Patent for wireless iPod turns up

The patent for this was filed over a year and a half ago, but c'mon, is anyone all that surprised that Apple has at least been experimenting with a wireless iPod, a WiPod, if you will? A patent published on Thursday but that Apple filed in April of last year talks about a wirelessly-enabled handheld player that can beam music and information to multiple other media devices, a docking station for communicating with other devices, and something about wirelessly transmitting "media items" to a handheld device over a network. No mention of what wireless standard might be involved (maybe Apple is just waiting for 802.11n to get going), but don't be shocked if they roll out a new a wireless iPod next year that can beam music to an AirPort Express and wirelessly sync up with a computer.

[Thanks, 010111]

[Jeffrey Monk, AdSense Blogger @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

WOW ... imagine a wireless photo TiVo iPod ... everything, everwhere, anytime!! All things just keep getting better!! :-)

[Tim @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

Here is a link to the full application. Note that this is not a patent yet, it is still being reviewed.

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220040224638%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20040224638&RS=DN/20040224638

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

I wouldn't count on it any time soon. This could've been built last year, the big thing holding back wireless apps like this (wireless jukeboxes, video players, web tablets) is BATTERY LIFE. Wireless sucks the life out of batteries in no time flat.

Ipods already don't have great battery life - I don't expect them to come out with this if it'll only run for 30 minutes...

They just want the patent for years down the road when battery technology catches up - not so much the broadband technology...

[balerion @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

How about a WiMax enabled iPod with no hard drive?

I know, it would be years before the infrastructure could support it, and the battery issues would have to be sorted out, but still... how cool would that be?

[Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

The trick to a WiPod would be limiting the wireless radio times. Why would it need to operate continuously? It could come up on the WiFi net, transmit, and shut back down. Unless it's feeding a wireless speaker, it shouldn't need to be always on.

Of course, I'd STILL rather see a satellite radio add-on for an iPod. Live radio content and my music library - that's something I'd buy.

[010111 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

there is a device coming out a week from today that supposedly has pretty good battery life *and* wifi.

and since the ipod battery life has increased recently... if it dropped back to 6-8 hours but included wireless capabilities i doubt many people would complain.

who knows... maybe the flash-based ipod will be the first to include wi-fi ... giving all the 'normal' current ipod owners reason to add one of those to their collection as well...

[Callum Alden @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

Well, lets calm down. It's gotta be just a holding parent (not sure of the lingo) but obviously this is an old idea, and they've moved on - notice how the (crude) diagram shows an old iPod style. And surley griffin have taken out a patent on the iTrip? Anyway, I agree with John - and in a recent Channel 4 Interview with ives he noted Battery life as something they we're working on above the frills (paraphrase) of Wi-Fi.

[kev @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

I've been told many times that WiFi eats up battery life. The still-soon-to arrive UWB is intended to use significantly less battery - on the order of Bluetooth, I've been told. As it is, the Firewire-over-UWB and USB-over-UWB specs have been completed. But although chips are ready (from Freescale at least), UWB still has two proposals competing to be the IEEE-approved standard, thus freezing release of any serious long-term products like a wireless iPod or wireless video-in-the-home box.


Does anyone know if 802.11n is better than 11g on batteries?

[Felix Li @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

Umm..everyone talks about the iPod...but what are the other things in the drawing?
We have 2 iPods, an iMac and a Powerbook...

then what are the other 3 small handheld things? one of them seems to have a screen as a main feature, the other 2 seems to be devices with a speaker. and they look too small to be PDA's

Apple flash-based players? :P

[silence @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

the most wanted player's feature since 2000, if you ask me

[Kangaroo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

Currently I'm jogging not with my ipod, but with my pocket pc PDA. Ipaq 6315, Yeah!

It's a PDA that can connect to the internet (through cellular service provider) that provides good speed, but I'm using it to stream music from digital imported, awesome! See if iPod can beat that!

The only complaint is little battery life compare to mp3 players, but I don't jog that long ; )

iPod is made to be portable and for moving around. If I want a device that can play music around my house, I'll stick with my computer. Streaming AirTunes from iPod makes no sense, you would have very limited control. Also the music library on your computer is usually equal to or larger than on your iPod.

[iPod @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

Battery life will be a big challenge. cant wait for it to be released...

[amorson @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

Battery life is indeed an obstacle, but I�m sure they�ll be able to overcome it with new energy storage systems coming out now (how come they hardly get any coverage here?). I run both WiFi and Bluetooth simultaneously on my UX50 with no problem.

Another obstacle will be to keep the iPod the same size it is now. I suspect apple will not want to change its size.

