In a recent move, US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple’s patent application called
Multimedia data transfer for a personal communication device. Apple’s patent relates to multimedia devices and a system which provides multimedia data to a mobile personal communication device such as a cell phone or a walkie talkie. The unique aspect of this patent is that it could translate text messages into voice messages while in transit to other devices without using traditional Short Message protocols as defined in GSM. The recent development in SMS has pushed the need for a new invention which will not require Short Service Message Center but will be a point-to-point message service. This service uses a mechanism by which data is passed between a sender and receiver unit by way of voice channel.

Apple has come up with a patent for such a direct messaging service which will be able to pass vocalized multimedia data that would use a voice server to pass messages. The vocalized data can be converted to an audio signal, which can then be heard by an audio output device such as a speaker, earphone, etc. This is ideal for people having visual problems or where viewing the data on a small display screen is difficult.
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