro 9 for $200 off at Amazon
The Momentum of Living: An Interview with Clare Sestanovich by Elinor Hitt
Over Venerable Graves by Maria Stepanova
Staff Picks: Sweaters, Sisters, and Sounds by The Paris Review
Best Max streaming deal: Save 20% on annual subscriptions
Reading Jane Eyre as a Sacred Text by Vanessa Zoltan
Best vacuum mop combo deal: Save $140 on the Tineco Floor One S5
On Returning: Gerhard Richter, New York, and Birds by John Vincler
接受PR>=1、BR>=1,流量相当,内容相关类链接。