Apple Extends iPhone Functionality With New Wireless Patent
Apple has filed a patent application for a new wireless technology for its soon to be released iPhone and possibly next generation iPods. One of the attributes that many industry watchers noticed was blatantly missing when the iPhone bowed at MacWorld was the fact that there was nothing in place to allow the iPhone to purchase and download music wirelessly from iTunes. Apple has now addressed that grievance with this new patent.
The US Patent and Trademark Office published Apple’s patent application titled Configuration of a computing device in a secure manner. Apple’s patent details the ability of a future cellular phone being able to access Apple’s iTunes Music Store in a secure manner for the purposes of a device upgrade or commercial transaction.
The Future: One of the other possible applications would be for remote diagnostics. With the high failure rate of iPods, and most likely for the first generation of the iPhone, a manner for which Apple’s Customer Support team could remotely analyze technical problems would be a tremendous asset, not to mention, a real cost saver.
