Features like Handoff demonstrate just how useful it is to be able to chop and change tasks between different Apple devices, perhaps starting an email on your iPad and continuing it on your Mac.
A similar thing may soon be possible with your Apple TV, as a patent published today shows how Apple has invented a way of carrying out a sort-of reverse AirPlay: sending content from your Apple TV to your iOS device, rather than the other way around.
The big advantage of the concept is that it would allow remote viewing of Apple TV, whether this means having a TV show follow you from room-to-room, or tuning into your Apple TV while you’re away from home.
Another intriguing scenario the patent paints is about a group of friends sitting around watching a movie on Apple TV. “During the viewing when someone decides to leave the room (e.g., to prepare a snack), the other viewers must [currently] either pause the viewing while they all wait for the departed viewer to return, or let the presentation continue and the returning viewer may miss some of the presentation,” the patent notes.
Were this technology to be implemented, however, the main group could continue watching uninterrupted, while the snack-maker in question could continue their viewing using their iPhone or iPad.
Of course, being a patent only, there is a chance Apple’s invention will never make it into an actual product. Seeing as how we’re expecting a major Apple TV revamp in the near future, though, this would seem just the kind of neat function that would help set Apple apart.
Source: USPTO
Via: Apple Insider
