Patent number 20090268921 is for a wireless headset that sends music straight into your ear.
It has additional functionality that allows it to be used during times that the external device with which it is wirelessly coupled is not being used, but when the headset is nevertheless being worn.
The media player may include a recording function as well, so that a user can record voice notes. In addition, if the external device is a telephone (mobile or landline), the availability of a recording function could make it possible for the user to record all or part of a conversation.
Similarly, voicemail messages received on the user's telephone could be uploaded into the headset for later off-line playback. Media files recorded by the headset also could be downloaded to the external device, the patent says.
Doctor Who fans will recognise some startling similarities between this Apple gadget and an episode of their favourite sci-fi drama.
These are the same devices which were used by John Lumic, a terminally ill and insane genius boss of hi-tech outfit Cybus Industries.
He created a new race of psychopathic, super smug robots called the Cybermen who were convinced of their own superiority.
Stage one of the project involved controlling the population with a high-tech communications device called an EarPod that was used extensively in place of MP3 players and mobile phones, allowing information to be downloaded directly into people's heads.
Life imitates science fiction again.