According to Randall Stross and the New York Times (well, The U.S. Patent Office), Apple applied for a patent last year that would, for the most part, force the user of a certain device to watch or listen to an advert while momentarily freezing the device making it so the user had no choice but to give their attention to the ad. Don’t even think about pulling a fast one on Apple either because you could even be quizzed on what you just saw, or forced to interact with the ad in a given amount of time when prompted to. Terrible, right?

Of course, this doesn’t mean that they are for sure implementing any of this, and on a more positive note, devices with this feature built in could then be sold at reduced prices.

I can’t wait till I get asked a couple questions about the Esurance ad I just watched right in the middle of my favorite Bearforce1 song on my new 700gb iPod Pro Touch Lite