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Apple Tries to Patent iPod User Interface
harlows_monkeys writes "Apple's
trying to patent several aspects of the iPod user interface. This one is particularly interesting because the claims are written in fairly clear and simple language, easy to understand by anyone. If this one is granted, it won't be because an overworked examineer was confused by deliberate obfuscation by the application (which is what I think happens for a lot of the ridiculous patents). About half the claims are for things that were implemented in prior players (e.g., Archos), and the other half are for things that are in many other common device interfaces (DVD players, PVRs) and the only novelty is that Apple put them on a portable music player."
United States Patent Application 20040055446
Kind Code A1
Robbin, Jeffrey L. ; et al. March 25, 2004
Graphical user interface and methods of use thereof in a multimedia player
Abstract
In a portable multimedia device, a method, apparatus, and system for providing user supplied configuration data are described. In one embodiment, a hierarchically ordered graphical user interface are provided. A first order, or home, interface provides a highest order of user selectable items each of which, when selected, results in an automatic transition to a lower order user interface associated with the selected item. In one of the described embodiments, the lower order interface includes other user selectable items associated with the previously selected item from the higher order user interface.
Inventors: Robbin, Jeffrey L.; (Los Altos, CA) ; Jobs, Steve; (Palo Alto, CA) ; Wasko, Timothy; (High River, CA)
Correspondence Name and Address:
BEYER WEAVER & THOMAS LLP
P.O. BOX 778
BERKELEY
CA
94704-0778
US
Assignee Name and Adress: Apple Computer, Inc.
Cupertino
CA
Serial No.: 282861
Series Code: 10
Filed: October 28, 2002
U.S. Current Class: 84/615
U.S. Class at Publication: 084/615
Intern'l Class: G10H 001/18; G10H 007/00
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method of assisting user interaction with a multimedia asset player by way of a hierarchically ordered user interface, comprising: displaying a first order user interface having a first list of user selectable items; receiving a user selection of one of the user selectable items; and automatically transitioning to and displaying a second order user interface based upon the user selection.
2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the second order user interface includes a second list of user selectable items associated with the selected item.
3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the second order user interface is a proper subset of the first order user interface.
4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first list of user selectable items includes at least a playlists item, an artists item, and a songs item.
5. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein when the selected item is the playlists item, then the second list of user selectable items includes a list of configurable playlists.
6. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein when the selected item is the artists item, then the second list of user selectable items includes a list of all artists and a list of particular artists.
7. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein when the selected item is the songs item, then the second list includes a list of all songs.
8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the transitioning is pathwise bidirectional.
9. In a portable media asset player, a method of selecting and playing a media asset from a group of media assets stored therein, comprising: displaying at a first user interface displayed on the portable media asset player a first number of items each of which is associated with a particular grouping of the stored media assets; receiving a selection of one of the first number of items; automatically transitioning to a second user interface displayed on the portable media asset player based upon the selected one of the first number of items wherein the second user interface includes a second number of items each of which is associated with the selected item.
10. A method as recited in claim 9, further comprising: selecting one of the second number of items; automatically transitioning to a third user interface displayed on the portable media asset player based upon the selected one of the second number of items wherein the third user interface includes a third number of items each of which is associated with the selected one of the second number of items.
11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein when each o
Not that this patent has anything to do with iTunes, but Apple didn't pioneer anything with iTunes. Just another me-too jukebox application except that Apple bundled it with their OS. The same could be said about the iPod's hierarchical menus and the function of the iPod itself, both ripoffs of existing products and the actual subject of the patent.
Can you say troll?
/. group-think, insightful or not, they are a troll.
Troll. How's that? Incidentally, I love how anytime someone says something against the
But what the hell, I'll try to appease you and detail my problems. One thing about itunes that bugged the shit out of me is the way it had of only letting me play songs from one album at a time in album order, unless I built a custom playlist. I admit that I only spent a week with it, and there may have been a way to get it to do what I wanted, but apple supposedly has a rep for making things easy. And I didn't like the way the training wheels strapped to itunes were steering me. The way zinf is organized lends itself to just grabbing the music you want and from the left pane and just playing it. I have yet to find another player with a music browser this suited to me, commercial or not. Another thing that bugged me about itunes was that it took almost twenty seconds from launching the app to it being ready to play a song. And that's on an Athlonxp 2400(2ghz) computer with a gig of ram and a fresh install of winxp. Zinf takes less than a second.