Apple has filed for a patent that suggest the company is working on a new mobile device capable of supporting multiple users - or is trying to outflank Microsoft's lead on fast multi-user switching with a patent of its own. Just as interesting as the patent's content is the name of its lead inventor: Steve Capps, erstwhile Mac OS Finder co-designer and more recently Microsoft's Windows UI architect. Capps is also remembered as the designer of the UI used in Apple's Newton PDA.
The application, number 0030107606, is entitled 'Multiple personas for a mobile device'. It describes how a computer system's settings can be immediately changed to reflect a new "persona" when the user chooses from a list of available personae using a graphical user interface displayed on the computer's screen. The patent's abstract recalls Mac OS X 10.3's fast user switching system demo'd in public for the first time by CEO Steve Jobs as Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference last month. When that facility is enabled in the new version of the multi-user OS, codenamed 'Panther', users can activate their own accounts by selecting from a menu of users in the top right-hand corner of the menu bar.
News source: The Register | UK
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