Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Jossef Goldberg

Charlton E Lui

Timothy J Cullen

Dan W Altman

John W Miller

Kevin Timothy Shields

Mark M Moeller

Sarah E Zuberec

Jeffrey R Blum

Owen W Paulus

Stuart DeSpain

Benjamin N Rabelos

Paul A Horenberger

Voice recording is initiated immediately upon pressing a record button on a digital computing device such as a palm computer. To enable an immediate response to the button being pressed without a delay that would be normally be incurred to load a user interface and a recording application, a stub program is continuously executed on the device, even when a main user interface program is not running. When the record button is pressed, the stub program immediately begins recording a digital signal corresponding to the sound waves incident on a microphone of the device in a compressed format. If the record button is depressed for more than a second, the recorded digital signal is stored in a file so that it can subsequently be played back, and if the record button was pressed for less than one second, the file is not retained. Sound recording can be initiated in an &ldquo;eyes free&rdquo; mode, e.g., while using the device under low ambient light conditions, or while engaged in another activity. Recording and playback are controlled by a user interface that is launched when the record button is initially pressed, if not already running. Sound files can be selected and played back at either a normal speed or at a substantially higher speed without any significant change in the frequency of the recorded sound, using control buttons provided on the hand held computing device or the user interface that is provided on a touch screen display.

Fast start voice recording and playback on a digital device

A notes organizer program is provided that allows a user to organize notes on a limited resource computing device. The notes are organized by associating a note, if desired, with a project. The user can name or rename a note or a project. If the user does not specify a note name, the notes organizer program determines the note name based on the associated project. If there is no associated project, the note name is based on the type of note (e.g., voice, handwritten, etc.). A template project is provided for creating notes from templates.

Method and apparatus for organizing notes on a limited resource computing device

The size of information being display by a computer is automatically adjusted in order to make the information easily readable, while at the same time leaving most (or all) of the information displayed on a single screen. Any one or more of the font point size, the font type, the number of lines used, and the caption used can be adjusted in order to determine the manner in which the information is displayed.

Displaying text on a limited-area display surface

An application-to-component communication helper facilities communication between applications running an in-vehicle computer to an in-vehicle component. Each vehicle part has a corresponding object, and each object exposes a pre-defined Device Communication Application Programming Interface (DCAPI). Some objects are built-in, meaning that they are defined to some degree by the operating system, and rely on the operating system for at least parts of their functionality. Other objects are add-on objects, meaning that they are provided apart from the operating system, for subsequent installation and use in conjunction with the operating system. The operating system provides a &ldquo;device helper&rdquo; that allows add-on components to participate and utilize access management and notification features provided by the operating system. The device helper exposes its method for use by corresponding device-com methods of component objects. The object calls the device helper method that corresponds to the called device-com method. This greatly simplifies the tasks of application programmers, and allows access management and notification services to be coordinated between the various component objects.

Application-to-component communications helper in a vehicle computer system

A portable handheld computing device has a processor and a touch-sensitive display. The display includes a touch-sensitive area superimposed on a viewing area. The handheld computing device has an operating system which executes on the processor to provide a graphical user interface environment capable of presenting a plurality of on-screen controls that can be activated by tapping on them with a stylus. The operating system is configured to present a usage tip relating to a particular on-screen control when a user touches the display over the control for a predefined duration.

Usage tips for on-screen touch-sensitive controls

A text completion system that automatically displays a list of completion suggestions for a partial data entry in response to a pause in receipt of the data entry. To avoid annoying the user by displaying an excessive number of wrong suggestions, the text completion system applies search criteria to the partial data entry. If the partial data entry satisfies the search criteria, the text completion system obtains a prioritized list of word predictions for the partial data entry from a word prediction system. To further avoid annoying the user by displaying very short completion suggestions, the text completion system applies display criteria to the word predictions to obtain a prioritized list of completion suggestions that satisfy the display criteria. This prioritized list of completion suggestions is then displayed in a pop-up list box, typically immediately under and to the right of the partial data entry. The completion suggestions are positioned in the list based on a computed indication of likelihood of being correct. The user may accept a completion suggestion from the list by touching a stylus to the display screen over the position of the desired completion suggestion, or by using traditional selection and acceptance keystrokes, such as the 'arrow' keys to select a completion suggestion and the 'enter' key to accept the selected completion suggestion. Thus, the text completion system allows the user to complete the partial data entry without having to type the remaining letters of the complete data entry.

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Jossef Goldberg