mr100percent

October 25, 2009 at 11:54pm

The marketplace rejected the idea. Remember PeoplePC? Apple probably does too.

frigmous

October 23, 2009 at 7:45am

Patent it now, charge Google for it when GoogleOS comes out. Make millions from people who hate Windows!

solafide

October 23, 2009 at 4:13am

It could be that this is for a future version of the OS to reside on the Apple TV, or for the Mac OS when in "TV watching mode". Imagine what we (read, at least "I") have wanted - to have a completely on demand access to entertainment. I agreed with SJ when the ITMS first came out that people wanted to own their music, not rent their music. When it comes to movies and TV shows, it is a different story. I don't want (anymore) to have shelves and shelves of DVDs or to have huge, backed-up hard drive storage for maintaining a digital video library. I'd much rather have on demand access to a vast archive of movies and TV shows, as well as live news and sports events - let someone else maintain the huge library - I'll pay a monthly subscription fee to watch what I want, when I want. I'd rather not rent or buy each show or movie.The problem from getting here (ad-supported broadcast television) to there is the giant elephant (the incumbent business model) that refuses to get out of the way. In an on demand subscription system, if I have to deal with advertisements, I'd rather have some control over when I watch them, and I want some return for doing so. It is possible that this new patent is to enable this kind of system. Instead of the current network Internet TV model which forces you to watch ads intrusively (just like broadcast TV), it would be nice to have a system where I could watch ads in product areas I am interested in or, if I choose, a generalized pool of ads, but with some control over when I watch them. Also, it would be great to have this take away all or a portion of the monthly subscription bill, based on how many ads I watch.Maybe this is the model that Apple is working towards. They are building a huge new data center in North Carolina. Maybe Apple will become the leading on demand media distributor as well as a leader in cloud computing for home and the enterprise.TiVo is a worthy attempt to turn the current broadcast system into an on demand system. Though many have thought Apple should buy them and put this functionality in the Apple TV, Apple has not because it is not the future - it is an add-on to the old broadcast model. Maybe this patent points to a brighter future, not doom for the computer user.

zachsterza1994

October 23, 2009 at 3:48am

maybe they plan on selling that software to google when google's OS comes out or something. I never imagined apple with ad's.

lzy23

October 22, 2009 at 9:27pm

Either that OR they wish to reach out to MORE people with a slightly lowered cost of the software.

stevengu

October 22, 2009 at 8:42pm

This can't be right! Why would Jobs apply for a patent that allows an OS to be funded by advertisements? This just doesn't seem like him. This must be a huge mistake!