Microsoft Patent Watch: smart radio and smarter program guide
Those wily inventors at Microsoft have certainly been busy, judging from some of the company's recent patent filings. In one (that would be patent #6,996,390), Microsoft has apparently been granted a patent for a "TiVo for radio" system, which can record music and filter out "undesirable audio content (e.g., advertisements and unwanted news)." We like the idea of getting rid of news we don't like. Does that make the events go away as well? Since Microsoft originally filed this one in 2002 and it was apparently just granted, we can't help but wonder whether Redmond is going to start going after other radio-recording devices, such as the Radio Shark and Radio YourWay. Microsoft has also applied for a patent for a smart electronic programming guide, which would download and organize programming data according to metadata. Sounds sort of like an RSS reader for program guides, and we're sure similar things have been done before, but that doesn't mean those wacky dudes over at USPTO won't go ahead and give Microsoft this one as well.
[Via The Raw Feed and Zatz Not Funny]
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