Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Other

Microsoft Corporation

Micorsoft Corpration

Andrew L Silverman

Shiraz M Somji

Dennis A Kiilerich

Brigette Krantz

Rudolph Balaz

Kipley J Olson

Sam J George

Joshuah Vincent

Koji Kato

Alexander G Gounares

Subha Bhattacharyay

Benjamin M Westbrook

Bodin Dresevic

Robert L Chambers

Daniel F Plastina

Manoj Kumar Biswas

Gregory Nicholas Hullender

Steve Dodge

Arin J Goldberg

Todd A Torset

Alex Mogilevsky

Timothy H Kannapel

Jerome J Turner

Quan Binh To

Mark Douglas Harper

Stephen Alan Fisher

Vladimir V Smirnov

Michael John Novak

David T Jones

Madhuvan Gupta

John Hillary Zybura

William Lewis Veghte

David R Dickman

Shannon Scott Hysom

Shane McRoberts

Alexander J Kolmykov-Zotov

William David Sproule

Sean E Kollenkark

Myron C Thomas

David M Nadalin

Joseph Lloyd McClanahan

Oliver C Lee

Phillip Feng Lu

Zach Johnson

Andrew J Jaffray

Bruno Kraychete Da Costa

Rodrigo Maialle Bomfim

Alexander Castro

John P Mullally, Iv

Jeffrey Christopher Abraham

Vladimir Smimov

Quan Binb To

Robert N Pulliam

John W Bruce

Michael M Tse

Dennis Kiilerich

Arrangements are provided which use a host computer to configure a wireless portable device's network connection parameters. The radio on the portable device may be used to help locate nearby accessible wireless networks. Once a synchronization relationship between the portable device and a media library on a host computer is established, periodically updated content, such as podcasts, may be discovered and subscribed to using software on the host computer, and the content synchronized with the host computer. A portable device may manage episodic content, such as podcasts, using the device's own wireless connection, and may further send such content to other portable devices. A central user profile may be set up on a web server to synchronize multiple wireless or wired devices.

Wireless synchronization of media content and subscription content

Arrangements are provided which improve the efficiency of the synchronization process. The same ensure that synchronizations of large quantities of content can be completed with a minimum of delay. One method prioritizes the various tasks that are to be performed prior to synchronization. Another method initiates dependent tasks while parsing a synchronization tasks list. Yet another method allows modification of an in-process synchronization operation to allow new synchronization tasks to be accomplished within the context of the same process, negating the need to restart synchronization.

Arrangement for synchronizing media files with portable devices

The selection of a media content item having preferred instance attributes includes finding a preferred instance of a media content item having two or more different instances by recognizing a first instance of the media content item having a first set of instance attributes and recognizing a second instance of the media content item having a second set of instance attributes. The selection of a media content item having preferred instance attributes further includes selecting either the first instance of the media content item or the second instance of the media content item based on differences between the first set of instance attributes and the second set of instance attributes.

Selection of media content item having preferred instance attributes

Various embodiments related to the ability to find content for consumption across all endpoint computing devices in a computing system are disclosed. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides a method for presenting content including aggregating endpoint metadata for each endpoint computing device in a computing system and content metadata of content stored on each of a plurality of endpoint computing devices, receiving a request for a content item on a selected endpoint computing device, querying aggregated endpoint metadata and content metadata to find instances of the content item and corresponding endpoint computing device locations, generating a ranked list of instances of the content item based on selection criteria, and selecting an instance of the content item from the ranked list for playback by the selected endpoint computing device.

Media content location awareness and decision making

A system and method for synchronizing media files stored on a plurality of computing devices. The system includes a source computing device configured to execute a synchronization engine configured to synchronize media files on the source computing device with copies of the media files on a target computing device. The synchronization engine may be configured to display a file synchronization interface including a synchronization control having a plurality of media file selectors configured to receive user input of a selected set of the media files for synchronization. The system further may include a prediction module configured to compute a predicted storage state of the target computing device based on an available storage capacity of the target computing device and an estimated destination file size of each of the selected set of media files, and display the predicted storage state on a graphical predicted storage state gauge.

Display of predicted storage state of target computing device during media file synchronization

A method for managing a group of owned and for-purchase media items in response to a single user action. The method treats the owned media items and the for-purchase media items similarly with respect to the user's interaction with them, facilitating a user paradigm-shift from thinking about two stores of media items to a single store of media items available for use. A media item grouping generic to both types of media items is provided, permitting sharing of media item collections between users having different access rights with respect to the media items.

Like processing of owned and for-purchase media

A computing device for managing media content and a method of its operation are provided. The computing device may be configured to execute a computer program including a media manager. The media manager may be configured to present a graphical user interface including a static media menu for enabling a user to select one of an automated mode or a manual mode for managing synchronization of static media content; transfer static media content between the computing device and a remote media device according to a user interaction if the manual mode is selected at the static media menu; transfer static media content according to a predefined programmatic process for the static media content if the automated mode is selected at the static media menu; and transfer dynamic media content between the computing device and the remote media device according to a predefined programmatic process for the dynamic media content.

Managing media synchronization

Transmit user feedback from a user to a web syndication author. A first communication link is opened. Content data from the web syndication author is received. The received content data is stored on a first client device. The opened first communication link is terminated after receiving the content data. User behavior data is collected as a function of user interactions with the received content data on the first client device after terminating the first communication link. User feedback including the collected user behavior data is transmitted to the web syndication author by opening a second communication link.

Content feedback for authors of web syndications

A system and process for capturing and rendering ink is described. An ink canvas object may contain none, one, or more objects or elements and may specify the z-order of the objects or elements. The ink canvas object may host a variety of objects or elements and, therefore, provide ink functionality to the objects or elements, even though the objects or elements themselves may not have ink functionality. The ink canvas object is attached to an ink editor that has an associated modifiable ink editor behavior, whereby ink specific behaviors are collected in the ink edit behavior.

Ink editing architecture

Described herein are one or more implementations for transferring formatted digital media content ('formatted-media-content') from a source device (e.g., a desktop computer) to a target media-playback device (e.g., a MP3 player). The formatted-media-content may need to be converted from a source format to a target format before it is transferred. An implementation seeks permission from a source-format-agent associated with the source format of the formatted-media-content, to perform a format-conversion ('transcoding').

Sanctioned transcoding of digital-media content

The present invention relates to interfacing with electronic ink. Ink is stored in a data structure that permits later retrieval by applications. The ink includes stroke information and may include property information. Through various programming interfaces, one may interact with the ink through methods and setting or retrieving properties. Other objects and collections may be used as well in conjunction with the ink objects.

Interfacing with ink

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Andrew L Silverman