Apple awarded patent for geo-fencing profile changes to stop you texting in the theater

Now that the patent trial of the decade is over bar the shouting, everyone's back to ensuring they've called shotgun on enough of tomorrow's technology. Cupertino has won a patent to enforce policies when your wireless device enters a specific location. Dry as that may sound, it means that your smartphone could automatically switch to silent and disable its display as soon as you enter a movie theater. Of course, it's as likely to remain in Bruce Sewell's bottom drawer as it is to be a feature in the next iPhone, but as perpetually-annoyed cinema-goers we'd pay good money to see it retrospectively installed in every handset from the last decade.

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Internet, Mobile

Apple awarded patent for geo-fencing profile changes to stop you texting in the theater originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.