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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."

7 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 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. 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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  4. 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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  5. 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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