Apple Inc.

Szu-Wen Huang

Thomas M Alsina

Jesse William Boettcher

Nicholas James Paulson

Gregory R Chapman

David P Saracino

Steven P Bischoff

Jason P Ketterman

Jeffrey L Robbin

Taylor Gerard Carrigan

William Martin Bachman

Jeffery Theodore Lee

Gokhan Avkarogullari

Steve Saro Gedikian

Eric S Lee

Valeri A Krasnov

Emily Clark Schubert

James David Batson

Sandeep Kumar Gupta

Edward T Schmidt

William E Bull

Greg Marriott

Arvind S Shenoy

Shyam S Toprani

Charles Magahern

Elena Leyfman

Cody D Jorgensen

David Allan Shayer

Andrew J Sinesio

Cesar De Camargo Barscevicius

Simon Goldrei

Mufaddal Y Khumri

Betim Deva

Keith G Henrickson

Edward Zhang

Harry Simmonds

Catarina Peres Coelho Borges

Jeff Lee

Owen Imholte

Methods and systems provide synchronized sharing of multimedia between multiple devices. The multiple devices may form an ad-hoc network for sharing of multimedia. In an embodiment, group members may have playlist manipulation privileges such as pausing, rewinding, fast forwarding, or adding tracks to the playlist. A system may stream or distribute content according to the shared playlist. Playback may be synchronized for group members so that everyone is exposed to a same part of the content as the same time.

Synchronized playback and control of media

In some embodiments, a first electronic device shares a portion of a content item corresponding to a respective portion of lyrics for the content item with a second electronic device. In some embodiments, a system facilitates securely sharing a portion of a content item between two devices. In some embodiments, an electronic device generates a server address for accessing a portion of a content item. In some embodiments, a uniform resource locator includes an identification of content, an indication of a first subset of the content, and authentication data.

User interfaces and associated systems and processes for sharing portions of content items

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

Methods and systems provide for coordinated control between multiple devices of playback of a media track or playlist. The multiple devices may form an ad-hoc network for sharing control of media. A control device may coordinate control of the playlist and facilitate playback of the media at a playback device. Then when the control device leaves the group, a second device in the group will seamlessly become the control device and control playback and playlist coordination. The playback device may also be the control device. The playback advice may be a network-enabled speaker. Where the playback device is separate from the control device, the playback device may maintain sufficient information to operate without a control device until a new control device is selected.

Coordinated control of media playback

Users can share a content stream and can create and/or edit playlists that include content items of the content stream. Each user device, or a subset of the user devices, can edit the playback commands of the content stream once it is being shared. Playback of the content items is synchronized between the sharing devices. If one device is associated with a content restriction, an alternate version may be provided to that device. The two versions can still be played synchronously with one another.

Synchronized playback of alternate content version

There is provided a method for preloading the glyphs required to display the content of a system. In accordance with an embodiment of the present technique, only those glyphs which are present in the system upon startup or synchronization of an electronic device are preloaded. The glyphs present upon startup or synchronization of the electronic device may be determined by scanning the system. In an illustrated embodiment, scanning the system may include analyzing models and views to determine the glyphs present in the system.

Font preloading

A graphical user interface ('GUI') can be presented on a remote control accessory device that has user input and display devices. The portable media device can provide the accessory with a GUI image to be displayed. The accessory can specify the configuration of the remote GUI image and send that information to the portable media device. The portable media device can generate a GUI image based on the configuration and send the GUI image to the accessory. The accessory can display the GUI image on one part of its display and other information on another part of its display. The portable media device can define different GUI image types for use with different types of input controls of the accessory. Based on which input control is currently active, the portable media device can send the corresponding GUI image to the accessory for display on the accessory display.

Pushing a graphical user interface to a remote device with display rules provided by the remote device

A method of displaying a user interface in a portable electronic device is provided. The method includes displaying a user interface via a graphics layer attached to a software renderer, detaching the graphics layer from the software renderer, and attaching the graphics layer to one or more of a plurality of hardware layers, such that the display of the graphics layer is facilitated by one or more features of at least one of the hardware layers. An electronic device is provided that includes a display, a processor coupled to the display and configured to provide a plurality of hardware layers, and a user interface comprising a graphics layer, wherein the display of the graphics layer is facilitated by one or more features of at least one of the hardware layers, wherein the graphics layer dynamically attaches to or detaches from one or more of the plurality of hardware layers.

Dynamically reconfigurable graphics layer system and method

The described embodiments comprise a system that adjusts pixel values to produce visual effects in a frame to be displayed. During operation, the system receives coordinates and pixel-adjustment values for one or more control points within the frame. Next, the system calculates pixel-adjustment values for pixels in the frame based on the coordinates and the pixel-adjustment values for the one or more control points. The system then applies the pixel-adjustment values to the pixels within the frame and displays the frame.

Method and apparatus for adjusting pixel values

Improved methods and systems that assist a user in searching media items on a portable electronic device are disclosed. According to one aspect of the invention, a portable electronic device is provided with a search function that enables a user to search for media items resident on the portable electronic device. The search function can search through different types of media items. Those of the media items that are deemed matching can be ranked in order of relevance and displayed in a list for the user. Thereafter, the user can navigate the list to select one of the listed media items for playback. According to another aspect of the invention, various graphical user interfaces can be presented on a portable electronic device to assist a user in interacting with the portable electronic device to utilize a search function.

Portable electronic device with local search capabilities

A system and method of rendering a graphical user interface for a media based device which employs techniques for layering graphical elements. The method includes providing a background layer for the graphical user interface and graphical layers over the background layer. The method also superimposing an opaque view over a portion of the translucent graphic layer and marking the opaque view as opaque so that the portion of the translucent layer is not redrawn when the content in the opaque view is altered.

Opaque views for graphical user interfaces

There is provided a method for altering a sequence in which programs and content are loaded upon startup of an electronic device. A user may change the loading sequence by selecting a program or content before the loading sequence has finished. In addition, the altered loading sequence may be saved and utilized when the electronic device is powered on again. There is also provided a tangible, machine-readable medium for performing the described method. Finally, there is provided an electronic device having a memory device for storing a loading program that defines a loading sequence, a processor for loading programs and content based on the loading sequence, and a user interface for delivering user input to the loading program to alter the loading sequence.

User influenced loading sequence of startup applications

Growing community of inventors

Fremont, CA, United States of America

Szu-Wen Huang