Access iTunes library from anywhere

iTunes patent reveals plans for users to access their home iTunes libraries on the go
iTunes patent reveals plans for users to access their home iTunes libraries on the go

Apple is following in the footsteps of Sony's streamed PS3-to-PSP video content on the go, reveals a new patent, with users to soon be able to access all of their iTunes music and video library on the go.

The new patent application clearly shows that Apple plans to offer content streaming to your iPods and iPhones on the go.

Full access to your entire music and video collections on the go, anywhere. It's the dream!

Rumours, speculation, desires

Appleinsider claims that: "New versions of iTunes and the iPhone Software could theoretically …[sync] only the metadata -- or tiny files containing the barebones attributes of each media item or playlist but not the content itself -- from a user's iTunes library to their portable devices."

"Using this metadata, iPhones and iPods would contain "virtual media items" representing every playlist, video, photo, and mobile game stored on their computer, even if the sum of those files would ordinarily be too large to fit onto the devices' hard disk drive or flash drive. This is possible because metadata capable of representing a media item consumes only faction -- typically less than 1 percent -- of the space required to store the media item itself."

It's not clear yet if the service would work with mobile broadband in addition to Wi-Fi – though we expect to hear more details on the plans for the service from Apple at some point soon.

For now though, we'll have to make do with the usual 'no comment'.

Adam Hartley