When a group of people gather to watch a movie, often someone has to leave the room to grab snacks or take a dump. With this patent, the person receives synchrozied movie from Apple TV on his iPhone, so that he does not miss anything. So no need to pause the video anymore when someone is out.

The technology involves a user receiving video stream from a content source like Apple cloud, which is being viewed on a TV via Apple TV. A user then uses his iphone to quickly obtain a synchrozied video stream from Apple TV, which is then played on the iPhone as long as the user wants.

8,918,822
Displaying a synchronized instance of content on a portable electronic device

Abstract

A method and system are described for displaying a synchronized instance of content on a portable electronic device. In the described embodiments, a selection of streaming content that is being displayed on a fixed display system is received by the portable electronic device. The portable electronic device then determines if the portable electronic device is compatible with the streaming content being received by the fixed display system. If the portable electronic device is compatible with the streaming content being received by the fixed display system, then the portable electronic device requests the synchronized instance of the streaming content and displays it.

Inventors: Varoglu; Devrim (Santa Clara, CA), Dave; Swapnil R. (Santa Clara, CA)
Applicant: Name City State Country Type

Apple Inc.  Cupertino CA  US
Assignee: Apple Inc. (Cupertino, CA)
Family ID: 50340277
Appl. No.: 13/627,954
Filed: September 26, 2012