New Apple Patent for iPod Wireless Transmission
January 4th, 2006 11:54 AM | by Christen da Costa | 25 Comments
According to Macsimum News, Apple has filed a patent for a new wireless VHF/FM/RDS transmitter that will be added to the iPod. What does this mean? Basically, you will be able to send not only your tunes wireless to your RDS compatible radio, but the ID3 tags as well. Macsimum points out that the Hitachi HTD-K185 is currently equipped with RDS technology as a point of example. We should probably expect to see the RDS compatible radios in Apple’s recently announced iPod intergrated car partners such as Acura, Volkswagen, and Audi by 2006. Macsimum also points out the opportunity for voice activated management/control of the iPod in 2006 (patent filed under Voice-activated media management system for the iPod).
In case you are baffled to what RDS is, then let’s do a little explanation. Again this is according to the guys over at Macsimum, but I think they do a good job of explaining.
The basic concept behind RDS is that each FM radio station is given a set bandwidth which can be used for its broadcasting. However, most stations do not use all of their bandwidth, and the spare bandwidth is usually wasted. Therefore, RDS uses this wasted bandwidth for transmitting a low bit rate FM radio based data signal by being modulated into the radio station signal and transmitted along side it. This arrangement is very cost effective since the existing transmitting towers can be used with very little modification.
My remaining concern is similar to the issues found in the iTrips (FM Modulators). Often the radio broadcasts bleed into the FM modulators signal as they piggy backs on a frequency. In LA this is a constant problem due to the large number of stations. Furthermore, my vehicles antenna for the radio is at the rear of the vehicle, making it more challenging for an FM modulator to work. Lastly, polarized windows also pose a problem for FM modulators as they don’t allow the signal out. I don’t understand if this RDS technology will be impacted by these factors, but please, speak up and speak loud if you have experience with.
Source Macsimumnews
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I hated my itrip beyond belief and I can’t really see this being any better. There was terrible noise and clipping and to add insult to injury, the damn thing stopped working about a month and a half into use. Love my ipod, hate FM modulators.
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I have used my itrip for about 2 years and have settled into a good frequency which suffers relatively little interference where I lve. As for the antenna being on the outside of the car – I keep the iPod near the actual head unit with great reception – probably picked up by the aerial cable going into the unit, rather than the external aerial.
I modded my itrip with 5 metres of entre 18gauge copper wire onto the antena within the itrip itself…. I receive no interference on any radio frequency, even those being broadcast on…. my car can pick it up from nearly 200 feet away
If it is RDS–then it is MUCH DIFFERENT than iTrip. iTrip is merely an FM repeater, where RDS is a clever scheme to send digital music over FM broadcast. I believe there is signal processing involved to error correct in RDS as well.
RDS is a way to transmit text (among other things) to the head unit. RDS in the iPod will probably be used to transmit artist/title/album and UI information. If the iPod got fancy, it could manage to have a system that would detect interference and tell your head unit to change frequencies.
This could be really usefull and cool if you already have an RDS capable radio. My car’s factory radio is capable of RDS, but very few stations use it, and even fewer use it to it’s full extent. What this has the possibility of doing is allowing ID3 tag information to be presented in a factory radio system playing from an ipod with little to no need to replace/purchase new equipment. Since my factory radio is also tied into my steering wheel controls as well as OnStar this is the best solution I could have to get ID3 tag information displayed from my iPod onto my radio. I was looking into doing this manually, and I’m glad that someone else actually thought of making it as I did not have the time to put something toghter on that calibur.
One more thingto think about – I HATED my iTrip (living in L.A., as you mentioned, is hell with the packed radio dial). So I swore off FM modulators…but then in October I was in a friend’s car and he had one of those ugly-ass TransPod’s.
And. It. Sounded. AWESOME.
Short story long, I went out and picked one up, and it works like a charm. Rarely hear interference. If you’re looking for an immediate solution, you might go ebay it. They’ve recently released a new model, so you might be able to get the old one for a nice discount.
Happy tuning, y’all.
I would love to see them add something like bluetooth instead…
If you have an XM radio like the “roadie” with the wireless transmitter, plug the RF adapter it into the headphone jack on the ipod or nano and ENJOY.
“…Acura, Volkswagen, and Audi…”
Amusing, two of those are the same company and the other is a daughter company of Honda. Brilliant!
How do we know that you are a good source for this news.
No likely to happen. The reason being that in most European countries FM senders are banned by law as being pirate radio.
Examples of such countries are the UK, the Scandinavian countries and I think maybe France.
In Chicago, probably 3/5 of the major FM stations send song title and station ID information over RDS. It’s just a text datastream that’s slipped over the FM signal.
A lot of cars already support it, but most people don’t even know it’s there, or know how to turn it on.
RDS is also somewhat slow, maybe 20 char/sec on a good day. iPod sending song titles over RDS would be killer, but I wonder if it’s fast enough to handle UI tasks like menus.
Well i used the copperwire as well, and had little effect on the reception efficiency, my brother did it, and broke his. not a smart idea, if you have access to an amp or have an aftermarket sterio i would recomend using a direct connect cable into the headphone jack. :)
i’ve had so many bad experiences with fm modulators. this better be good
i have no trouble with my itrip. i modded it with copper wire and my car stereo can pick it up at about a range of 200ft. it is so strong that i can override stations in other people’s cars when i drive near. wireless would be cool although i’m sure it will kill the iPod battery super fast.
most FM transmitters suck due to complying with FCC regulations. Those that are good either violate FCC regulations or found a way to work around it some (iTrip Auto’s power cord helps it’s signal a lot).
If you’ve tried an FM transmitter and it sucked, crack it open and pull out the antenna wire.
I think it’s a good idea, it might not work to well currently but it’s still a good idea.
[...] No more wires will be needed to connect your iPod to your car stereo. The patents indicates that this technology will send music and ID3 tags to your car stereo.read more | digg story [...]
Realy? That’s 18121 crazy!!
[...] Page Summary: However, most stations do not use all of their bandwidth, and the spare bandwidth is usually wasted. Therefore, RDS uses this wasted bandwidth for transmitting a low bit rate FM radio based data signal by being modulated into the radio station signal and transmitted along side it. my car can pick it up from nearly 200 feet away Edit Comment 5. If the iPod got fancy, it could manage to have a system that would detect interference and tell your head unit to change frequencies.read more | digg story [...]
what ipods are out there with this RDS or mod transmission??
How about a wireless iPod, you know? Not a wireless transmission from iPod to radio. Who needs that?
Glad to see this happened.
[...] or excited, but at least Apple’s new iPod Radio Remote add on uses RDS, a technology we mentioned in a recently acquired patent by Apple. The iPod Radio Remote is a wired remote control that connects via the headphones, and [...]