Mobile wireless internet portable radio

• US 7,817,621 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2005
• Issued: 10/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pineapple34, LLC
• Original Assignee: Lonecraft Limited LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Boys, Donald Robert Martin
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz; Curtis
• Assistant Examiner(s): Islam; Mohammad K
• Application Number:
  US11/182,458
• Publication Number:
  US 20060007923A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,922 Days
• Field of Search: 370/352, 370/401, 379/93.07, 455 301- 306, 455/186.1, 455418-420, 455/412, 705/26, 705/27, 705/51, 725/91, 725/134, 709217-219
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/72 of terrestrial networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/85 which are mobile communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

An Internet-capable radio has a communication port for connection to a modem, a connection function for connecting to the Internet upon user initiation while connected to the modem, sound circuitry for rendering audio data packets received over the Internet as analog audio output, and for delivering the audio output to one or more speaker ports, two or more stored hyperlinks addressing Internet broadcast servers; and a user input adapted to enable a user to select among the stored hyperlinks. Selection of one of the stored hyperlinks by the user input invokes the hyperlink and connects the radio to the server addressed by the hyperlink, initiating thereby an audio data stream as data packets from the broadcast server to the radio, and wherein the radio renders the data stream as analog audio data delivered to the one or more speaker ports. The user input in preferred embodiments has a plurality of pushbuttons associated with hyperlinks, which can be asserted by activating a pushbutton. In some embodiments a directory server is used for editing user profiles and programming connected Internet-capable radios.

Claims

1. A vehicular radio, comprising:

a housing configured to be mounted inside a motor vehicle;

one or more components coupled to the housing and configured for wireless Internet communication;

one or more electronic components coupled to the housing for rendering a received audio data stream as electronic output;

one or more memory buttons disposed on the housing and associated one-to-one by a stored map with individual Universal Resource Locators (URLs) correspondingly associated with Internet radio broadcast data streams such that a single operation of any one memory button asserts the associated URL, causing the radio to receive the corresponding Internet radio broadcast data stream; and

at least one input, operation of which communicatively connects the radio to a directory server on the Internet to download one or more URLs of audio data from, and stored on, the directory server, the one or more downloaded URLs providing links to one or more broadcast servers that are separate from the directory server,

wherein the radio is configured to associate each downloaded URL one-to-one with an individual one of the one or more memory buttons.

2. The vehicular radio of claim 1, wherein the one or more URLs comprise a list of URLs.

3. An Internet radio system, comprising:

an Internet-connected subscription server storing one or more subscriber lists of Universal Resource Locator (URL) Internet addresses of destinations that are separate from the subscription server and capable of streaming real-time Internet radio broadcasts to each of one or more subscribers based on the one or more subscriber lists; and

a vehicular radio mounted inside a motor vehicle, the radio comprising a housing, a wireless Internet connection component coupled to the housing, electronic components coupled to the housing and configured for render a received audio data stream as electronic output, and one or more memory buttons coupled to the housing, the one or more memory buttons associated one-to-one with one or more URLs, such that operating a memory button asserts the associated URL, causing the radio to receive the real-time Internet radio broadcast associated with that URL,

wherein the association between the one or more memory buttons and the one or more URLs is assignable and adjustable via Internet or telephone communication.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein each of the one or more subscriber lists is associated with a specific subscriber.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the radio is configured to enable access to the subscription server to amend a subscriber'"'"'s URL list.

6. The system of claim 3, further comprising a call center associated with the subscription server, through which a subscriber may call an agent and instruct the agent to amend a subscriber'"'"'s URL list.

7. The system of claim 3, further comprising an automated voice-interactive telephone system associated with the subscription server through which a subscriber may call and interact with voice recognition software to amend a subscriber'"'"'s URL list.

8. The system of claim 3, further comprising an Internet browser component and input enabling a subscriber to browse Internet web sites and to search accessed sites for links to streaming audio content.

9. A method comprising:

storing by a computing device one or more subscriber lists of Universal Resource Locator (URL) Internet addresses of destinations that are separate from the subscription server and capable of streaming real-time Internet radio broadcasts to each of one or more subscribers based on the one or more subscriber lists;

associating by the computing device the URLs individually on a one-to one basis with one or more memory buttons of a vehicular radio mounted inside a motor vehicle, such that operating a memory button asserts the associated URL, causing the radio to receive the real-time Internet radio broadcast associated with that URL,

wherein the association between the one or more memory buttons and the one or more URLs is assignable and adjustable via Internet or telephone communication.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising changing by the computing device the association such that one or more of the memory buttons are associated with one or more different URLs.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising enabling by the computing device a subscriber to browse Internet web sites and to search accessed sites for links to streaming audio content, wherein the browser searches a site by reviewing embedded code at the site for code to activate an audio player application identifying a link to streaming audio content.

12. An apparatus comprising:

means for storing one or more subscriber lists of Universal Resource Locator (URL) Internet addresses of destinations that are separate from the subscription server and capable of streaming real-time Internet radio broadcasts to each of one or more subscribers based on the one or more subscriber lists;

means for associating the URLs individually on a one-to-one basis with one or more memory buttons of a vehicular radio mounted inside a motor vehicle, such that operating a memory button asserts the associated URL, causing the radio to receive the real-time Internet radio broadcast associated with that URL,

wherein the association between the one or more memory buttons and the one or more URLs is assignable and adjustable via Internet or telephone communication.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising means for changing the association such that one or more of the memory buttons are associated with one or more different URLs.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising means for enabling a subscriber to browse Internet web sites and to search accessed sites for links to streaming audio content, wherein the browser searches a site by reviewing embedded code at the site for code to activate an audio player application identifying a link to streaming audio content.