14 DAY TRIAL // Last year, Sirius Satellite Radio's CEO Mel Karmazin spoke with Apple's CEO Steve Jobs about working together. This sounded like a nice idea and everyone was thrilled when they have heard it. Sadly, this was not a joy that lasted, because an executive at Sirius said then that such an agreement was "unlikely".
Sirius chief financial officer David Frear said that Sirius's technology duplicates some of the functions of Apple's iPod music player, which may make any partnership unlikely. This news was reported by New York Post.
At the time, Apple dismissed every deal with satellite radio providers and all of those that had any hopes of this feature being implemented, were kind of disappointed. After a year, some clues rise to surface that would certainly "sweeten" the day of many iPod fans.
Electronista.com reports that a patent which they have come across is suggesting that Apple continued to explore the technology on its own in this field.
The filling published October 19th and originally filed in August 2005, refers to two distinct methods of integrating the iPod with satellite services. The first aspect of the patent describes the ability to tune "into a wireless signal (e.g., AM FM radio, digital radio, or WiFi)" using an iPod-style player with "the capability to accept accessories to add the necessary functionality." While this may refer to Apple's Radio Remote released late in 2005, the patent's explicit mention of support well beyond AM/FM radio is significant and may signal a future add-on that would supply satellite radio directly to the iPod.
Searching "deeper" trough the patent's pages, the writer from electronista reports: More important still is the description of how such accessories would share information between the iPod and external receivers. In another section of the patent application, Apple refers to an "in-vehicle receiver-player" that would connect to both a music player and an in-car network and synchronize track data between the two connected devices:
"If the in-vehicle receiver-player... is playing audio content that is received from a radio frequency broadcast (e.g., AM, FM or XM), the portable media device... is able to determine descriptive media information associated with the audio content being played," writes Apple.
As illustrated, the concept would let iPods not only display metadata from live radio (a feature already present in the Radio Remote) but would also let the user flag individual songs heard through these mediums -- including XM Satellite Radio -- for a later purchase through a "Media Purchase System" such as the iTunes Store.
The patent filling can be found Here
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