The claims are eye-opening: "A computer-implemented method for providing an advertisement in a device, the method comprising:providing an operating system of a device with at least one advertisement, the operating system configured to temporarily disable a function thereof and present the advertisement in the device while the function is disabled; and receiving a report from the device confirming that the advertisement has been presented."
What this means, in plain English, is that an Apple device could be configured to lock down at least a portion of it until the ad itself was acknowledged, most likely through a button click. And the ads, not surprisingly, could be used to help defer the cost of the product.
The patent also provides mechanisms to force the user into paying attention to the ad, such as disabling the mouse and keyboard, or switching off or pausing DVD playback.
Apple Patent Could Embed Ads in OS
Using an operating system is going to become like attending an online CLE, requiring you to pay attention enough to click to continue at the appropriate time? Even worse, in the version where the operating system disables functionality not only will you need to click to continue, but you are going to have to stop doing whatever it is that you are doing and pay attention to the advertisement!
Potentially even worse than not being able to turn off the advertisement is a Big Brother operating system version that will keep track of whether you turn off the advertisement and then somehow penalize you for not watching long enough.
In some implementations, a user may dismiss an advertisement presentation prior to completion, for example, by clicking on the advertisement (or on an unoccupied screen area outside the advertisement if the advertisement presentation occupies only a portion of the screen), which may prompt the processor or the log to record such an action so as to debit the user accordingly for the unfinished presentation.
Apple recently applied for a patent which describes a method by which the manufacturer of an operating system could disable certain OS functions until the user looked at an advertisement.
Apple is seeking a patent for technology that displays advertising on almost anything that has a screen of some kind: computers, phones, televisions, media players, game devices and other consumer electronics.
Would anyone have guessed that Apple, so widely revered, would seek patent protection of a gimmick not unlike one used to sell vacation timeshares? (Agree to attend the sales seminar and get a free weekend getaway!) Or could anyone have predicted that the Apple of 2009, a company with premium products, would file a patent application that could make it a latter-day descendant of Free PC and ZapMe, companies that in 1999 gave away PCs engineered to always display on-screen ads?
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