You know what, for once I can't think of anything bad about an Apple idea. Wonder if they'll ever make it.

And to pre-empt the inevitable rush of people saying they've got a mute button on their laptop, this could be really useful on annoying sites with things that click or beep or fthwang when you still want to listen to music. In fact I think I'd keep it to "mute" pretty much all the time.

OMG what a cutting edge feature, it's just like Vista's ability to mute individual programs from the volume menu, LOL go Apple continuing to patent other peoples ideas.

Well, on Vista you can set the volume of applications independently of the master volume from the standard volume control widget. Regardless of whether you run IE, Firefox or god-forbid Safari on Vista you could mute your browser and leave all other audio alone.

Seems like Microsoft have an elegant solution here already.

I think this will probably be the only time I can say that Microsoft beat Apple to a UI design idea... Windows Vista and 7 have had the option to set volume controls for individual programs for several years. The best part, of course, is that you can silence your web browser. It doesn't have the fine grained control to only mute certain URLs, but that's a pretty obvious extension once you move the volume control into the web brower. This is really the sort of thing that should come out of app design 101, but noone really wants to put much effort into that.

Having said that, I'm sure the patent office will be happy to grant this patent, as they don't seem to know how to look for prior art and not grant silly patents anymore.

Is there anything that the Great uberLord Jobs won't try and patent. Next it'll be an artificial finger for keyboards for lazy *tards that can't be bothered to use the volume control in the setting. Oh, wait, that would be the average MacBorker as unless Jobs says you can do it, you can't on his kit.

Paris cos' she's always worth a finger.

I don't know if it's patent-worthy, but once again, Apple applies for a patent with an idea that makes me slap my forehead and think "Now why the heck didn't I think of that?"

what happened to the "non-obvious" test for patents? Just about every application that emits sound has an audio control, it doesn't take a genius to think of slapping one on a web browser as well.

Opera allows you to edit the preferances globally and per-site for content, including sound in web pages and those irritating animated GIFs. So they finally caught up?

In the form of the Flashblock and "Stop Autoplay" Firefox add-ons.

But I DO appreciate the sentiment. I can't stand all those jumpy animated adverts they have these days. And the ones with sound can just go right straight to hell.

All Apple seems to do - prevent anyone else from making a decent product so they can charge shitloads for it - this in itself is "fairly obvious" and should fail patent application because of that - but it won't

- pissed off windows user who can't have multi-touch...

Why limit this to just the browser? It would be great if this were a standard window control widget throughout the desktop OSX. It could be up in the title bar just like the close-minimize-resize buttons. Then we'd have convenient granular volume control throughout the OS = much happiness.

Rarely do we see a patent filing that makes us say, "This is really novel!" Because this one certainly isn't.

And if Google, Mozilla or MS implement this, they'll get sued.

So, it's just to add a function to another kind of app... Why does it deserve a patent? If M$ adds volume control to text-to-speech in Office, will they also patent it? How is it diferent from the Apple one?

It's b0ll0cks!

Audio controls in a web browser are so novel that they need a patent? Man, our (US) patent system is certainly broken irrepairably.

"Rarely do we see a patent filing that makes us say, "I want that yesterday!" This one does."

We had it yesterday, take a look at Vista's (and Win7's) volume control - application specific, Internet Explorer/Firefox/Opera/Safari/Chrome - mute, WinAmp, full volume! Before you shoot me down - it may need the audio to start playing before it shows in the volume control - in which case it's crap, I don't know, I'm a Linux "fanboi". :-)

It is a good idea though, and a welcome one, but a patent for a volume control in a browser...? Pretty much all Flash video players have volume control ... in the browser - prior art? or a future law suit? I just don't like software patents.

Ultimately though, those of us who really don't want to be annoyed while browsing will install Firefox and noscript, and have a hosts file blocking ad sites.

Paris ... well ... I imagine she's better with the sound off too.

You want this yesterday? I thought we all HAD this yesterday. Every computer has a mute button (be it in hardware or software) and if a web site has annoying ads with audio that play by default, they instantly make the "web sites I don't visit anymore" short list. This looks like a solution looking for a problem to me.

...it looks like Apple's done a bit of a redesign. Taking clean and simple to a new level, there, jobs! Good on ya!

I also agree with the fact it is a ripoff of a feature in vista.

Well I've just patented the blow job. It includes and is limited to the heterosexual blow job, so if there are any gay guys out there who want to go for a homo version, bingo. Henceforth all straight blow jobs must be performed upon me and me alone. I'm not licensing this baby, nooo way, especially to my mates, they can all FOAD.

Admittedly, this is one of the best new browser features I've seen to date. Unfortunately, Apple was the one to think it up, and now has a patent application in place. For those who haven't thought about this, it means that only Apple's web browsers will be able to use this feature, unless they allow other browser manufactureres to license the technology from them (Something neither side is likely to do).

