Unsatisfied with its smug image toymaker Apple has come up with a new way of annoying people.

Word on the street is that Jobs' Mob Apple is about to buy mobile advertising company Quattro Wireless for $275 million. We are expecting the news to be announced today, although Apple's press office would not say.

Quattro is a competitor to AdMob, which Google bought in November for $750 million. Apple had tried to buy AdMob but it seemed that Google was prepared to put more zeros into the deal and the outfit told Jobs's to go forth and multiply.

Quattro's advertising network includes thousands of mobile Web sites, along with applications on Apple's iPhone and Google's Android platform, and other smartphones. What this will mean is that Apple will have a strong platform to push advertising directly to your phone. While Apple fanboys dream about getting such messages from Apple, the rest of us will find it extremely annoying.

We suspect it is all part of Steve Jobs cunning plan to use his iPhone base to create new revenue streams, this squeezing more cash out of the people who have already spent an arm and a leg on his mobile gear.