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Microsoft Patents Tech That Would Silence Your Phone For You

Posted by samzenpus on from the keeping-it-quiet dept.

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."

10 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. Already got it. by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I already have a phone that does this. As someone who is aware of my surroundings and generally conscientious, I simply turn my phone to "vibrate" or even - God forbid - OFF... It works very well indeed. And I even still receive alerts if a call or text came in. Amazing technology.

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    1. Re:Already got it. by bugs2squash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I occasionally go to movies and leave my kids with a babysitter. She has my number and I expect a call if something really bad comes up that she needs to deal with (after she dials 911) and the kids have my number too. If the movie theater were to deliberately cause me to miss such a call I would sue their ass regardless of whatever legal crap they posted in their "conditions of ticket sale" fine print.
      I'm sure I'm not alone.

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    2. Re:Already got it. by iamhassi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And regardless, isn't it a genial, brilliant idea? Of the kind that even your dog might think while taking a crap. The obviousness of these patents is so clear that it stopped being funny long ago, now it is only outraging.

      I agree, sucks companies have to patent the obvious, but if apple didnt patent it someone else would in 2015 and then sue apple for using it for 8 years like the patent troll patenting podcasts in 2009.

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    3. Re:Already got it. by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're so spoiled. Mobile phones have only been commonplace about 15 years and already people talk about them as if they have an inalienable right to be connected everywhere at any time.

      People were able to cope with leaving their kids with a babysitter in the 1990s and earlier you know. Without going all prima donna and threatening lawyers.

  2. Or you could turn it off ... by Kittenman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or silent mode...

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  3. this is like trying to make people good drivers by alen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    people drive like asswipes because they think the world revolves around them

    same here, the people disrupting the movie won't care about this. and probably won't enable it even if their phone had it.

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

    1. Re:this is like trying to make people good drivers by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Insightful

      the people disrupting the movie won't care about this.

      Even if they did, they'd still answer and say "I can't talk, I'm in the cinema... Really? No way, dude!! Haha. So what did he do next??? You're kidding me!!! " etc.

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    2. Re:this is like trying to make people good drivers by icebike · · Score: 5, Insightful

      the people disrupting the movie won't care about this. and probably won't enable it even if their phone had it.

      Most of the people who disrupt movies are not jerks, just forgetful, or they came in a few seconds late and missed the ever present "Cell Phone Off" request that appears on the screen in every theater I've been to in the last 5 years.

      This would save a lot of embarrassment and I suspect a lot of people would turn it on if it worked properly.

      If they do get it working properly, I'd like to see it on by default, with the setting to turn it off buried 5 menus deep. That would keep the clueless users who can't figure out how to silence their phones from being able to defeat it without the manual.

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    3. Re:this is like trying to make people good drivers by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They're illegal for good reason.

      Perhaps you've never had an important call before. One of the jobs I interviewed for was Communication Engineer for the Ambulance Service. That job required 24/7/365.24 on-call duties because

      when 911 stops working, it has to get the fuck up fucking fast.

      Sometimes doctors go home, sometimes MPs will go to a movie.

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  4. How does it know when the lights go down..... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    as opposed to just sitting in your dark pocket?

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