Apple patent talks remote streaming, syncing, squirting

[sandbox]

The Mac users in the house may remember the brief period of time when iTunes allowed you to stream your entire music library to anywhere else on the Internet, not just over your home network. This feature was quickly yanked from the software, sending office workers and road warriors who had gotten hooked on streaming their music, instead of carrying it all with them, into withdrawal. Well, that feature may be making a comeback in the form of wireless streaming to iPhones, if a newly-unearthed Apple patent is any indication.

The patent, filed earlier this year and published yesterday, details the "Remote access of media items" from a remote device, like an iPhone (or even an iPod). The remote device would sync the metadata associated with your music library at home—titles, album art, file size, etc.—but not the files themselves. This would allow you to have access to gigs upon gigs of media sitting on your home machine without filling up all the space on your iPod or iPhone. "In this manner, the virtual capacity of an electronic device may be increased," writes Apple in the filing.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080...-squirting.html

[Gregg]

Not having read the info, I have to think that some one is busy figuring out how to make money off of that service for usage time, not just hardware and software.

[krissel]

Now that would help with the problem of filling up your hard drive.  

[kbeartx]

Interesting you should bring my name into this.

I've been fantasizing for quite a few years about a small portable wireless device that would receive the music played on my desktop Mac so I could enjoy my extensive music collection w/o wires, as well as not have to duplicate a subset of the music on the portable or manage two music libraries.  

If I were to get a REALLY BIG iPod w/ the capacity to store the entire library [upwards of 35 gigabytes as of this date], there would be the task of periodically synch-ing the two, as well as carrying a much larger/heavier portable [I currently 'lug around' a Shuffle].

But I don't recall ever mentioning this idea to anyone.  

My concept goes on to fantasize that w/ current or emergent digital addressing technology, it would be possible to have enough transmitter strength and range* for your own personal music to follow you all over the city, at work,  in your car, or at your friends' houses.

 - KB


*or maybe do this over the internet with ubiquitous wi-fi, although that would likely bump up against severe bandwidth limitations.

[sandbox]

QUOTE(kbeartx @ Aug 11 2008, 06:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Interesting you should bring my name into this.

I've been fantasizing for quite a few years about a small portable wireless device that would receive the music played on my desktop Mac so I could enjoy my extensive music collection w/o wires, as well as not have to duplicate a subset of the music on the portable or manage two music libraries.  

If I were to get a REALLY BIG iPod w/ the capacity to store the entire library [upwards of 35 gigabytes as of this date], there would be the task of periodically synch-ing the two, as well as carrying a much larger/heavier portable [I currently 'lug around' a Shuffle].

But I don't recall ever mentioning this idea to anyone.  

My concept goes on to fantasize that w/ current or emergent digital addressing technology, it would be possible to have enough transmitter strength and range* for your own personal music to follow you all over the city, at work,  in your car, or at your friends' houses.

 - KB


*or maybe do this over the internet with ubiquitous wi-fi, although that would likely bump up against severe bandwidth limitations.

When i was working on the public wifi that Earthlink was bringing to this area http://www.stpete.org/wifi/  ......that is one of the high points. We do have some small community wifi on the beaches, but nothing expansive.....yet.

I knew your ears would ring.....we've been playing in this sandbox for many years.....