Apple might want to turn your headphones into convertible party speakers

In the future, Apple might give you a way to switch seamlessly between playing music directly into your ears and blasting it out loud for the rest of the world — and not just because your headphone's volume is jacked up way too high. 

The company was recently granted a patent for a convertible headphone design that looks to transform normal headsets into stereo speakers, which the document calls "dual mode" headphones.   

According to the design outlined in the patent, listeners would be able to switch between headphone mode and speaker mode either at the touch of a button or by using sensors to detect the positioning of the device. The sensors would also protect the user's ears by preventing the engagement of speaker mode, and a possible built-in amplifier and power source, when the headphone mode is in use. Speaker mode would be engaged when the device is positioned a certain way, as seen in the figure below. Read more...