Thunms down to Apple for once again making useful technology proprietary.

Chances are it would be dismissed due to prior art....then again this is the States and it might not be...

(This comment format has been patented by me as of today. Now im going to sue everyone.)

/oh the hell with it I am not awake enough to try to make a funny this afternoon

euummm ever heard of foxy tunes? Available on IE and FF and it basically does what apple says... and its free!!!!

I got an idea for a patent for apple why dont they patent the on off button? They would become the richest company in the world if that were to be approved and knowing the us patent system it probably would

Pulseaudio also allows you to alter the volume of apps using the device chooser and it's already the default for many linux distros including ubuntu. In fact ts also allows you to send the sound from an individual app (say firefox up to its eyes in noisy adverts) over the network to another computer for them to hear it ;)

Adam Foxton

"You know what, for once I can't think of anything bad about an Apple idea. Wonder if they'll ever make it."

err what about the fact they are trying to patent the idea rather than releasing it and benefiting everyone

Rik Myslewski

"Apple wants to give you the opportunity to selectively block web-based audio while allowing you to listen to any other audio source of your choosing."

No they want to give apple users or more generously safari users the opportunity and prevent anyone else.

...that read this site.

A few observations.

1. If, as a few of you point out, this is so obvious/not that inventive, why didn't you do it? This is NOT PRIOR ART.

2. Where are the volume control and mute button in IE7? For that matter, where are they in Firefox, Opera, Chrome and IE 8? Just because there is an ability to mute/control the volume of an individual app in Vista doesn't make it prior art, especially since the control is via a completely . Unless you are telling me that IE 8 is integrated into Windows AND is available on at least one other OS. This is NOT PRIOR ART.

People, some of the IT knowledge that crops up here is astounding, in both senses, but please stick to what you you know - which clearly isn't patent law. Rather than foaming at the mouth and ranting against Apple, READ WHAT IS REPORTED. Digest it. Try to understand it. If you don't understand it (patent law *isn't* as black and white as you think/make out) kindly keep your opnions to yourself. It's not as if Apple are the only one's that do this! I'd argue that they're not even the worst. But hey, why change the rhetoric?

I really hope thar John Cage's copyright-lawyers are on the case: they can undoubtedly sue Apple for unauthorised reproduction of part of Cage's seminal silent 4′33″ !!

A patent for something that should have been there already? I wonder, would coding a volume control on a web page violate this patent application? If this gets approved it will only show the U.S. patent orifice isn't worth the shit it's made of.

Wow - the Apple haters are out in force on this one!

Yes, all computers have normal mute buttons - but these aren't all that useful for when you are using your computer to listen to tunes whilst browsing the internet. Websites with noise will still interupt the music experience.

And yes, Vista also has a way of turning off / down the volume on Firefox / explorer etc. However it isn't as easy to do as this and it is also universal. So I wouldn't be able to have an internet radio station loaded up in Firefox and playing in the background whilst using Firefox to browse sites that have music / ads coming up.

I'm not a fanboi by any measure - but this is an excellent idea. Not sure about its patentability though - but that is a different argument.

Your options include:

1) Do not trade in the US.

2) Get bought by someone who owns lots of patents in the US.

3) Get screwed by someone who owns lots of patents in the US.

Did I miss any?

"that is interesting, cos Apple filed the patent in November 2007"

You act as if Vista began development after November 2007...

Just to warn everyone...

I've just patented the colours FFFFFF and 000000 as used in web browsers, by tradmarking those letter combinations.

Royalties in the marked bucket, thanks.

*cough* Apple? I notice your logo is FFFFFF? That will be... hmmm... make up a number... multiply by 4.... $eleventy billion, please.

Apple is stupid.

I've already seen this, and it's old. I hope the patent doesn't get approved - it should be invalidated by lots of prior art, and obviousness.

Linear volume controls aren't new - I already have that with Ubuntu 9.04, and a host of other Windows apps.

<sigh> Quite sad really the number of people here who very clearly don't understand what's going on here.

This is not about having a simple mute or volume control on an app or device. It's about having total control of audio on a selected device by regulating the volume of the source with respect to it's environment.

For instance: you're listening to your favourite internet radio station (browser, player - doesn't matter what) when you open a video clip that someone's sent you. The browser can mute the radio and play the video then go back to the radio when finished. Of course you could just hit the pause or mute button in the radio but how much easier and less intrusive is it that the browser just takes care of business?

Read that again. It's not about having simple mute or volume control in an app.

The idea of patenting this kind of thing is an altogether more philosophical question that probably can't be discussed by several folk here without apoplexy kicking in.

Calm down dear, it's only (a) commercial....