Management and prioritization of media item downloading

• US 20080065782A1
• Filed: 09/11/2006
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Computer Incorporated (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Jones, Anne
• Granted Patent: US 7,707,273 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/240
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/44 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

The disclosed embodiments relate generally to the downloading of media items. The media items may include, for example, audio, video, image, or podcast data. In accordance with one embodiment, two or more media items may be concurrently downloaded. In accordance with another embodiment, a user may control the downloading of each of the media items, as desired. More particularly, the user may choose to download, pause, or resume downloading one or more media items identified in the list of media items. In other words, the user may alter the download status of any of the items in the list of media items. In addition, the user may re-prioritize the order in which the media items in the list or a subset thereof are to be downloaded.

Claims

1. A method of concurrently downloading media items, comprising:

obtaining or identifying a list of media items, the list of media items including two or more media items;

ascertaining a priority of the two or more media items; and

concurrently downloading two or more media items in the list of media items according to the ascertained priority.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the media items is a podcast episode or an item purchased from an online media store.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the priority is indicated by an order of the media items in the list of media items.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein concurrently downloading includes generating a separate HTTP request for each of the two or more media items being concurrently downloaded.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the media items in the list of media items is included automatically in the list of media items or selected by a user for inclusion in the list of media items.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

re-prioritizing the two or more media items in the list of media items in response to a user selection.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a predetermined maximum number of media items are able to be concurrently downloaded.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a next prioritized media item in the list of media items is eligible to be downloaded;

wherein the next prioritized media item is downloaded when it is determined that it is eligible to be downloaded.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein determining whether a next prioritized media item in the list of media items is eligible to be downloaded comprises:

ascertaining whether a status of the next prioritized media item in the list of media items indicates that the next prioritized media item is already being downloaded, that the next prioritized media item has been paused, or that an error has occurred.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein when downloading of one of the two or more media items being downloaded has completed, initiating downloading of another one of the two or more media items in the list of media items according to the ascertained priority.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

pausing the downloading of one or more of the two or more media items being downloaded in response to user input.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

storing information associated with a file corresponding to each of the one or more media items, the information indicating a point in a file corresponding to each of the one or more media items at which downloading was paused.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising:

resuming the downloading of at least one of the previously paused media items in response to user input;

wherein the downloading is resumed at the point in the file corresponding to the previously paused media item at which downloading was previously paused.

14. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

resuming the downloading of one or more of the previously paused media items in response to user input.

15. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

receiving user input requesting that one or more of the previously paused media items resume downloading;

determining whether one of the previously paused media items associated with the user input requesting that the downloading be resumed is capable of being resumed;

when downloading of the previously paused media item is not capable of being resumed, initiating downloading of the previously paused media item from the beginning of a file corresponding to the previously paused media item; and

when downloading of the previously paused media item is capable of being resumed, initiating downloading of the previously paused media item at a point in the file corresponding to the previously paused media item at which the downloading was previously paused.

16. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

receiving user input requesting that one or more of the previously paused media items resume downloading;

determining whether a file corresponding to one of the previously paused media items associated with the user input requesting that the downloading be resumed is identical to the file previously downloaded;

when the file corresponding to the previously paused media item associated with the user input requesting that the downloading be resumed is identical to the file previously downloaded, initiating downloading of the previously paused media item at a point in the file at which the downloading was previously paused;

when the file corresponding to the previously paused media item associated with the user input requesting that the downloading be resumed is not identical to the file previously downloaded, initiating downloading of the previously paused media item from the beginning of the file corresponding to the previously paused media item associated with the user input requesting that the downloading be resumed.

17. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

saving the list of media items to a file or data structure upon exiting an online media store.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

populating the list of media items from the file or the data structure upon re-entering the online media store.

19. The method as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

for each item purchased from the online media store that is listed in the populated list of media items, determining whether the item is currently available from the online media store;

when it is determined that the item is no longer available from the online media store, deleting the item from the populated list of media items; and

when it is determined that the item is currently available from the online media store, not deleting the item from the populated list of media items.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein determining is performed in response to user input.

21. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

providing a type of media item.

22. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the type of media item indicates one of the media item is an online store purchase or podcast episode.

23. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each media item in the list of media items has a download status, the method further comprising:

providing the download status associated with each media item in the list of media items.

24. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein the download status indicates whether the corresponding media item is being downloaded, eligible to be download, paused, completed downloading.

25. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

displaying information indicating at least one of an amount of the media item that has been downloaded, an amount of the media item that remains to be downloaded, or a time remaining to complete downloading of the corresponding media item.

26. A method of downloading media items, comprising:

obtaining or identifying a list of media items, the list of media items including two or more media items;

ascertaining a priority of the two or more media items; and

downloading one or more media items in the list of media items according to the ascertained priority.

27. The method as recited in claim 26, further comprising:

re-prioritizing at least a portion of the media items in the list of media items in response to user input.

28. The method as recited in claim 26, further comprising:

modifying a download status of a set of one or more of the media items in the list of media items in response to user input.

29. The method as recited in claim 28, wherein modifying a download status comprises changing the download status from eligible to downloading, paused to downloading, or downloading to paused.

30. The method as recited in claim 28, further comprising:

downloading the set of media items, pausing the downloading of the set of media items, or resuming downloading of the set of media items.

31. A computer-readable medium storing thereon computer-readable instructions for concurrently downloading media items, comprising:

instructions for obtaining or identifying a list of media items, the list of media items including two or more media items;

instructions for ascertaining a priority of the two or more media items; and

instructions for concurrently downloading two or more media items in the list of media items according to the ascertained priority.

32. An apparatus adapted for concurrently downloading media items, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, at least one of the processor or the memory being adapted for;

obtaining or identifying a list of media items, the list of media items including two or more media items;

ascertaining a priority of the two or more media items; and

concurrently downloading two or more media items in the list of media items according to the ascertained priority.