Apple patent is for personal media devices with wireless communications
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
May 22, 2008 at 9:37am
An Apple patent (number 20080223614) for personal media devices with wireless communications has popped up at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Theoretically, the technology could be used to place an order at Starbucks, transfer data to or from a storage device, and more.
Per the patent, the media device itself could be used to process media such as audio and video. Apple says it may be a media player , a game player, a remote controller, a portable communication device, a remote ordering interface, an audio tour player, or other suitable personal device. And the device should be small enough to be handheld and easily fit into a pocket.
According to Apple, systems and methods are provided for personal media devices having the ability to communicate wirelessly, and in particular, communicate wirelessly using a short-range communications protocol (e.g., Wi-Fi and Bluetooth). Such communication provides users of personal media devices with access to several Wi-Fi oriented applications.
For example, in one embodiment a personal media device may wirelessly download subscription assets (e.g., podcast) as they become available. In another embodiment, content specific or local to a merchant may be provided to personal media devices that are in wireless communication with a wireless router affiliated with the merchant. For example, if the merchant is a restaurant, the merchant may provide a menu to the personal media device and the user may place an order on his or her media device by selecting items on the menu.
Apple says the invention is needed because the proliferation of personal media devices (e.g., portable MP3 players) and the relative ease in which media can be obtained (e.g., by wirelessly downloading such media) for such devices has created a need for improved media management, access to more relevant content, and customization of that content.
The inventor is Michael Rosenblatt. The graphic below shows a block diagram of relatively long-range wireless communication system 200 in accordance with the principles of the present invention.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
