This one's all about the iPod, by the looks of it, and giving it the ability to "wirelessly control and access a media server." Ryan speculates that means iTunes, which would mean that you could listen to streaming music from your iTunes install, through your iPod. But I think he's thinking small on this one-- what if Apple wanted to create an iPod that actually hooked up to AppleTV. You could sit in your bedroom watching the latest Daily Show, streaming from the AppleTV in the other room, while someone else watched the latest episode of Lost on the television. The possibilities there are very interesting-- combine a widescreen iPod with a wireless function like this (and we might as well throw in MobileSafari, right?), and you're looking at a very droolworthy multimedia gadget.
Of course, as with all Apple patents, this is total and complete speculation-- this patent may never actually be built, and even if it is, we might be looking at something planned years from now. But it's always fun to guess at what Apple's doing next.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-19-2007 @ 1:14PM
Josh H. said...
I was actually surprised the iPhone didn't have iTunes in it with all of its internet capabilities. Maybe they ran out of time or might be putting it in the next version. Who knows, iTunes would be cool on the iPhone tho.
mntdev.com
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7-19-2007 @ 1:37PM
required said...
my PSP does this and a lot more, for example look into Sony's locationfree player
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7-19-2007 @ 1:38PM
Ryan Wagner said...
They reference iTunes in the actual patent, which is why I said that it would interact with iTunes. And from the way they described it they made it sounds like it is going to essentially turn your iPod into a remote control for iTunes, with the ability to download media onto your iPod. So I'm not sure if you'll actually be able to stream it, but I wouldn't put that past Apple.
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7-19-2007 @ 1:39PM
Toastmaster General said...
I think it would be great to have an orb type solution from apple.
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7-19-2007 @ 1:41PM
Will said...
This patent isn't about streaming music to the iPod or iPhone. It's about using the iPod or iPhone to control the stream of music from iTunes to a playback device.
A quick look at the patent diagram makes this obvious. The portable device is only sending and receiving meta data, to control the streaming server. Not to actually pull music from it.
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7-19-2007 @ 1:44PM
puppy said...
Patent, not product. Patent, not product. Sheesh!
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7-19-2007 @ 1:45PM
Bratling said...
That would be a very, very expensive remote control. Might as well get a Sonos at that point.
(They're actually quite spiffy -- www.sonos.com -- check it out. I lust for one.)
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7-19-2007 @ 1:51PM
Harbinger said...
Or it's just the next iPhone app.
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7-19-2007 @ 1:54PM
Carl Trimble said...
What if this patent is just showing how the iPhone or the 6th gen iPod can remotely get songs from your iTunes library?
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7-19-2007 @ 1:57PM
Tt said...
This has the potential to be much more interesting than your speculations. At the minimum its a step towards taking the iTunes sharing model (which I've enjoyed when laptopping at coffeeshops) and stretching it to the portables (and in a way that the Zune failed to do).
Imagine being at a record store and wirelessly accessing a media server "listening station" to hear any track in the shop or watch trailers for any dvds. Imagine being at a museum and being able to get supplementary audio/video related to any exhibit. This could extend to conferences, events, or retail experiences. A media filling station at the airport. You could design a clever LARP game around this stuff.
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