Wireless transmitting iPod Patented by Apple

A patent from Apple gives an insight to their thinking for the future development of the iPod and iPod accessories in November 2004.

Apple seemed quite enamoured with idea of a wireless iPod and had a lot of ideas for its application- sharing of music (like our skiier friends- see below), sharing of photos and even video.

Devices that might link into this include “a music player, game player, video player and video camera and wherein the media devices are selected from other media players, desktop computers, notebook computers, PDAs, audio equipment, video equipment, peripheral devices, personal mobile radios, personal tuning devices or personal display devices”.

The means of communication are not very specific and don’t really rule out much: “FM, RF, Bluetooth, 802.11, UWB, IR and magnetic links”. Magnetic induction is a nice idea- place your iPod on an induction surface and it forms a link with the device (stereo etc)- this could also be a means of charging an iPod as well.

Another aspect of this patent is the inclusion of an iPod dock as part of the computer- in one version of this the iPod replaces the trackpad of the iPod. This is an interesting idea (especially considering the rumours suggesting docks were initially intended to be included in the Mac Mini). Making an iPod a central part of the Mac would perhaps extend the so called ‘iPod Halo’ effect. it could also enable the home-on-the-iPod (a feature that was almost part of Panther and is rumoured to be perhaps going to make an appearance in a future 10.4 update).

Home away from home
Ever thought you could carry your home in the palm of your hands or in your pocket? You can. Panther’s Home on iPod feature lets you store your home directory — files, folders, apps — on your iPod (or any FireWire hard drive) and take it with you wherever you go. When you find yourself near a Panther-equipped Mac, just plug in the iPod, log in, and you’re “home,” no matter where you happen to be. And when you return to your home computer, you can synchronize any changes you’ve made to your files by using File Sync, which automatically updates offline changes to your home directory.

In some cases, the user interface may be the primary user interface of the notebook computer 350. For example, the touch pad of the media player shown in FIG. 1 may be used to perform actions on the notebook computer 350.

In this model the iPod becomes central to the mac- an appealing transportable desktop but perhaps there is not that great a market for it- how many people have multiple computers they can plug their iPods into? Consider: instead of plugging into a Mac the iPod becomes pluggable into other pieces of your digital life- Apple has a few examples: a photoframe to show your photos, a stereo to play your music and a wireless receiver/transmitter to make the iPod’s communication with other devices easier. Third party peripherals have already done most of these. The rumours of a new Mac Mini suggest that it and a new Frontrow may become the hub of this music-video-photos nexus.

An interesting glimpse at Apple’s thinking in 2004- and perhaps a glimpse of the future?


The patent goes off on a bizarre tangent at this point- In this future utopia with wireless iPods- we’ll all be skiing with our 3 friends listening to the same music on our iPods transmitted by the friend with the musical taste.

Here’s an excerpt from the patent that tells the story of the first, second, third and forth skier and their personal transmitting station:

[0115] In this particular illustration, a first skier 506 holds the personal transmitting station 500 while second, third and fourth skiers 508, 510 and 512 each hold personal tuning devices 502… The first skier 506 is located on a first hill 514, the second and third skiers 508 and 510 are located on a ski lift 516, and the fourth skier 502 is skiing down a second hill 518. As should be appreciated, all of these locations are within the broadcasting or networking range of the personal transmitting station 500.
[0116] The personal transmitting station 500 is configured to send a music signal to the personal tuning devices 502 held by the second, third and fourth skiers 508, 510 and 512 and the personal tuning devices 502 are configured to receive the music signal sent from the personal transmitting station 500. The first skier 506 can therefore effect changes to what is being listened to by the second, third and fourth skiers 508, 510 and 512 by simply selecting a different song to be played on the personal transmitting station 500 (even though he is in a different location than the rest of the skiers). For example, the first skier 506 may end a first song and select a second song to be played therefore causing the personal transmitting station 500 to send the second song to the personal tuning devices 502.