14 DAY TRIAL // Softpedia has stumbled upon a new Apple patent application describing a “method and apparatus for prolonging battery life of a media player.” Filed with the iPod in mind, “The method includes receiving a plurality of initially configured video settings for viewing a video segment on the media player for a desired playback duration.”
“The method further includes determining power required to play the video segment based on the initial video settings and playing the video segment if the required power matches or is less than total power available to the media player,” the abstract description continues.
“In another embodiment, the method may further include, if the required power exceeds the total power available to the media player, adjusting one or more of the initial video settings, either automatically or by user inputs, to reduce the power required to play the requested video segment for the desired playback duration,” Apple explains. Apple also suggests that songs that are listened to more rarely might be dimmed out / obscured in favor of more preferred songs.
The general summary of the invention explains that, “The systems and methods can monitor playback and access of media files to create usage metadata. In some embodiments,” Apple claims, “the usage metadata can then be used to adjust the playback of the media file. For example, the usage metadata may indicate that a user skips, on average, the first 22 seconds of a particular song so the next time that song is played, the first 22 seconds will automatically be skipped. In some embodiments, the usage metadata can additionally or alternatively be used to adjust a graphical representation of the media file. For example, the usage metadata may indicate that a user rarely accesses a particular song so the graphical representation of that song will be small and faded. This change in graphical representation can help a user find more commonly used media files.”
As MacRumors points out, a second patent application filed by the Mac maker recently describes how the iPod might keep track of individual playback characteristics of songs to improve the overall user experience. This would be done by tracking a user's preferences for volume, start time, equalizer settings and other factors. These would be applied when the iPod is used again.