reports on an Apple patent that was disclosed last month (the same day as the Windows 7 launch, incidentally) that would embed ads within the Apple OS, possibly as a way of subsidizing its hardware.The claims are eye-opening: "A computer-implemented method for providing an advertisement in a device, the method comprising:providing an operating system of a device with at least one advertisement, the operating system configured to temporarily disable a function thereof and present the advertisement in the device while the function is disabled; and receiving a report from the device confirming that the advertisement has been presented."What this means, in plain English, is that an Apple device could be configured to lock down at least a portion of it until the ad itself was acknowledged, most likely through a button click. And the ads, not surprisingly, could be used to help defer the cost of the product."In return for paying attention to the advertisements, the user can receive a product or service for free or at reduced cost, or otherwise receive a benefit," the patent notes. Users could also "unlock" an ad-free mode through a payment.Theraises the question that Apple could lose its "cool" reputation by embedding ads in the OS. It's not clear that it will; Apple doesn't have to act on its patents, although a significant number of them (such as multitouch gestures and the Magic Mouse) seem to end up as products of some form or another.And Apple make its clear that the ad patent is broad enough to apply to any device: "While the presentation of advertisements is described in examples herein with respect to a personal computer 102, it should be apparent that the disclosed implementations can be incorporated in, or integrated with, any electronic device, e.g., a device that has a visual user interface, including without limitation, portable and desktop computers, servers, electronics, media players, game devices, mobile phones, wireless devices, email devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), embedded devices, televisions, set top boxes, etc," the patent reads.The patent also provides mechanisms to force the user into paying attention to the ad, such as disabling the mouse and keyboard, or switching off or pausing DVD playback.The patent also postulates that users could "defer" the ads through a "credit system," but eventually be forced to pay attention to them. If they do not, penalties could be applied."The approaches for verifying user presence can be made progressively more aggressive if the user has failed a previous test," the patent reads. "For example, after the user fails the test the first time, the subsequent tests can be made to appear more frequently or at varying times. As another example, the test(s) can be made more subtle so as to render them more difficult to perceive, such as by reducing the size of a message box on the screen, or by making an audio prompt more similar to the advertisement in which it is inserted."Let's hope this never comes to pass.