Leaving sales of iPhone and iPod compatible docks to third party developers, an Apple patent suggests that they are now working on an iDevice dock of their own.
Something that’s abundantly clear about Apple is that they like to have their own versions of products and that when they do decide to take over a device driven section of the tech market, they tend to do it very well. Forcing just about every MP3 player to up its game thanks to the iPod and seeing just about every other branded tablet compared to their iPad shows just how successful the Californian tech behemoth has been. One place where Apple have actually failed to take over, is the docking system section of the market, where many third party developers make iPhone and iPod compatible speaker systems but where Apple have yet to make strides in. But, keen to finally wade out into the bold waters of stereo systems, Apple have just filed a patent for a ‘smart dock’.
While plenty of docks do audio ‘loudening’ just fine, turning up the volume in rooms where the tiny speakers of the iPhone just won’t do, Apple’s proposed dock might just be the first to make good use of the iPhone’s extra features. The biggest talking point, is, perhaps, that Apple’s docking effort would utilise Siri, seeing the virtual assistant type software possibly become an ‘always listening’ entity once plugged into the dock, theoretically allowing you to say ‘Siri play [insert song that you have in your iPhone’s music library] and then being able to hear it blasted through the dock’s speakers in a matter of seconds.
Too, the patent also spells out a screen and a scroll wheel, which, while far more mundane on paper, in practice they could also make listening to things less fiddly, as, for example, if the dock were to be connected to your iPhone and then you place that iPhone somewhere else in your house (but still being connected on the same Wi-Fi network) the dock may then be able to play songs from the phone, even if it wasn’t plugged in. Keeping in mind that there are a plethora of Apple gadgets on the market, this dock could likely work with any one of them in this way (with a software update) so the possibilities for this thing are huge.
We’ll keep you posted once we know more.
Source: Apple Insider
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