Steve Jobs has been using cute packaging and the gangly Justin Long to create the super-cool vibe associate with Apple products over the past few years, but it seems that the business giant has finally showed its true colors. The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently made public a new advertising scheme that Apple has hatched.
The new technology could invasively insert advertising into virtually everything with a viewing screen, from television sets, to phone, to computers, and even those precious ipods and other media players. But the most interesting (and frustrating) feature of this new system is that it would demand the complete attention of a viewer. The new technology can actually freeze content from any of these devices until the viewer performs a task or answers a question to prove that they have absorbed the message of the advertisement. The program would be hard-wired into devices, theoretically enabling access to viewers regardless of what they are doing.
Mein Jobs
It seems hard to believe that Jobs would risk the cool, almost rebellious, nature of his company on an authoritarian advertising format, but his name is one of the first five on the patent, which includes these malicious details:
These tests can be made progressively more aggressive if the user has failed a previous test. One option makes the response box smaller and smaller, requiring more concentration to find and banish. Or the system can require that the user press varying keyboard combinations, the current date, or the name of the advertiser upon command, again demonstrating the presence of an attentive user.
Even Microsoft seems to be shocked by the aggressiveness of this technology. Their similar new product simply places the ad in an easy to ignore corner of the screen.
Seriously, Apple? When Microsoft thinks you’re being a little uptight, it’s probably time to back off.
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