Patent ID: 7706903

Claim:
A computer-readable medium tangibly embodying program instructions, execution of the program instructions by at least one processor resulting in operations comprising: allowing a user to selectively mute up to n-1 applications of n computer-executed applications, where n is an integer greater than 1; and in response to the user choosing to selectively mute up to n-1 applications, performing at least one action in response to requests by the selectively muted applications to play sounds so that the sounds are muted with respect to a sound device, wherein a respective one of the requests from a corresponding one of the applications references data corresponding to the sound for the corresponding one of the applications, wherein the operation of performing at least one action further comprises operations of muting the data prior to coupling the data to the sound device and coupling the muted data to the sound device, wherein the operation of coupling the muted data to the sound device further comprises the operation of passing a function call, including a reference to the muted data, to an operating system.