Abstract: Control of an operation of a multimedia terminal by an application, for example, a game or interactive television module, using remote control input signal is provided. An application is downloaded (S1), input signals from remote control units (RC-1, RC-2, RC-N) are received (S3) at the multimedia terminal, a message, including a source indication indicating the remote control from which the input signal was received, is sent (S5) to the downloaded application. According to the downloaded application, the operation of the multimedia terminal is controlled (S6) based on the source indication. The message may be sent to the downloaded application by an application program interface-based module resident at the multimedia terminal. A disable signal to disable a key could be transmitted to one or more of the remote control devices, for example, to disable the key for a specified time or a specified turn of a user.

Abstract: An application for making the shared use of a media system (100), including a television (140), more fun while democratizing the decision making process among the users, and involving the users more closely in the television experience. In one aspect, control of the media system is granted to one of the users in a group based on, e.g., personal information of the users (335), a game (340), a vote (345), an arbitrary selection (350), or the first user to respond to a prompt (355). In another aspect, the application automatically initiates a vote (415) in which the users vote for a desired channel, and the application switches the television to the channel that received the most votes (440). In another aspect, users are allotted a balance of commands (500), and the remaining balance of commands is tracked (510) and displayed (515) on the television.

Abstract: Control of an operation of a multimedia terminal by an application, for example, a game or interactive television module, using remote control input signal is provided. An application is downloaded (S1), input signals from remote control units (RC-1, RC-2, RC-N) are received (S3) at the multimedia terminal, a message, including a source indication indicating the remote control from which the input signal was received, is sent (S5) to the downloaded application. According to the downloaded application, the operation of the multimedia terminal is controlled (S6) based on the source indication. The message may be sent to the downloaded application by an application program interface-based module resident at the multimedia terminal. A disable signal to disable a key could be transmitted to one or more of the remote control devices, for example, to disable the key for a specified time or a specified turn of a user.

Abstract: A play list of songs or other media items is automatically generated (380) based on external factors (314, 324, 334) such as weather conditions, stock market conditions, sales of songs, or calendar data, e.g., day of week, holidays or user designated dates such as birthdays, anniversaries and the like. External data (310, 320, 330) relating to the external factors can be received (115) from a radio broadcast, Internet link, or link to a vehicle computer, for instance. The external data is mapped (360) to media items to obtain matching media items (370) for the play list. The mapping may also account for user preferences (145). The user may select (305) the external factor, which represents the mood and/or current preferences of the user in a much better way than the conventional criteria such as genre, artist or album alone.