Microsoft Leveraging iPod Patent?

Am I the only one who in no way understands all the recent hype over this patent issue (I'll keep my opinion of patents in general to myself for the moment, since I've made that quite known in the past).  First, the Microsoft patent in no way overlaps with the iPod, from what I can tell.  The patent is for AutoDJ, which "generates playlists for a library collection of media items via selecting a plurality of seed items, at least one which is an undesirable seed item.", something I'm not aware the iPod is capable of.  While it's true that Apple's patent application did get denied, I fail to see where that translates into Microsoft being able to charge money for the AutoDJ patent (which was indeed approved).  To be honest, patents aside, the AutoDJ idea sounds cool.  Where skynews got this $10/iPod figure from I have no idea, but I'd guess someone just made it up!  Even if the Microsoft patent does somehow cover something that is in the iPod, wouldn't the fact that the patent was filed well after the iPod actually shipped mean prior art would be extremely easy to prove?  Unreal - someone please clue me in here as I must be missing something.
--jeremy
Apple, iPod, Microsoft, Patent, mp3