From: Sarai <bucc7465_at_bellsouth.net>
Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 23:09:11 -0500

Sarai D. Bucciarelli

-----Original Message-----
From: David & Rhonda Trott [mailto:dart1018_at_charter.net]
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 11:00 PM
To: alabama_at_acb.org
Subject: [alabama] Is A Talking Ipod in the Works


MacWorld UK

Friday, May 05, 2006

 

Apple patents hint at future 'iUber' iPod

 

By Jonny Evans

 

A pair of Apple patent applications show the company is constantly
working to keep the iPod ahead of the evolving digital music game.

 

Macsimum News notes that one patent (filed in December 2004 but
published
yesterday) describes a fully wireless-enabled iPod, but describes the
device as a "portable shopping cart".

 

The patent posits a device that's capable of connecting to a store using
mobile phone networks or WiFi networks.

 

The device described in the filing offers one or more speakers, a
microphone, headphone jack, a FireWire or USB port, flash memory slots,
and "one or more antennae or ports used to connect to a local networks".


 

This patent discusses a method of tagging a digital file, such as a
song, ringtone, video or PDF (perhaps available on iTunes) using one
device (perhaps a mobile phone) for download later to a Mac or PC.

 

A second patent describes a system to automatically create audio
navigation tags for an iPod.

 

These tags are created from the metadata associated with a song, so
could include artist and song name, playlist or genre, for example. This
metadata is converted from text to speech and transformed into small
audio files, which can be used to offer information to help a user
navigate their collection without using the iPod's display.

 
Received on 2006-05-12