Podcast organization and usage at a computing device

• US 8,799,348 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2013
• Issued: 08/05/2014
• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): Wang, Liangche A
• Assistant Examiner(s): NDIAYE, CHEIKH T
• Application Number:
  US13/781,715
• Publication Number:
  US 20130238640A1
• Time in Patent Office: 523 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/202, 709/203, 709/204, 709/234
• US Class Current: 709/201
• 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. A method of processing a podcast, comprising:

maintaining, by a client device, a multi-episode podcast feed with an online media store upon receiving a new podcast episode in the multi-episode podcast feed, the new podcast episode having podcast metadata content and podcast media content;

parsing, by the client device, the podcast metadata content of the new podcast episode to identify at least one new-feed-URL tag identifying a new location of the multi-episode podcast feed that is external to the online media store;

obtaining the new-feed-URL tag from the podcast metadata content;

determining, by the client device, whether a user of the client device has a subscription for automatically downloading episodes of the multi-episode podcast feed;

tagging, by the client device, additional podcast episodes downloaded by the user with the obtained new-feed-URL tag upon determining that the user is not subscribed to the multi-episode podcast feed; and

tagging, by the client device, all previously existing podcasts in the multi-episode podcast feed and all new podcast episodes in the multi-episode podcast feed with the obtained new-feed-URL tag upon determining that the user is subscribed to the multi-episode podcast feed, wherein tagging includes substituting the new URL for an old URL previously associated with the podcast or episodes.

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

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

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

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

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

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

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

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

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the episodes are stored in a database.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the tagging comprises

storing information associated with each episode of the multi-episode 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.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, 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.

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

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

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein downloading comprises:

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

11. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the new location of a new-feed-URL tag is for an episode of the podcast.