I have been doing the poor man's version of this for a while, by placing MP3s in my gmail account, and accessing them via the mobile browser...
not very efficient, my method
That's a good idea! I just gmailed myself a song, retrieved it with my iPhone 3G, it was opened with the "Q" symbol for Quicktime... and played nicely (TH, Burning Down The House : )) But, is there a way to open and save it in the iPod App??
BTW, does someone remember jobs hinting at a home server? Obviously there is possibilities now, but I guess they would make it simple. I can see "Back To My Mac" and AppleTV evolving into this. I can see iTunes 8 being a full fledged home media server (with file browsing a possibilty).
Hmmmnnnn.... looks like all iPods will be getting WiFi. "Product Transition"?? (except the little Shuffle)
i tried Remote Buddy on the iPhone as an HTPC remote control, but the average one second or so delay between commands and action as it routed through their server and back was very annoying. i did not try it for streaming music to the iPhone, where that would not matter. maybe will try again.
the only thing new about Apple's filing is loading the metadata - your media library index - into the iPhone in advance. that obviously is more efficient since you can figure our what to play before connecting. i think that detail is what Apple is really trying to protect.
otherwise it's almost the same as "sharing" your iTunes library on a LAN, which Macs have been doing since Tiger.
still, it'll be a great iPhone App. surprised Apple didn't already put it out the same time as Remote.
If it was well integrated, I'd be pretty fucking psyched. I would be pissed though every time I went in the subway though. Until they can make that happen, there's little that would make me not ask for a larger hardrive.
well you could always have a few hundred songs loaded for when you have no connection. what this would do is give you access to the thousands of others in your library when you do have a connection.
hey - then Apple could discontinue the iPod Classic with its huge drive and just sell Touches instead. maybe that is the real idea behind this.
what about video/movies? i guess first you'd need to have downscaled iPhone resolution H264 files on your Mac. and then will the data stream without hiccups?
or Simplify Media which has been submitted to Apple and is coming to the AppStore.
I definitely don't see how Apple can get a a patent on this one.
If your method and implementation are specifically unique, of course you can patent it. It's not like the patent says "stream audio over network". The patent is 24 pages long and i'm sure refers to unique and original methods. And besides that, if no one else has patented it, then anyone can. The only thing you can't do is sue someone if they can claim prior art, meaning even though they didn't patent it, they still had their own implementation before the patent was granted. Besides that, anyone who can prove that they've created something from the ground up without outside influence, is certainly entitled to apply for a patent on it. Whether they get it or not, is up to the patent office.
After looking over the other services and applications, the biggest difference is rather obvious. Songs and lists aren't loaded and don't appear until a connection is made. Apple is actually loading the meta data onto the device, so it is always there, whether you have a network connection or not. Then it seems when you choose to play a song, it makes the connection to the server (your iTunes library) and streams the audio data to the device. So on the surface it would appear as if all your music is on the iPod when in fact they aren't.
Yeah right, I'm sure this would really fly with AT&T.
If it does happen, they would probably restrict it for use on a WiFi connection, just like the Music store.
AT&T is not to blame for not being able to download music through cell. The music companies are to blame. It is the music company that has not allowed apple to offer this service only because the want more money and Steve wont give it to them.
I am really excited about always being able to access my music where ever I go... I do wonder as some others have pointed out how ATT will feel about all this bandwidth usage for this service.
so they patented what ooTunes, orb, simplify media, Tversity, and slimplayer have been doing all this time? Brilliant!
iTunes 4.0 actually had this feature already, being able to connect to other iTunes libraries remotely over the Internet like with Bonjour. But it got pulled with 4.0.1 since it made it easy for third parties to make apps to download the files. I guess this time around they're making it more secure.
This feature could insterest someone but I dont think it is worth. The battery life will be shorter and shorter and on the other hand the storage size will be larger and larger.
Comments
I have been doing the poor man's version of this for a while, by placing MP3s in my gmail account, and accessing them via the mobile browser...
not very efficient, my method
That's a good idea! I just gmailed myself a song, retrieved it with my iPhone 3G, it was opened with the "Q" symbol for Quicktime... and played nicely (TH, Burning Down The House : )) But, is there a way to open and save it in the iPod App??
BTW, does someone remember jobs hinting at a home server? Obviously there is possibilities now, but I guess they would make it simple. I can see "Back To My Mac" and AppleTV evolving into this. I can see iTunes 8 being a full fledged home media server (with file browsing a possibilty).
Hmmmnnnn.... looks like all iPods will be getting WiFi. "Product Transition"?? (except the little Shuffle)
the only thing new about Apple's filing is loading the metadata - your media library index - into the iPhone in advance. that obviously is more efficient since you can figure our what to play before connecting. i think that detail is what Apple is really trying to protect.
otherwise it's almost the same as "sharing" your iTunes library on a LAN, which Macs have been doing since Tiger.
still, it'll be a great iPhone App. surprised Apple didn't already put it out the same time as Remote.
hey - then Apple could discontinue the iPod Classic with its huge drive and just sell Touches instead. maybe that is the real idea behind this.
what about video/movies? i guess first you'd need to have downscaled iPhone resolution H264 files on your Mac. and then will the data stream without hiccups?
or Simplify Media which has been submitted to Apple and is coming to the AppStore.
I definitely don't see how Apple can get a a patent on this one.
If your method and implementation are specifically unique, of course you can patent it. It's not like the patent says "stream audio over network". The patent is 24 pages long and i'm sure refers to unique and original methods. And besides that, if no one else has patented it, then anyone can. The only thing you can't do is sue someone if they can claim prior art, meaning even though they didn't patent it, they still had their own implementation before the patent was granted. Besides that, anyone who can prove that they've created something from the ground up without outside influence, is certainly entitled to apply for a patent on it. Whether they get it or not, is up to the patent office.
After looking over the other services and applications, the biggest difference is rather obvious. Songs and lists aren't loaded and don't appear until a connection is made. Apple is actually loading the meta data onto the device, so it is always there, whether you have a network connection or not. Then it seems when you choose to play a song, it makes the connection to the server (your iTunes library) and streams the audio data to the device. So on the surface it would appear as if all your music is on the iPod when in fact they aren't.
Alternatively, iPods and iPhones could communicate with one another in a manner similar to that employed by Microsoft's Zune media players.
So how long will it be, before a lawsuit is filed for this?
Yeah right, I'm sure this would really fly with AT&T.
If it does happen, they would probably restrict it for use on a WiFi connection, just like the Music store.
AT&T is not to blame for not being able to download music through cell. The music companies are to blame. It is the music company that has not allowed apple to offer this service only because the want more money and Steve wont give it to them.
A reason to own a ton of music at home AND buy an iPhone.
so they patented what ooTunes, orb, simplify media, Tversity, and slimplayer have been doing all this time? Brilliant!
iTunes 4.0 actually had this feature already, being able to connect to other iTunes libraries remotely over the Internet like with Bonjour. But it got pulled with 4.0.1 since it made it easy for third parties to make apps to download the files. I guess this time around they're making it more secure.