radiotagging
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BiKN will turn your iPhone into a homing device
There's an interesting hardware software product coming from Treehouse Labs next year that is a kind of reversal on the Find my iPhone service. It's called BiKN, pronounced like "beacon," and it allows you to use small hardware tags that hook to keys, cameras, pets or even people so you can locate them. The system also includes a special case for your iPhone that contains a receiver that interacts with the tracking tags, and of course an iOS app that makes the system complete. Up to 8 tags can be tracked at any time. The tags have a slider that reveals a micro-USB port for quick charging. Seems like an interesting idea, and we'll certainly look at it when it ships. There's no word on price, what distance restrictions there are (I can see some privacy issues surfacing), or an exact date for availability. You can see a video of the BiKN in operation on YouTube. [Via eCoustics.com]
Rumor: Apple considering HD radio in future devices
Way back two or three years ago, we first heard about some HD radios coming out that would allow for iTunes tagging of songs for later purchase. I guess Apple thought that was a mighty nifty idea, as they later gave similar capability to the latest iPod nano, and the company has recently filed for a patent that integrates HD radio right into future iPhones and iPods. Unlike with traditional FM radio, HD radio transmits with it information on the song, artist and album you're listening to. The most recent iPod nano has a song tagging feature for its built-in, traditional FM receiver, though it relies on later syncing the device with iTunes to make sense of what song you tagged. With HD radio capabilities built into an iPhone or iPod, theoretically you could set your device to search for a particular song title via HD radio information. You'd also be able to quickly tag the song for purchase and be brought immediately to the iTunes app. With iOS 4's multi-tasking capabilities, most likely one would be able to listen to HD radio stations while performing other tasks, much like you can do now while listening to iTunes. While streaming apps like Pandora are popular and will have backgrounding capability, HD radio does one thing Pandora doesn't: it won't use up your data plan. Of course, as with any number of the slew of patents Apple files for, there's no telling whether we'll actually see HD radio built into future devices. [via AppleInsider]
Microsoft facing patent lawsuit over Zune Buy From FM feature
Looks like someone at Microsoft should be paying slightly more attention to the mail: an ophthalmologist (yes, that's right) in Illinois named Edward Yavitz is suing Redmond over the Zune's Buy From FM feature, saying he wrote the software giant a letter in 2006 that disclosed his two relevant patents on the tech, suggested how it could be integrated into the Zune, and asked for a deal. Two years and presumably zero replies later, a young Joe Belfiore introduced Buy From FM along with the Zune 3.0 software, which Ed says directly infringes on his patents -- and his lawsuit, filed ten days ago, asks the court to permanently stop sales of the Zune and award him triple damages in cash. Oops. We haven't dived too deeply into the patents themselves, but it looks like Ed's going to have a bit of a fight on his hands here, as the patents seem to describe systems that have preloaded content about music that's then accessed when a data trigger is received over the air, not just storing song information for later purchase over the Internet. We're sure the good doctor's attorneys have some high-powered arguments to the contrary, so we'll withhold judgment and see where this all leads -- we're guessing a quick settlement is in the cards, as fighting Microsoft might end up actually costing more than any percentage of royalties on total sales of the Zune. P.S.- If you're wondering why Apple hasn't been named for its similar iTunes Tagging feature... well, so are we. We'll see what happens.
