Apple eyes way to entertain your iPhone callers on hold

A newly-published patent describes a way in which iPhone users could let their music, photos, and other items entertain callers placed on hold.

(Credit: Apple/USPTO)

Callers waiting on hold for you via your iPhone may be a bit less bored if a new Apple patent ever sees reality.

Published Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a patent dubbed " On-hold visual menu from a user's communications device" envisions a way to share your music, photos, videos, location, and other content with fellow iPhone users patiently waiting to talk to you.

The technology would first allow you to set which, if any, content items you wish to share with your callers. It would determine if and when a caller is placed on hold. Your caller would then see a list of items enabled for sharing and choose one from among them.

You could even customize which items are available for certain callers. For example, you might want to share only songs with strangers but share everything with family and friends.

There is at least one caveat. Sharing bandwidth-heavy content such as videos would surely eat up the cellular data allowance for both you and your callers. So, you'd have to be careful just what you share.

( Via AppleInsider)