PODCAST ORGANIZATION AND USAGE AT A COMPUTING DEVICE

• US 20130238640A1
• Filed: 02/28/2013
• Published: 09/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Jones, Anne, Wiese, Mike, Neumann, David Lawrence
• Granted Patent: US 8,799,348 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/755
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/908 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

Improved techniques that facilitate the use of podcasts are disclosed. The improved techniques can pertain to publishing, hosting, accessing, subscribing, managing, organizing, searching, browsing, transferring, and/or playing podcasts. According to one aspect, tags are embedded into syndication feeds (e.g., RSS feeds) that may be made available for distribution by an online media store to facilitate the management of podcasts. In accordance with one embodiment, an explicit tag may be embedded at the feed and/or episode level to indicate that the feed and/or episode includes explicit content. In accordance with another embodiment, a duration tag may be embedded at the episode level to indicate an estimated duration associated with the episode. Upon downloading the episode, the duration may be replaced by the actual duration of the episode. In accordance with yet another embodiment, a new feed-URL tag may be embedded in a syndication feed to identify a new URL at which the feed is to be accessed.

Claims

1-59. -59. (canceled)

60. A method of processing a podcast, comprising:

receiving a podcast, the podcast having podcast metadata content and podcast media content;

parsing the podcast metadata content to identify at least one new-feed-URL tag identifying a new location of the podcast; and

storing information associated with the podcast corresponding to the parsed podcast metadata content such that a new URL associated with each new-feed-URL tag is identified.

61. The method as recited in claim 60, further comprising:

for each new-feed-URL tag, obtaining a new URL associated with the new-feed-URL tag from the podcast metadata content.

62. The method as recited in claim 61, further comprising:

inserting a podcast URL tag identifying the new URL into the podcast metadata of the corresponding podcast media content.

63. The method as recited in claim 62, wherein the podcast media content includes one or more episodes, and wherein the inserting is performed for each episode of the podcast for which a new-feed-URL tag is identified in the podcast metadata content.

64. The method as recited in claim 63, further comprising:

identifying an episode of the podcast corresponding to each new-feed-URL-tag provided in the podcast metadata content.

65. The method as recited in claim 63, further comprising:

inserting the podcast URL tag identifying the new URL into metadata of the corresponding episode of the podcast.

66. The method as recited in claim 61, wherein the podcast media content includes one or more episodes, the method further comprising:

tagging each episode of the podcast for which a new-feed-URL tag is identified in the podcast metadata content as belonging to the new URL.

67. The method as recited in claim 61, wherein the podcast media content includes one or more episodes, the method further comprising:

tagging one or more episodes of the podcast for which a new-feed-URL tag is provided in the podcast metadata content as belonging to the new URL.

68. The method as recited in claim 67, wherein tagging includes substituting the new URL for an old URL.

69. The method as recited in claim 67, further comprising:

determining whether a user has subscribed to the podcast, wherein the tagging is performed when the determining has determined that the user has subscribed to the podcast.

70. The method as recited in claim 67, wherein the episodes are stored in a database.

71. The method as recited in claim 67, wherein the tagging comprises storing information associated with each episode of the podcast for which a new-feed-URL tag is identified in the podcast metadata content, the information indicating that the episode belongs to the new URL, wherein the information that is stored is external to the episode.

72. The method as recited in claim 61, further comprising:

displaying a subscribe option; and

when the subscribe option is selected by a user, subscribing the user to the podcast such that the podcast is associated with the new URL.

73. The method as recited in claim 72, further comprising:

downloading at least a portion of the podcast media content of the podcast at the new URL.

74. The method as recited in claim 73, wherein downloading comprises:

downloading at least one of the episodes of the podcast at the new URL.

75. The method as recited in claim 60, wherein the new location of a new-feed-URL tag is for an episode of the podcast.

76. A method processing a podcast, further comprising:

receiving a podcast, the podcast having podcast metadata content and podcast media content;

parsing the podcast metadata content to ascertain an approximate duration of at least a portion of the podcast media content, the podcast media content including a duration tag that includes the approximate duration;

storing information associated with the podcast corresponding to the parsed podcast metadata content such that the approximate duration of the at least a portion of the podcast media content is associated with the corresponding podcast media content;

calculating an actual duration of the at least a portion of the podcast media content after the podcast is received; and

storing and providing an indicator of the actual duration associated with the at least a portion of the podcast media content.

77. The method as recited in claim 76, wherein the storing and providing is performed in response to a selection of the at least a portion of the podcast media content.

78. The method as recited in claim 76, wherein the portion of the podcast media content is an episode, further comprising:

inserting the actual duration into metadata of the episode.

79. The method as recited in claim 76, wherein the actual duration replaces the value of the duration tag.

80. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing code for controlling a client device to perform an operation of processing a podcast, the operation comprising:

receiving a podcast, the podcast having podcast metadata content and podcast media content;

parsing the podcast metadata content to identify at least one new-feed-URL tag identifying a new location of the podcast; and

storing information associated with the podcast corresponding to the parsed podcast metadata content such that a new URL associated with each new-feed-URL tag is identified.