Apple patents iTMS transaction service for iPhone
By Darren Murph 
posted February 1st 2007 3:59PM
posted February 1st 2007 3:59PM
Joining Sony Ericsson in the growing list of cellphone-related patents unearthed today, it appears that Apple is doing a good bit of work behind the scenes to ensure that future iPhone users will be able to access and purchase tunes (and video?) from the iTunes Store. Apple's recently filed "Configuration of a computing device in a secure manner" patent lays out in a good bit of detail how users of a mobile device (wireless iPod?) could access the iTMS and perform "transactions." It goes on to speak of "digital signatures" that would presumably have to be validated before any unexpected downloads took place, and it also pictures a handset (props to Nokia candybars of days past) communicating with an actual PC, which then contacts the "content and commerce" servers on the other side of the wire. In other details, there's photo evidence that some sort of downloadable upgrades / expansions could be available, probably referring to future firmware updates that could be initiated through the iTunes application. Granted, the whole mess of legal jargon is a bit hard for the layman to truly grasp, and it seems that Apple was simply throwing out as many vague words and possibilities to encompass anything that actually gets decided, but be sure to hit the read link anyway for more textual confusion and pictorial delight.
Nice 5600 Series phone they used there. lol Wonder who in R&D at Apple has one of those bad boys strapped to their hips?
I hope they add wireless streaming of your downloaded content from your home computer at some point, too... It would sorta be like a portable AppleTV. Then they'd really have something, and the 8 gigs wouldn't seem so small.
That's cool.
Please tell me they haven't actually been granted this patent. Can we stop patenting every little thing? I'd like to see patent reform along with copyright reform.
"And BOY have we patented it!"
(Jobs loves his patents).
Someone should patent the process of looking both ways when you cross the road :P
Actually, it's pretty common practice to patent this kind of thing and as I recall there is a reason for it...
It's certainly stupid, though, especially when you consider that the only people who have the time / energy to do it are ginormous corporations like Apple.
Anyhow, looks retarded to me. Why can't the iPhone just do this directly?
Heck, I can directly download / listen to music on a Nintendo DS in the middle of nowhere, and that thing is a lot less powerful than an iPhone!
they patent everything because if they didn't microsoft would come out with a ZunePhone with all the same features
Would it be possible to stop saying something is patented when the application is just published and a patent has yet to be granted?
Apple wouldn't have to patent every little thing if every little company (and big company) in the world didn't try to copy and steal their ideas every time they come out with a new product.
Well, jeez, can you blame them. Everybody copies their every move.
"Can we stop patenting every little thing? I'd like to see patent reform along with copyright reform."
I think we all agree but as long as patent laws stay as they are, smart companies are going to have to continue patenting everything they can think of in order to protect themselves from expensive lawsuits.
So... the internet is a series of tubes... and 2G cellular networks are made of clouds?
Just.Rob: Everyone knows that the network is represented by a cloud. Industry standard practise! And the groovy old Nokia is a standard MS Visio template item. Can you get Visio for a Mac?
I must say though, there doesn't appear to be anything new or revolutionary about this patent application. This (at a really high level) is exactly how any content is downloaded to a mobile device -- from ringtones upwards.
Why should it have to communicate with an actual PC first? What's really the point then? DRM is once again all over this, but hey at least it's better than two Zunes squirting on each other. Sorry.
Err, the PC represents the application running on the local device (all part of the 'service'). This could, for example, be a Java mobile jukebox application running on pretty much any handset.
This is hilarious, on the old side of the pond have we had direct download of music to our phones for the last 3-4 years. Maybe Jobs should have said in his keynote "it's five years ahead of other mobile phones in America and only five years behind the mobile phones and services in Europe and Asia".. :-p
This is absolutely ridiculous. I've been doing such transactions on my Treo for years.