Okay, maybe not the cancer cure thing, but it certainly seems that Apple is once again setting out to kick some innovation into the USB storage device/media player market. According to AppleInsider, the Cupertino-based company has filed for a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office titled "Hot unpluggable media storage device."

Presently, iPod users as well as those who use portable media storage devices or other PMPs must first prepare their players to be disconnected from their computers by performing some preparatory unmounting actions through software. The patent, which was filed for in October and published for the first time on Thursday, centers on advanced techniques that would let users skip the unmounting and unplug their peripherals without any data loss or corruption.

"One advantage of the invention is that peripheral devices, e.g., media devices, are able to be 'hot' unpluggable without data loss or corruption," Apple wrote. "Another advantage of the invention is that peripheral devices can have 'plug-and-play' as well as 'remove-and-go' characteristics which better satisfies user needs and usage."

AppleInsider also notes that according to Apple, the invention can be implemented in software, hardware or a combination of the two. It could also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable medium such as read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs, magnetic tape, optical data storage devices, and carrier waves.