Microsoft Patents Tech That Would Silence Your Phone For You

tsamsoniw writes "Microsoft has filed a patent for a mobile technology called Inconspicuous Mode, aimed at helping you not be 'that guy' who disrupts movies, meals, or meetings with noisy, bright-screened phone alerts. It's a setting that would effectively put your phone in stealth mode when the device sensed it was in a movie theater (thanks to location information) and that the lights had gone down. The idea is, you could still receive alerts if a call or text came in, but no one around you would be disturbed by phone sounds or screen flashes."

Comments

Re:Already got it.

[amRadioHed]

You turn your phone to off, and still get alerts if a call or text come in? That is amazing!

Re:Already got it.

[dkleinsc]

No, this is also about shutting down somebody else's annoying phone.

Which I can do, too - it's amazing what you can accomplish with a simple sledgehammer.

Re:Already got it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for the link, actually. Yeah, it confirms what the parent said.

Inventors: Bell; Michael (Cupertino, CA), Lovich; Vitali (Toronto, CA)
Assignee: Apple Inc. (Cupertino, CA)
Appl. No.: 12/215,592
Filed: June 26, 2008

Re:this is like trying to make people good drivers

[bitt3n]

the only solution is to wait two weeks or more until after a movie comes out to see it in an almost empty theater

that's what I do. otherwise there's always some jerk who thinks it's funny to throw popcorn at me while I'm trying to talk on the phone.