Media content device, system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10839142-B2
Application number	US-201514632245-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 26, 2015
Priority date	May 17, 2011
Publication date	Nov 17, 2020
Grant date	Nov 17, 2020

Abstract

Access is provided for different types of media content provided by disparate publishers, and in formats corresponding to operating characteristics of respective user devices. As consistent with one or more example embodiments herein, media content access is filtered for users requesting access via different user devices, based upon characteristics of the device to which the access is provided, user subscription data and publisher-specific criteria. A user-specific storefront interface is generated for each of a multitude of users, based upon the filtering. Each storefront interface indicates media content that can be displayed at the device to which access is requested, and identifies media content to which the user does and does not have subscription access. The user-specific storefront interfaces are presented at respective user devices, and media content is delivered to each device in response to selections made via the user-specific storefront interfaces.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a content formatter configured to:
receive, from a first content provider, a first piece of content having a first formatting type;
receive, from a second content provider different from the first content provider, a second piece of content having a second formatting type different than the first formatting type;
convert the first piece of content, by:
generating a first common formatted content having a first common formatting type designed for a first electronic circuitry corresponding to a first display having a first size; and
generating a second common formatted content having a second common formatting type designed for a second electronic circuitry corresponding to a second display having a second size different than the first size; and

convert the second piece of content, by:
generating a third common formatted content having the first common formatting type; and
generating a fourth common formatted content having the second common formatting type; and

an interface generation and formatting engine configured to:
identify generated common formatted content that is designed for the first electronic circuitry, the generated common formatted content comprising the first common formatted content and the third common formatted content;
identify content provider eligible content from the generated common formatted content by filtering from the generated common formatted content any generated common formatted content that is ineligible for offering via a first user interface based upon whether display formats of the common formatted content comply with formatting criteria set by the first or second content provider, wherein the formatting criteria defines text and advertising regions in the first and second formatting types; and
generate the first user interface, wherein the first user interface includes data that identifies the content provider eligible content,

wherein the content formatter and interface generation and formatting engine include at least one CPU hardware-based circuit that is programmed to format different types of media content and to generate and format the first user interface by executing respective sets of instructions.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further including a plurality of filter modules, each filter module including circuitry programmed to carry out operations, the plurality of filter modules including:
a device-based filter module configured to filter the second and fourth common formatted content from the first, second, third, and fourth common formatted content based upon an electronic device upon which the first user interface is to be displayed being associated with the first electronic circuitry; and
a publisher-directed filter module configured to filter from the generated common formatted content any generated common formatted content that is ineligible for offering via the first user interface based upon criteria set by the corresponding content provider; and
wherein the interface generation and formatting engine is configured to generate and format the first user interface by interacting with the device-based and publisher-directed filter modules to respectively identify the generated common formatted content that is designed for the first electronic circuitry and identify the content provider eligible content.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , further including an entitlement management circuit module configured to respond to a request for accessing the first piece of content, received from a user via the first user interface, by:
providing access to the first common formatted content by the user in response to the user being permitted access to the first common formatted content;
operating with the interface generation and formatting engine to provide subscription update information to the user via the first user interface, in response to the user not being permitted to the first common formatted content; and
providing access to the first common formatted content in response to the user electing to update the user's subscription via provided subscription update information.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein formatting criteria defines placement of advertising image data for display via the first electronic circuitry and the second electronic circuitry.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first user interface is configured to provide or display media content that can be accessed via a device based upon the device having the first electronic circuitry.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first user interface is configured to provide or display media content that can be accessed via a device for which a user of the device is entitled to have access as identified by subscription data for the user.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first user interface is configured to provide or display media content that can be accessed via a device for which a user of the device is not entitled to have access.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein additional media content, as available from content providers based upon criteria set by the content providers defining device types upon which the additional media content is not to be displayed, is not provided or displayed unless the device is identified as having satisfied a subscription entitlement condition.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein a portion of the additional media content that can be accessed for which the user of the device is not entitled to have access corresponds to data from a catalog that the device is capable of displaying that visually identifies content for which the user has subscription entitlement and content to which the user does not have subscription entitlement.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the data of the first user interface comprises data that, when displayed via the first electronic circuitry:
visually identifies two different sets of media content respectively associated with different media content providers;
presents a delete option for one of the sets of media content; and
presents a download option for another of the sets of media content.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , configured to format at least a portion of the first or second piece of content corresponding to published periodical data sets, wherein each of the published periodical data sets has a plurality of article data sets, wherein each article data set of the plurality of article data sets corresponds to at least one page of media content, and the at least one page of media content includes a data set corresponding to at least one article and sequential pages of media content.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first piece of content includes periodical content having a plurality of static images respectively corresponding to a page within the periodical content and having regions for displaying advertising information.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first piece of content includes static images to be displayed on different devices having different display sizes and operating using different processing characteristics.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , comprising an interface module configured to transmit data that is configured to provide the first user interface at a display of a device, wherein the device comprises the first electronic circuitry.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first user interface identifies at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth common formatted content to which a user is not permitted access.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the formatting criter

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Barraclough Keith
• Irvine David
• Logan John
• Carapito Carlos
• Rubin Abraham
• Larson Melanie
• Gerlach James Nathaniel

Classifications

• G06F40/143 Primary

  Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD] · CPC title

• G06F40/149 Primary

  Adaptation of the text data for streaming purposes, e.g. Efficient XML Interchange [EXI] format · CPC title

• G07F17/20

  for washing or drying articles, e.g. clothes, motor cars · CPC title

• G06F40/103

  Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents (automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191) · CPC title

• G06Q30/0258

  Registration · CPC title