The connector enables a compact communication link between a media player and a computer configured so that the interface enables the media player to operate as a USB memory drive for the computer.

In one embodiment, the invention comprises an interface that is removably engagable from a media player and another electronic device. The interface includes a rigid housing with a first and second end connectors that are configured to facilitate data and power transmission between a media player and an electronic device when connected to the interface. The interface connector can be configured to be very compact and easily transportable.

Here's Apple's background on the invention: "The hand held consumer electronics market is exploding, and an increasing number of those products are including mechanism for expanding connections thereto. By way of example, hand held consumer electronic products may correspond to cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), video games, radios, MP3 players, CD players, DVD players, televisions, game players, cameras, etc. Most of these devices include some sort of connector for making connections to other devices (e.g., Firewire, USB, audio out, video in, etc.). Some of these devices have been capable of connections to other devices through docking stations. For example, cellular phones have included docking stations for charging the cellular phones and PDAs have included docking stations for communicating with a host computer. Other devices have been capable of wireless connections therebetween. For example, cellular phones use wireless connections to communicate back and forth (e.g., include wireless receivers).

"MP3 music players in particular have typically made connections to other devices through connectors. For example, the MP3 music player known as the iPod manufactured by Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif. has included a Firewire connector for communicating with a computer. Although such a Firewire connector generally allows data transmissions to travel back and forth between the MP3 music player and the computer, it is a long cable that is not compact and does not have a rigid case. As should be appreciated, MP3 music players are configured to play MP3 formatted songs. These songs may be uploaded from the computer and thereafter stored in the MP3 player. As is generally well known, the MP3 format is a compression system for digital music that helps reduce the size of a digitized song without hurting the sound quality, i.e., compress a CD-quality song without losing the CD sound quality. By way of example, a 32 MB song on a CD may compress down to about a 3 MB song using the MP3 format. This generally lets a user download a song in minutes rather than hours. Additionally, and advantageously, the iPod can be configured as a portable memory storage type device enabling standard memory information (i.e., non-music related memory) to be downloaded into the device for transport and transfer to other devices. Such an implementation could be used to use an iPod as a portable 'hard drive' for example.

"Although current media players such as work well to transfer data in such a manner, there is a continuing need for improved features and interconnection approaches for connecting or coupling media players to one or more external devices (e.g., input or output)."

The inventor is Eliot P. Danner.

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