Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider, “Apple’s anticipated cloud-based music streaming service could could offer faster playback of Internet-stored content by syncing just small snippets of songs via iTunes.”
“The details were revealed this week in a new patent application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and discovered by AppleInsider. Entitled ‘Local Storage of a Portion of Streamed Media Items,’ it describes a device like an iPhone having pieces of songs synced to it via iTunes,” Hughes reports. “Using this method, users could dramatically reduce the amount of storage used by their music library on their mobile device. Segments of the song would be stored locally, and the iOS software would fill in the gaps by obtaining the rest of the track from a file stored in the cloud.”
Hughes reports, “The application suggests that the remotely stored content could be a user’s own library, which they have streamed from a home computer or a remote server. Or, it could be streamed from a large ‘content source,’ such as the iTunes Music Store.”
Read more in the full article here.
How clever!
I’ll believe it when I sync it.
Clever indeed but…
I hope this isn’t Apple’s way to skimp on storage space for portable devices!
We need 128GB, 256GB & 512GB iPhones and iPads. (Originally wanted 64GB, 128GB & 256GB, but time has since passed and our media is only getting bigger)… I don’t want to depend on cell phone service providers and other people’s servers to access music, movies, photos, books and etc.
I am simply concerned that Apple and other companies are trying to eventually kill storage space on portable devices (or provide no internal hard drive increases in the future) and have us dependent on internet access to access what we’ve purchased/acquired. That is a no go move. I look forward to what Apple’s cloud initiative offers even though I am not currently interested.
I agree.
The worry I have is that on one side, content providers (Apple included), are trying to get everything in the cloud. This, in theory, is a huge concept, and would free us from storage limitations. On the other side, however, the bandwidth providers are limiting our monthly data throughput, and are starting to charge by the bit.
If I were Oliver Stone, I might be starting to think conspiracy…
And this is exactly why I don’t care how big Apple lets their money pile grow.
They are just plain smarter they the rest of us. They’ll figure it all out.
“just plain smarter they the rest of us”
On the other hand auto-correct could still use a little more of that legendary Apple brain power applied to it.
Beginning to sound a lot like an expansion of the “Home Sharing” feature (over 3G, not just WiFi). One can hope 🙂
You’re fired.
Sent from my iPhone.
You’re both fired.
Send from my iPad
I just hope I can listen to my music with no internet connection, and that syncing it to my iphone can still stay local. I hate having to wait for my sluggish internet to copy something to drop box just so I can get to it, I hope itunes doesn’t start acting like that, it’s already slow enough :/.
I could make a 512GB iPad, but I don’t think you would want to pay for it…
You’d be surprised 😉
Sounds cool – although battery life will take a big hit for just listening to music.