Podcast organization and usage at a computing device

• US 9,300,711 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2014
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Jones, Anne, Wiese, Mike, Neumann, David Lawrence
• Primary Examiner(s): NDIAYE, CHEIKH T
• Application Number:
  US14/330,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20150039727A1
• Time in Patent Office: 624 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/202, 709/203, 709/204, 709/225, 709/234
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 comprising:

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

parsing, by the client device, the episodic media item metadata content of the new episodic media item to identify at least one new-feed-URL (Uniform Resource Locator) tag identifying a new location of the multi-episode media feed, wherein the new location is external to the online media store;

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

tagging, by the client device, additional episodic media items downloaded by the user with the new URL if the user is not subscribed to the multi-episode media feed; and

tagging, by the client device, all previously existing episodic media items in the multi-episode media feed and all new episodic media items in the multi-episode media feed with the new URL if the user is subscribed to the multi-episode media feed,

wherein tagging includes substituting the new URL for an old URL previously associated with the multi-episode media feed or the episodic media item.

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 episodic media item metadata content.

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

inserting an episodic media item URL tag identifying the new URL into the episodic media item metadata of the corresponding episodic media item media content.

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

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

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

inserting the episodic media item URL tag identifying the new URL into metadata of the corresponding episode of the multi-episode media feed.

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 media feed for which a new-feed-URL tag is identified in the episodic media item 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 episodic media item such that the episodic media item is associated with the new URL.

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

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

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

downloading at least one of the episodes of the episodic media item 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 episodic media item.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the episodic media items are videos.

13. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the episodic media items are movies.

14. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the episodic media items are images.