Apple’s Latest Ad Hoc Mobile Personal Technology Network Device Patent

Every day the smartphone market has something new to say, something new to report, or more information to respond to. For example, now Apple is upping the ante for its control over the smartphones they sell and has decided to apply for some new patents. Yes, this is all typical Apple Style and yet one of those patents tells us a lot in our Internet Style Think Tank, as we constantly pay for such things.

Great article on Aug 20, 2010 in ARS Technica titled; “Apple may be looking to block unauthorized iOS users,” by Chris Foresman, who reported that Apple filed a patent titled; “Systems and methods to identify users of an electronic device”, such as analysis of heartbeats, photographs, voice impressions and suspicious behavior unusual for the known user.

So I guess a thief who has stolen the phone would be giving away your photo, voice print, keystrokes, and global position (location). The patent also seems to be able to turn off the phone, erase the hard drive and download all the information to the “cloud” which is to protect the user. Yeah, great, but with this technology, the authorities could also shut it down if the individual was suspected of being a bad guy, a riot, a terrorist, etc. also.

Now some Slash-Dot folks ask, would this also allow Apple to shut down those who “break out of jail” from Apple’s proprietary software? A great question posed by SoulSkill (screen name). A very good question, and inquiring minds, like mine, want to know. But I also suspect that having this feature means that the US Army would be interested in this for our follow-up of the “Blue Force” in the Net Centric battlespace or rather Ad Hoc networked as well. See that point.

If an enemy takes over one of your mobile devices, boom! – it goes out and we have a photo of the enemy camp, and what questions are being asked and the position of the soldier or device? Wow, that’s what I call insider trading during questioning. It also helps Apple sell its devices to the US government against competitors like Motorola, Nokia, HTC, Google, and Blackberry.

Unfortunately, this will feed entirely new conspiracy theories and fringe seekers for the NSA living in old cold war missile silos waiting for the Terminator apocalypse or SkyNet to take over. Is this more big brother, or is he just raising the stakes in the world of personal technology, and government, military security for communication devices? You decide, I have already decided for myself.

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