News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

December 27, 2007

software

Apple perhaps bringing order to cafe chaos

Posted Dec. 27, ’07, 10:08 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Software

Ordering system patentApple, apparently not satisfied by taping into Starbucks’s music side of the business, is now edging its way into food service as well. A patent filed by the company proposes a system whereby you could order your food or drink via your portable device and then be notified when it was ready to be consumed.

Patent application #20070291710, for a “Wireless communication system,” was filed last year on July 11th. It describes “A processing system…that includes a wireless communication interface that wirelessly communicates with one or more wireless client devices in the vicinity of an establishment.” One of the stated goals of the patent application is not “having to waste time waiting for an unfinished order.”

On the one hand, as one who frequents cafes, I like the idea of not waiting in line when I just want to grab my order and get to work, but at the same time it removes yet another of my increasingly infrequent moments of human interaction throughout the day. I enjoy chatting with the people who work at the cafes I go to, but apparently they can easily be replaced with technology. Great.

This might seem like a logical extension of Apple’s iTunes Wi-Fi Store and its Starbucks integration (which still hasn’t made it to Boston anyway), but as with patent applications, it’s impossible to know whether or not anything will ever be made of it. I suspect this might have been something cooked up by Apple engineers who were just tired of waiting for their half-caf double-shot mochachinos anyway.

[via Forbes]


3 Comments

krye said:

I can see 10 years from now people won't even talk anyomre. It's all IMs and emails. My wife yells at me every time I tell her I'm going to shoot off an email to my Mom. She says "pick up that phone AND CALL YOUR MOTHER!"

December 27, 2007 10:29 AM
Walt Author Profile Page said:

Hmm... I already order my pizza through Papa John's Online (when I'm too lazy to make my own pizza). This would be the next logical step. Maybe have an electronic "Gunther" with the voice of Alex? "Excuse me... your order is about to turn cold."

Good thing I roast, grind, and brew my own coffee beverages! Freshest coffee in town is what I roasted the day before yesterday.

December 27, 2007 10:46 AM

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