Apple patent hints at TiVo-style podcast customisation

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apple-podcast-patent.gifApple has filed a patent concerning its plans for next-generation podcasts, or as it calls it, ‘Creation, Management, and Delivery of Personalized Media Items’. Gotta love those patent titles, eh? And it’s about as murky in the actual description:

“Users are able to influence or control the content in or with a podcast. In other words, a podcast can be created in accordance with a user’s needs or specifications so that the content within a podcast is customized or personalized for the user.”

Ars Technica, which reported the story, reckons this means you’ll be able to manually or automatically choose specific episodes from a bunch of podcasts and blend them into a single, on-demand stream for your PC or portable player – using tags, date ranges and specific topics to locate relevant podcasts. A bit like TiVo, except for podcasts rather than TV.

Intriguing stuff.

Apple podcast patent (via Ars Technica)

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Stuart Dredge
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