Apple, News/Rumors March 7, 2012

Apple wins patent for iWallet

Apple was granted on Tuesday a so called “Parental Control” patent which establishes a set of guidelines concerning methods of electronic payment transactions along with a detailed description about how future devices could implement credit card based system with iTunes backend.

Starting with 2010, Apple implemented many “iWallet” patents concerning mobile device payments, including NFC system. These new rules show the actors and the use cases of these transactions, offering a tight financial control for end users.

“A method, comprising: defining one or more rules using a handheld electronic device, wherein the one or more rules establish restrictions on transactions made using a financial account associated with an account holder other than the user of the handheld electronic device; and applying the one or more rules to the financial account.”

The key definition of this specific model involves a primary account for parents, and secondary ones for their kids. This way, parents are given the option to control their child’s mobile transactions by setting up some limits based on the amount, time, location of the transactions and a variety of other variables. The electronic device should be able to offer geo-location data and processing functionality that Apple needs to implement this control system.

I am sure this feature will be welcomed in modern society, especially for families who use shared iOS devices. The future is Apple, isn’t it?

Source: appleinsider