Jobs' Mob has decided that it will limit its fanboys from filming live concert or sporting events on their iPhones.

Apparently Apple is spending a fortune developing software that will sense when a smartphone user is trying to record a live event, and then switch off the device's camera. All an organiser has to do is install infrared devices and it will tell the iPhone to shut down its camera function, preventing any footage from being recorded.

The technology has appared in a patent application 18 months ago in California. The tame Apple press has gone all moist at the prospect of their freedom being limited. One reported that such a development “would be welcomed with open arms by many concertgoers, fed up with their view being blocked by a sea of glowing mobile phone screens”.

However Apple is developing the technology to placate broadcasters upset that members of the public are posting footage of events on websites. Our guess is that they will still see the glowing mobile phone screens, they will just be Android or another outfit, which does not get off in telling its users what to do.

In other moves, Apple has been awarded a patent to stop users from ‘sexting’, or sending inappropriate message on their phones. The censorship application aims to ensure those who use it are not able to send anything that uses suggestive or potentially incriminating words. Apple thinks that it could be used by parents who want to monitor what their children are texting and prevent them using the sort of language they use on the street anyway.