Apple Inc.

Cody D Jorgensen

Patrick L Coffman

Thomas M Alsina

Edward T Schmidt

Jean-Pierre Ciudad

Julien F Freudiger

Deepak R Iyer

Arvind S Shenoy

Astrid Yi

Todd R Fernandez

Christopher G Skogen

Paul C Irvine

Joao Pedro De Almeida Forjaz De Lacerda

Cyrus Daboo

Taylor Gerard Carrigan

Matthew Joseph Cielak

Christopher John Sanders

Jonathan Anderson Bennett

Jason P Ketterman

Priyo Mustafi

Venkat Kranthi Chalasani

Nicholas James Paulson

Szu-Wen Huang

Amandeep S Jawa

Charles Magahern

James Callender

Elena Leyfman

Andrew J Sinesio

Cesar De Camargo Barscevicius

Keith G Henrickson

Aurie Bendahan

Harry Simmonds

Michael Gachet

George D Bottas

Owen Imholte

Jonathan T Cools-Lartigue

Noah C Hines

A device implementing a multi-user content queue may include a memory and at least one processor configured to receive, on the device, a content query and retrieve, from the memory, user account credentials corresponding to user accounts associated with the device. The at least one processor may be further configured to provide, to a server, the user account credentials and the content query. The at least one processor may be further configured to receive, from the server and based on the content query, a user account identifier of one of the user accounts and a content identifier corresponding to content in a content library of the one of the user accounts. The at least one processor may be further configured to utilize the user account identifier and the content identifier for output, by the device, of the content from the content library of the one of the user accounts.

Multi-user content queue

A device receives a time-based restriction for usage by a first user with respect to an application, a website or a device-level function. The device receives encrypted data indicating a usage by the first user on a second device with respect to the application, website or device-level function. The device determines that at least one of the usage by the first user on the second device or a usage by the first user on the device with respect to the application, website or device-level function violates the time-based restriction. The device provides, in response to the determining, a notification that the time-based restriction has been violated by the first user.

Managing device usage

Techniques are disclosed for managing media playback among an ad hoc group of playback devices. Such techniques may involve building a session among the playback devices in which playback devices communicate information regarding their playback capabilities. Based on the playback capabilities of the devices, playback mode may be derived for the session. Playback operations may be synchronized among the devices that are members of the session, in which devices receive identification of asset(s) to be rendered pursuant to the playback operation and timing information of playback of the asset. The devices may stream the playback assets directly from media sources when they are capable of doing so. In this manner, communication resources are conserved.

Encapsulating and synchronizing state interactions between devices

Some implementations allow users to create and share data including playlists. Such playlists may be subscribed to by other users. Changes to such playlists, such as updates by the curator of the playlist, must be propagated to subscribers in a timely manner while efficiently utilizing resources. Some implementations allow updates to be propagated using a push notification to cause client devices to request the update (push). Alternatively, updates may be made when the client devices of the subscribers next accesses the system (pull). An aggregator system may be used to make decisions on which users to send push notifications, and which users to wait to pull updates on their own. Additionally, the aggregator may determine that certain playlist updates should be distributed using push notifications. The aggregator may determine that only certain playlist subscribers should receive push notifications regarding playlist updates.

Updating playlists using push and pull

In some implementations, a computing device can be configured to manage playlist-only media items for a user's media library. For example, when a user adds a media item to a playlist, the user can be presented with an option to add the media item to the playlist as a playlist-only media item. When the user selects to add the media item to the playlist as a playlist-only media item, the computing device can update media metadata associated with the user's media library with data indicating that the media item is a playlist-only media item. When the computing device performs operations (e.g., displaying, searching, etc.) on the user's media library, the computing device can exclude the playlist-only media items from the operations. The computing device can change the playlist-only settings for a media item to add and/or remove a media item from the user's media library.

Playlist-only media items

The present technology is for optimizing storage on a computing device. A media application on the computing device can allocate a minimum amount of storage on the computing device. The media application can further be configured to automatically download and store media items added to a media library of an account associated with the computing device. The combination of these features can put strain on computing devices with limited amounts of storage. Accordingly, the present technology can automatically delete media items in cache to allow media items to be automatically downloaded, or allow other uses of storage by other applications on the computing device, while also preserving the minimum amount of storage of media items on the computing device.

Optimized storage of media items

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Cody D Jorgensen