MEDIA LIST MANAGEMENT

• US 20100094880A1
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Hannon, Timothy Patrick, Wysocki, Christopher R., Rogers, Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 8,832,122 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for managing a playlist on a portable media device including generating a random order of media items based on a seed, receiving an instruction to power down the portable media device, saving the seed in a storage, and powering down the portable media device.

Claims

1. A computer program product including instructions embodied on a computer readable medium for managing a playlist of a plurality of media items on a portable media which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps comprising:

generating a random order of the plurality of media items based on a seed;

receiving an instruction to power down the portable media device;

saving the seed in a storage; and

powering down the portable media device.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising:

generating the seed.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising:

updating a counter for tracking the plurality of media items played; and

saving the counter before powering down the portable media device.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising:

updating a timer for tracking the plurality of media items played; and

saving the timer before powering down the portable media device.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising:

saving a playlist identifier associated with the playlist before powering down the portable media device.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the instruction to power down is caused by a low battery indication.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the random order is generated using a pseudo-random generator.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the random order is generated using Tomasulo'"'"'s algorithm.

9. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the seed is an integer.

10. A computer program product including instructions embodied on a computer readable medium for resuming a random playlist of a plurality of media items on a portable media device which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps comprising:

accessing a stored seed;

generating a random order of the plurality of media items based on the seed; and

playing one of the plurality of media items.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 further comprising:

accessing a stored counter, wherein the playing step comprises playing the one of the plurality of media items based on the counter.

12. The computer program product of claim 10 further comprising:

accessing a stored playlist identifier, wherein the stored playlist identifier is associated with the playlist; and

wherein the generating step comprises generating the random order based on the stored playlist identifier.

13. A system for managing a playlist on a portable media device comprising:

a storage; and

a processor, wherein the processor is configured to generate a random order of media items based on a seed, and wherein the processor is configured to save the seed in the storage before powering down the portable media device.

14. The system of claim 13 further comprising:

a memory, wherein the seed is copied from the memory to the storage before powering down the portable media device.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to save a playlist identifier in the storage before powering down, wherein the playlist identifier is associated with the playlist.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to save a counter in the storage before powering down, wherein the counter is incremented for each media item played.

17. A computer program product including instructions embodied on a computer readable medium for managing a playlist on a portable media device which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps comprising:

generating a random playlist of media items based on a seed;

receiving an instruction to play the random playlist;

incrementing a counter for each media item played; and

storing the seed and the counter for regenerating the random playlist.

18. A system for managing a playlist on a portable media device comprising:

a memory;

a storage; and

a processor, wherein the processor is configured to copy a seed from the storage to the memory and to generate a random order of media items based on the seed.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the processor is configured to play one of the plurality of media items.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the processor is configured to copy a playlist identifier from the storage to the memory, wherein the playlist identifier is associated with the playlist.

21. A method for managing a playlist of a plurality of media items on a portable media player comprising:

generating a random order of the plurality of media items based on a seed;

receiving an instruction to power down the portable media device;

saving the seed in a storage; and

powering down the portable media device.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

presenting at least a portion of the plurality of media items according to the random order prior to the powering down.

23. A computer program product including instructions embodied on a computer readable medium for managing a playlist on a portable media device which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps comprising:

playing a first playlist;

receiving an instruction to play a second playlist;

copying to a memory a seed and a counter value associated with the first playlist; and

playing second playlist.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

receive an instruction to play the first playlist;

copy from memory the seed and the counter value from associated with the first playlist; and

resume play of the first playlist based on the seed and the counter value.

25. A computer program product including instructions embodied on a computer readable medium for managing a playlist on a portable media device which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps comprising:

copying a seed and a counter value from storage to memory, wherein the seed and the counter value are associated with a random playlist;

identifying a media item in the random playlist based on the seed;

determining whether the media item has been played;

repeating the identify step if the media item has been played; and

playing the media item if the media item has not been played.

26. The method of claim 25, the steps further comprising the step of:

marking the media item as played if the media item has been played.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the identifying step comprises generating a random number associated with the media item.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the identifying step comprises comparing a playlist index to the counter value.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the identifying step comprises saving information associated with the media item to a memory location and overwriting the memory location if the identifying step is repeated.