Apple goes social networking with iGroups

Patent application reveals plan for Fanboi network

Apple has been awarded a patent for "An iPhone Social App" named iGroups, papers published by the US Patent and Trademark Office reveal.

The patent filing document was spotted by Patently Apple, a blog dedicated to poring over patents filed by the Cupertino-based toymaker.

A squint at the patent application suggests iGroups will allow Macolytes to create groups during conferences, concerts, parties or any other social gathering they happen to turn up at.

The idea seems to be to enable people roughly in the same place to exchange virtual comments so that they need not meet face-to-face and use old-fashioned communication methods, based on such hardware as a tongue and voicebox.

The service is an example of the type location-based service network operators hope haul in advertising wonga or value-added subscriptions.