[Folkestone Gerald @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

Don't fret about the battery life, I hear they're working on wireless mains electricity.

[Kent Wang @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

"Wireless mains electricity"? I believe that's called a death ray.

[al sargent @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

Good points above re: battery life. What if Apple designed a "WiPod" so that it worked similar to "Tivo To Go": use WiFi only when the WiPod was docked, to cache Internet radio streams available from whatever hotspot was available. These streams could then be played back on the go, without using battery-sucking WiFi. More thoughts on WiPod, check out my post at http://alsargent.typepad.com/personal/2005/01/xms_prospects_a.html.

[Pesty @ Dec 19th 2005 12:06AM]

Looks like the wireless ipod was patented long before that according to this:

Major IP landgrab
By Wireless Watch
Published Tuesday 29th November 2005 14:33 GMT

Battle for mobile email

Behind all these debates over the principles of royalties, there is a major landgrab going on for patents in areas that are seen as critical to revenue growth in mobile systems. Vendors are seeking intellectual property not just to generate new revenues but to disadvantage their rivals as they race after new and lucrative markets. Most prominent among these is currently mobile push email, and beyond that, cellphone-based integrated messaging incorporating email, voicemail, instant messaging, presence capabilities, SMS and future techniques like videomail, under a single telephone directory and user interface.

This is seen as a major driver of mobile data revenues in both the enterprise and consumer markets and is being hotly chased by the handset majors and by the companies that are extending integrated messaging strategies from other platforms such as the internet PC. Microsoft, in both its Windows Mobile and MSN guises; the internet players Google, Yahoo! and AOL; Nokia with its quest for the mobile enterprise space; Qualcomm seeking to make its CDMA platform more attractive to operators; and the specialist RIM are all fighting for the sector from different angles (see Wireless Watch November 21st issue). One key element of their battle, and one that highlights the more general issues surrounding patents in the mobile world, revolves around intellectual property.

So, earlier this month we saw Nokia acquiring Intellisync for its push email technology. There were some obvious motivators � allowing the Finnish giant to sideline RIM and control its own platform in this crucial market being the key one. Since Intellisync is mainly implemented by carriers, with Verizon Wireless its largest customer, it also gave Nokia a welcome foothold in its weakest base, the CDMA operators, which could drive future sales of high end CDMA handsets. But as an added bonus, and helping to justify the $430m purchase price, Nokia not only gains Intellisync�s store of 60 patents to add to its existing hoard in this market, but also wins control of the platform on which archenemy Qualcomm has built its own mobile email offering, Eudora2Go. Nokia could potentially force its rival to re-engineer Eudora2Go around a different technology, losing it valuable time to market, or charge it high fees for licensing.

The patent holders
But there are other patents in this area that are up for grabs. Of course, there is the long running saga of RIM�s battle with patent hoarder NTP over some core push email intellectual property. RIM claims it has devised a workaround, and if it has, this would certainly boost its value and potentially, the likelihood that a larger company will acquire it as it sees its huge market share start to dwindle. RIM has leveraged its own patents to try to keep other minor players out of the space it pioneered, and its IP remains attractive if it can be freed of legal burdens.

Then there is Wireless Science, the intellectual property sister company to mobile content specialist Wireless2Web. This company claims to have 1,600 patents or pending patents, including the LinkPush user-controlled content mechanism, and has indicated that it is keen to gain an acquirer or exclusive licensee for them. It works in areas including push email, mobile multimedia, voice-email integration, music download and others.

Microsoft could be on the look-out for acquisitions in this area, although it is relying on its own market weight rather than patents to spread its integrated communications platforms, including its new DirectPush email function � now the basis of future offerings from the other surviving major independent alongside RIM, Palm. The giant has no significant patents in this market, but does, of course, license its Windows Mobile Media Audio and Video technologies to third parties, such as Qualcomm and various phonemakers, which use these partly to underpin multimedia messaging and other data services.

If Wireless Science�s patents are as valuable as the company claims, they could be a good purchase for a handset maker, providing a headstart in an increasingly pivotal and competitive market and a way to keep other rivals out. All of which shows that patents are becoming more, not less, important to the way that vendors compete in the mobile market, and that the royalties issue will not be easily solved. Rather than relying too heavily on the slow processes of the European Commission and standards bodies, the cellcos may do better to emulate Japan�s NTT DoCoMo and Korea�s SKT and acquire some IP of their own, so that they too have something to trade with the increasingly royalty- dependent equipment makers.

Copyright � 2005, Wireless Watch