Reservation of digital media items

• US 20060095339A1
• Filed: 12/21/2004
• Published: 05/04/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Computer Incorporated (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Hayashi, Joe, Saul, Kevin
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,151 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

Techniques for interacting with an online media store using a first device to identify a digital media item of interest to a user of the first device, using the first device to store an interest indicator for the digital media item of interest at the online media store, and subsequently interacting with the online media store using a second device to purchase or preview the digital media item of interest as identified by the interest indicator. Additionally, ring tones and graphics associated with the digital media item of interest can also be purchased.

Claims

1. A method for identifying a digital media item of interest that is one of plurality of digital media items available for purchase or download from an online media store, said method comprising:

interacting with the online media store via a first device to identify a digital media item of interest to a user of the first device; and

storing, at the online media store, an interest indicator for the digital media item of interest with respect to the user of the first device.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first device is a portable wireless device.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein the first device operates a wireless browser to assist the user of the first device with said interacting with the online media store via a low-bandwidth network.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein said method further comprises:

subsequently interacting with the online media store by the user via a second device to purchase or preview the digital media item of interest as identified by the interest indicator associated with the user.

5. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein said method further comprises:

downloading, to the second device, the digital media item of interest as identified by the interest indicator associated with the user.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the second device operates a browser application to assist the user with said interacting with the online media store and said downloading of the digital media item of interest from the online media store to the second device via a high-bandwidth network.

7. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein the second device is a personal computer.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

determining, at the online media store, if a media management application is available for the first device;

downloading, from the online media store, a media management application;

installing the media management application on the first device; and

wherein said interacting comprises marking a digital media item for purchase using the media management application.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the digital media item is selected from the group consisting of a music single, a music video, an electronic book (eBook), a telephone ring tone, and an art graphic.

10. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein the digital media item is a compilation of digital media items.

11. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein said method further comprises:

downloading, using the first device, at least one digital media item to the first device.

12. A method for identifying a digital media item of interest that is one of a plurality of digital media items available for purchase or download from an online media store, said method comprising:

interacting with the online media store via a first device to identify a digital media item of interest to a user of the first device; and

subsequently interacting with the online media store by a user of a second device to purchase or preview the digital media item of interest as previously identified by the user of the first device.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the first device is a portable wireless device.

14. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein the first device operates a wireless browser to assist the user of the first device with said interacting with the online media store via a low-bandwidth network.

15. A method for identifying-a digital media item of interest that is one of a plurality of digital media items available for download from an online media store, said method comprising:

interacting with the online media store via a first device to identify a digital media item of interest to a user of the first device;

marking the digital media item of interest at the online media store; and

subsequently downloading, to the second device, the digital media item of interest as previously marked by the user of the first device.

16. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein said interacting is over a low-bandwidth network, and said downloading is over a high-bandwidth network.

17. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein said interacting is over a low-bandwidth network, and said downloading is over a high-bandwidth network.

18. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein said marking is at the request of the user of the first device.

19. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein said method further comprises:

downloading, to the first device, an additional digital media item that is associated with the digital media item of interest as previously marked by the user of the first device.

20. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein the additional digital media item is a ring tone.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first device is a cellular phone or a personal digital assistant (PDA).

22. A system for deferred delivery of digital content over a network, said system comprising:

an online media store server that stores a plurality of digital media items that are available for purchase and download;

a first client device that operatively connects to said online media store server via a low-bandwidth network, said first client device identifies a digital media item and sends, via the low-bandwidth network, a deferred request regarding the identified digital media item to said media store server; and

a second client device that operatively connects to said online media store server via a high-bandwidth network sometime after the deferred request is processed by said online media store server, said second client device receives, via download from said online media store server over the high-bandwidth network, the digital content of the identified digital media item that was previously identified by said first client device.

23. A method for purchasing digital media items from an online media store, comprising:

obtaining a list of available digital media items from the online media store using a first application running on a wireless non-transfer device;

browsing the list of available digital media items using the wireless non-transfer device;

purchasing at least one available digital media item using the wireless non-transfer device; and

marking the purchased digital media item for later download to a transfer device.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said method further comprises:

deferring download of the purchased digital media item to the transfer device.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the wireless non-transfer device is a wireless phone or a personal digital assistant (PDA).

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the transfer device is a personal computer.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the digital media item is selected from the group consisting of a music single, a music video, an electronic book (eBook), a telephone ring tone, and an art graphic.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the first application is a wireless network browser.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein the first application is a media management application.

30. A system for purchasing digital media items from an online media store, comprising:

one or more portable wireless devices each connected to a wireless network;

one or more host computers, each connected to a computer network;

a client application, separately running on one or more of the portable wireless devices, configured to browse and mark digital media items for purchase from an online media store;

a client media management application running separately on one or more of the host computers;

one or more remote server computers configured to process commercial transactions, each of the one or more remote server computers connected to the computer network;

one or more remote server computers configured to transcode media files, each of the one or more remote server computers connected to the computer network;

one or more remote media content servers configured to deliver media content to any of the one or more host computers or the one or more portable wireless devices connected to the computer network; and

wherein any of the one or more portable wireless devices operating the client application operate to browse digital media items from any of the media content servers, and mark one or more of the digital media items for subsequent download to one or more of the host computers.