Notes on an Apple LBS patent

I noticed a new patent filing picked up on the Directions Magazine blog noting a new LBS patent from Apple that looked interesting. Seems that Apple will plan to have GPS chips in those next generation of Ipods and Iphones, not just for navigation but to give you a new way to blend location into your media experience. The patent seems to essentially cover the process of linking location to media presentment. One way it seem that this patent could be applied would be to present different songs or playlists at a given point in time… let’s say you’re an avid runner and like to bring your iPod with you on runs… you probably already have a run mix just so you don’t have to fiddle with picking songs while you’re running… well blending location awareness could do the playlist one better by giving you the songs you want at the place you want it… say super high energy songs for those long hills and more mellow wind down music for the after run cool down. The location based controls could also control volume to know if you typically need more volume say next to a busy highway or less volume in a more secluded area like a library. Similarly, video brightness and contrast could vary for indoor or outdoor environments.

The patent is interesting enough, but what would be a more interesting application of location tied to iPod and iTunes would be to create location based zones that sellers of audio or video media could use to highlight offerings relative to ones location. For example, let’s say that Madonna wanted to give each person attending her concert on opening night a free download of her new single, attendees at the concert who bring their iPods should be able to navigate to a section within their iPod to see and download such location relevant offers. Same goes for community bands, and garage bands everywhere, rather than the wasted expense of burning CDs and convincing local stores to carry their music… those bands could simply set up geo boundaries around their concert events so concert goers with iPods could buy albums right there on the spot through their iTunes account, while the iron is hot and the concert goer is caught up in the passion that real time events can create.