Blackberry Corporation

Research in Motion Corporation

John Ferguson Wilson

Daryl Joseph Martin

Ahmed E Hassan

Denny K Chiu

James Andrew Godfrey

Christopher David O'Keefe

Risvan Coskun

Vi Thuan Banh

Christopher O'keefe

Ahmed E School Of Computing Goodwin Hall Hassan

Denny Chui

A computing device and method of controlling access to a computing device. An application to be used when the computing device is in a locked state is selected, wherein in the locked state, only use of the selected application is permitted. The computing device enters the locked state. Use of the selected application without unlocking the computing device is allowed.

Secure device sharing

An electronic device is provided which automatically adjusts settings based on the environment of the electronic device. The settings of the electronic device which are adjusted may be security settings, filter settings, or status for instant messaging in dependence on the determined location of the electronic device.

Computing device with environment aware features

A computing device and method of controlling access to a computing device. A software lock request is received via an input device of the computing device. In response to receiving the software lock request, a picklist of a plurality of applications executable on the computing device is displayed on a display of the computing device. A selection of one or more impermissible applications from the plurality of applications executable on the computing device or one or more permitted applications from the plurality of applications executable on the computing device is received receiving via the input device. A locked state is entered. In the locked state, access is not permitted to the one or more impermissible applications and access is permitted to other applications of the plurality of applications executable on the computing device.

A device and method for placing the device in a locked state having an associated set of permitted tasks so as to permit the device owner to share the device with others but maintain security over aspects of the device. A task change request is evaluated to determine whether the requested task is permitted and, if so, the requested task is allowed; if not, then an authorization process is invoked to prompt the user to input authorization data. Upon verification of the authorization data, the device may be unlocked and the requested change implemented. The permitted tasks may designate specific applications, specific operations or functions within applications or at the operating system level, one or more currently open windows, and other levels of granularity.

Mobile device usage may be monitored and restricted by pushing enabling/disabling events from an administrator the device. The events impose a certain set of rules that can 'lock' certain features provided by the device, according to permissions and pre-established policies, for a certain period of time. Such restricted periods may coincide with meetings or other events in which distractions should be kept to a minimum or be during regular, predetermined time periods. Preferably, the rules include conditional locks that allow a user to use a feature a reasonable number of times before the lock is activated to place the onus on the user for minimizing such distractions, while enabling the user to maintain access to such a vital communication tool. Cancel packets may also be used to not only control but to monitor the application of the rule sets and when certain conditions are breaches, which provides an employer with sufficient information to use in auditing device usage or in reprimanding users for misuse of a privilege such as the use of mobile data communications devices.

System and method for controlling device usage

A method and device to simplify message reply composition on a communications device, using a partially transparent overlay to allow a user to freely scroll and move around to other sections of a message or message chain while still being able to see and edit the reply being composed. When the reply is scrolled such that the composition field is not visible on the display screen, the device displays the overlay when the user enters text or on user request. The user may then type text into the overlay while viewing the underlying portion of the reply message, such as previous messages in the string.

Method and device to simplify message composition

A method and mobile electronic device are provided which automatically adjust settings based on the environment of the mobile electronic device. The settings of the mobile electronic device which are adjusted may be security settings, filter settings, or status for instant messaging in dependence on the determined location of the mobile electronic device.

An apparatus, and an associated method, for providing secured effectuation of a communication service at a substitute mobile station. A user desiring temporarily to use a substitute mobile station to carry out the communication service initiates a request at the mobile station for its use. The communication service is available to be performed at the substitute mobile station for a selected period. Upon termination of the selected period, the communication service session ends, and data associated with the communication service session is deleted from the substitute mobile station.

Apparatus, and an associated method, by which to activate a wireless device for a temporary period

A queuing method and system for wireless/LAN routers processes and routes an incoming data packet from a wireless mobile network to a destination server. The system uses a wireless transport module to initiate storage of the data packet in a permanent storage device while simultaneously forwarding the data packet to the destination server. A database thread is used to manage the operations being performed on the data packet and for initiating the storage of the data packet in a permanent storage device based on a permanent storage queue. A main thread is used to simultaneously forward the data packet to the destination server. The wireless transport module is adapted to determine whether the data packet has been acknowledged by the destination server and aborting the storage of the data packet in the permanent storage device once acknowledgment from by destination server has been received.

Wireless/LAN router queuing method and system

There is disclosed a system and method for visually representing the probability of spam messages on a mobile communication device. In an embodiment, the method comprises: obtaining a probability that a message is spam; and for each of one or more messages in a message list, visually representing the probability that a message is spam such that any differences in the probabilities as between messages are discernable from the visual representation. In another embodiment, the method further comprises: determining the percentage of the message downloaded to the mobile communication device; and displaying for each of one or more messages appearing in the message list an object or icon visually representing at least one of the probability that the message is spam, or the percentage of the message downloaded to the mobile communication device.

Growing community of inventors

Waterloo, Canada

John Ferguson Wilson