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Apple to jump on the HD train?

It would be an excellent match with the iPhone. After all, it's on a network that doesn't work too. HD would be in great company! (rimshot sounder)

:)
 
What would be more interesting to me would be Apple patenting a new competitor to iBiquity. Giving consumers a choice, but using their own patented technology on their own iPhones. That would be more like Apple.
 
Savage said:
Jumping on the HD train? You mean "jumping on board the HD lawn tractor??" :D
Click to expand...

No doubt, this is the "Long Black Train" that Josh Turner wrote and sang about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Black_Train_(single)
 
The real question is, if HD rolled out in their phones and mp3 players, what would win out — the turtleneck-sweatered groupies who fawn over anything Apple does as genius, or the horrible technical deficiencies of the HD digital chipset?

In other words, could Apple make HD "cool"? :D
 
If only iBiquity wasn't so greedy, and licensed HD Radio to Apple free or at a low cost as a loss leader, HD Radio would be much more widely listened to as every iPod would have an HD radio tuner. Apple and iBiquity would share the profits from music sales that resulted directly after people tagged songs on the radio they want to purchase next time they sync. I heard IBUZ years before I saw the first iPod.

Alas, my iPhone is a super "HD radio", it can get any HD2, HD3, or any other station in the world.
 
TheBigA said:
Well actually, we don't know if such a deal is in the works, do we?
Click to expand...
I think Nick was referring to the past tense, as in "they should have". I think back to my 1st HD radio - a Visteon adapter with a box that sat under the dash containing an HD receiver & an FM modulator. It had a little head unit you could stick to the dash somewhere with double-stick tape. The thing drew 2.5 amps at 12 volts, ran very hot, and generated a huge amount of self-interference. That was HD technology at the time the Ipod was introduced. The receivers have gotten better, but the system still generates way more interference than light dimmers & pirates combined, and the sound quality is not that great.

I can't see anyone jumping on this train unless there's a real financial incentive. Surely the technical limitations (modulation efficiency, outdated codec, and interference) are apparent to any potential partner who does their research.

Dave B.
 
DaveBayArea said:
I can't see anyone jumping on this train unless there's a real financial incentive.
Click to expand...

I agree, especially Apple. But if they're going after a patent, they must feel they have something original that will pay off in some way. Otherwise, I don't think they'd expend the energy.
 
"but nobody listens to HD Radio!"

If Apple actually produces something with this patent, this changes that..

You see, it's not that people don't like radio. Streaming radio apps are a MAJOR part of IPhone use. It's just that they want it in the right device. And oh, with AT&T capping data plans, what looks like a good alternative? Yep. HD Radio on your Iphone. No data plans needed.
 
Seconded. The moment people think the meter's running, they stop listening to Internet radio.

Thing is, iPods are only useful if you have a computer to connect them to. While iPod ownership numbers are much larger than HD Radio ownership numbers, aren't those numbers still vanishingly small compared to FM radio ownership?
 
Perhaps the Apple people have found a way to connect the negative side of the clocking pulse to an antenna
to cancel the self-interference, making it possible to put an AM radio into it. :D
 
mmnassour said:
AppleInsider is reporting that Steve Jobs is filing a patent for a HD receiving section...
Click to expand...

The Internet is full of half-truths that people don't bother to check out.

The patent application under discussion (20100150276 A1) was filed February 19, 2009.

It clearly describes an "accessory" to a media player. "This disclosure relates generally to radio transmissions, and more specifically to RF tuner accessories that communicate with a media player such as a portable media device ('PMD')"

It is a follow-on patent application to "HD Tagging in an RF Tuner Accessory," by the same inventors, filed December 14, 2008. That's iTunes tagging -- the radio receiver "accessory" and the iPhone/iPod PMD. iTunes tagging in actual hardware was introduced in January 2008 at MacWorld, and you have a year to file the patent after the first public "enabling disclosure."

What the later patent concerns is enhanced modes of interaction between the "accessory" and the PMD.

mmnassour said:
it does seem that HD is one thing Jobs at least wants on the shelf
Click to expand...

It's already "on the shelf." It's iTunes tagging.

Furthermore, patents are also used for defensive purposes, e.g., against prospective features for the Zune.

- Jonathan
 
I can guarantee I will be the last fossil to let Apple anywhere near my music collection, or ever become a source for my music.

I can't even play one of my own mp3 files from a file off the network storage on my wife's MacIntosh without it being sucked into the itunes directory. I suppose I could install another player on it, but as far as I'm concerned Apple is trying to spy on me, and steal recordings I've made, regardless of source, and I don't feel they have a right to copies of my steam engine recordings, ambient sound soundtracks, etc, that are PRIVATE.
 
While the naysayers keep saying "nay', HD continues to grow at a slow, steady pace. The Insignia HD01 was the first true hit product for HD radio. Best Buys in Hickory and Winston-Salem NC have told me they can't keep the things in stock.

I'm not an Apple fan. Never owned and Ipod, and probably never will. I prefer Archos and Sandisk mp3 players (my Sansa View usually travels with me, along with my Insignia HD01). But Apple is the "Big Enchilada" in this area. They own the market. It would be hard to overestimate the importance for HD of an Ipod with HD Radio.

The Insignia has proven that HD can work, and work well on a portable. I get amazing reception at my deep-fringe location on my Insignia. Perhaps more important for now, it uses DSP processing to vastly improve the reception of analog FM Stereo.

I too am amazed at the success of the Iphone on what is clearly a network that can't handle the traffic. But that's a side issue. It IS successful (even though Android-based phones have recently been outselling Iphones).
 
Jhardis is right, this isn't about putting HD Radio in an iPhone, it's about iTunes tagging and extracting the metadata from an HD Radio signal to make that function happen. The patent is really an extension of what Apple already has in the iPod Nano; an analog FM radio with iTunes tagging. More than likely we will, at some point, see iPhones and iPads with analog FM and iTunes tagging.

The Zune HD has served as the testing ground for HD Radio in a handheld device and the feedback so far from Zune owners ( all five of them :) ) is that HDR draws too much power and generates too much heat. Notice that Microsoft hasn't put HD Radio in their new phones. On the other hand, the FM tuner in the iPod draws no more power than it's MP3 playback function, so why shouldn't Apple put it in their other portables.

But the potential for broadcasters is still huge. Imagine iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad owners listening to FM while surfing the web or doing some other task, doable now that iOS4 has multitasking. As was mentioned this will take some of the burden off of AT&T's already taxed network as people listen to OTA radio as opposed to web radio.

And, yes, I'm a huge Apple fan.

c5
 
Carmine5 said:
As was mentioned this will take some of the burden off of AT&T's already taxed network as people listen to OTA radio as opposed to web radio.
Click to expand...

And as I've said elsewhere, it's possible that the only reason this option isn't available now is because of the AT&T exclusive. Once that ends, it will become available.
 
"I can't even play one of my own mp3 files from a file off the network storage on my wife's MacIntosh without it being sucked into the itunes directory. "

That's because your ITunes is set to auto organize and copy the file to the "Itunes Library." This can be changed in preferences and has nothing to do with Apple spying on your collection. It's based on the assumption that some people would like to consolidate copies of their files into one single library that can be easily managed and located through ITunes.
 
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