Apple have been awarded another patent, this one related to sending out a mass SMS message to contacts informing them that your phone number has been changed.
The patent, Patent 8,170,588, covers, “A source mobile telephone [that] detects that a telephone number of the telephone has changed to a new number, and in response, sends a text or short message service (SMS) notice message to contacts identified in the mobile telephone to indicate that the source mobile telephone has a new telephone number.”
At least the company has not attempted to patent the process of mass-messaging contacts about a change in cellular number, opting instead to patent a rather novel detection method that automates the process.
Apple’s patent was filed in 2008 and granted yesterday.