Microsoft Patents Smart Playlists?

Have Apple's lawyers been sleeping on the job – for years? Did someone fire the guy who makes the coffee? First Apple takes a serious setback in patenting the iPod interface, and now Microsoft's beat them to patenting something a few of Apple's apps have had for a while: Smart Playlists. Jason Clarke over at DLS appears to have even gone through all the patent jargon to find exactly what was patented:

"Various systems and methods described above permit a user's content experience (e.g. music playing experience) to be monitored and for metadata... This metadata can be dynamically updated as a user experiences media content and then used to impart to the user a personalized experience that is tailored to that specific user."

Check out the actual patent if you really want to read through all the law jargon. I'm starting to get confused though: why is Apple dropping the ball on patenting some of their most vital bread and butter?