Apple is currently seeking a patent for a device that forces you to watch ads that you may not want to watch.  In essence, if you don’t pay attention to the ad, you won’t be able to use your device.

Its distinctive feature is a design that doesn’t simply invite a user to pay attention to an ad — it also compels attention. The technology can freeze the device until the user clicks a button or answers a test question to demonstrate that he or she has dutifully noticed the commercial message. Because this technology would be embedded in the innermost core of the device, the ads could appear on the screen at any time, no matter what one is doing.

The system also has a version for music players, inserting commercials that come with an audible prompt to press a particular button to verify the listener’s attentiveness.

The inventors say the advertising would enable computers and other consumer electronics products to be offered to customers free or at a reduced price. In exchange, recipients would agree to view the ads. If, down the road, users found the advertisements and the attentiveness tests unendurable, they could pay to make the device “ad free” on a temporary or permanent basis.

How about I just not buy or take for free any device that deems such tasks necessary.  If I bought it, I should be able to do what I want with it.  If this sort of device comes to fruition, I’ll be sticking with my dead tree novels and completely quit listening to music.

But Apple are not the only ones heading down this road.  Microsoft is getting in on the action as well.

In its case, the plans are definite: next year, Microsoft will offer Office Starter 2010, a free version of Office pre-installed on some PCs. It will include a small Microsoft display ad in the lower-right corner of the screen, and offer only barebones versions of Word and Excel, with fewer functions than the regular paid ones.

IN Office Starter 2010, Microsoft is not seeking revenue from advertising and is going to use the ads only to promote the full-featured, commercial versions of Office. The company plans to take customers “along a journey to educate them about the product,” said Bryson Gordon, a director on Microsoft’s Office team.

How about this instead?  Apple and Microsoft can go to hell.  I’ll use my free and open source alternatives and they can stick their ads where the sun don’t shine.