Seamlessly switching among unicast, multicast, and broadcast mobile media content
View Patent ↗In embodiments, the present invention provides a method and system for switching between broadcast and unicast content on a mobile device. The method and system involves making unicast content available to the mobile device, making broadcast content available to the mobile device; and providing a facility through which access to broadcast content may be paused for unicast content and later resumed in response to receiving an indication of access to the broadcast content.
1. A method of pause and resuming functionality between broadcast and unicast content on a mobile device, comprising:
making broadcast content available to the mobile device;
providing a facility through which unicast content may be discovered based on the broadcast content;
making the discovered unicast content available to a mobile device; and
providing a facility through which access to broadcast content may be paused for unicast content, and later resumed in response to receiving an indication of quality to the broadcast content; and providing a facility through which access to unicast content may be paused, and later resumed in response to receiving an indication of quality to the unicast content.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the unicast content is side loaded onto the mobile device.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content is web content transcoded in an on-demand manner.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content is made available from a WiFi network and a cellular network.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a facility by which a user may discover the availability of content.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pause and resume functionality is designed to be imperceptible to the user as the user accesses the content.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pause and resume functionality occurs without interaction by the user.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pause and resume functionality occurs upon an action by the user.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pause and resume functionality occurs during access of an item of content by the user, whereby the user continues to access content as the switching occurs.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile device is selected from the group consisting of a Blackberry, iPhone and iPod.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile device is a smartphone.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile device includes a media player.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile device includes personal digital assistant functionality.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile device is a satellite radio receiver that can at least one of receive and transmit information via at least one of a cellular and WiFi network.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the satellite radio is at least one of XM satellite radio and Sirius satellite radio.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the unicast content is discovered at least in part based on tags.
17. The method of claim 1 wherein the unicast content is multicast content.
18. A method of pause and resume functionality between broadcast and unicast content on a mobile device, comprising:
storing metadata regarding at least one of the broadcast and unicast content in the same file as the content;
making broadcast content available to the mobile device;
providing a facility through which unicast content may be discovered based on the broadcast content;
making the discovered unicast content available to a mobile device; and
providing a facility through which access to broadcast content may be paused for unicast content, and later resumed in response to receiving an indication of quality to the broadcast content; and providing a facility through which access to unicast content may be paused, and later resumed in response to receiving an indication of quality to the unicast content.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the content is made available from a WiFi network and a cellular network.
20. The method of claim 18 , further comprising providing a facility by which a user may discover the availability of content.
21. The method of claim 18 , further comprising making IP content available on the mobile device and providing an application that allows for switching among any two of the unicast content, the broadcast content, and the IP content.
22. The method of claim 8 , wherein the pause and resume functionality is designed to be imperceptible to the user as the user accesses the content.
23. The method of claim 18 , wherein the pause and resume functionality occurs without interaction by the user.
24. The method of claim 18 , wherein the pause and resume functionality occurs upon an action by the user.
25. The method of claim 18 , wherein the pause and resume functionality occurs during access of an item of content by the user, whereby the user continues to access content as the switching occurs.
26. The method of claim 18 , wherein the mobile device is selected from the group consisting of a Blackberry, iPhone and iPod.
27. The method of claim 18 , wherein the mobile device is a smartphone.
28. The method of claim 18 , wherein the mobile device includes a media player.
29. The method of claim 18 , wherein the mobile device includes personal digital assistant functionality.
30. The method of claim 18 , wherein the mobile device is a satellite radio receiver that can at least one of receive and transmit information via at least one of a cellular and WiFi network.
31. The method of claim 30 , wherein the satellite radio is at least one of XM satellite radio and Sirius satellite radio.
32. The method of claim 18 , further comprising making the content available to a mobile broadcast platform.
33. A mobile device comprising:
a broadcast network connection for receiving broadcast content;
a facility through which unicast content may be discovered based on the broadcast content;
a facility for making the discovered unicast content available to a mobile device; and
providing a facility through which access to broadcast content may be paused for unicast content, and later resumed in response to receiving an indication of quality to the broadcast content; and providing a facility through which access to unicast content may be paused, and later resumed in response to receiving an indication of quality to the unicast content.
34. The mobile device of claim 33 , wherein the content is side loaded onto the mobile device.
35. The mobile device of claim 33 , wherein the content is web content transcoded in an on-demand manner.
36. The mobile device of claim 33 , wherein the content is made available from a WiFI networks and a cellular network.
37. The mobile device of claim 33 wherein tags assist in the pause and resume functionality between broadcast and unicast content.
38. The mobile device of claim 37 wherein an ingestion process associates tags with the content.
39. The mobile device of claim 33 wherein the pause and resume functionality is designed to be imperceptible to a user of the mobile device.