Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Kevin Timothy Shields

Anthony Kitowitz

Steven Nabil Bathiche

Chee Heng Chew

Ido Miles Ben-Shachar

Nigel Stuart Keam

Scott Randall Shell

Megan Galbraith Donahue

John Mark Miller

Bret P O'Rourke

Dawn Wilson

Darin Miller

Zachary Lewis Russell

William T Flora

Kenneth Lynn Crocker

Steven Andrew Cover

Oliver R Roup

Eric Peter Wilfrid

Rachel Jiang

Daniel N Boone

Chad M Whitney

Rhon Manlapaz

Michael Saffitz

Raymond A Manning

Cory J Cirrincione

Kathryn L Parker

Jon Marcus Randall Whitten

Jeffrey R Blum

Sarah E Zuberec

James P Chen

Frederic Azera

Greg A Keyser

Talal Ali Batrouny

Yung-Ho Shih

Elizabeth A Bastiaanse

Jossef Goldberg

Marc Randall Whitten

Guy Barker

Mark H Enomoto

Anthony Kitowicz

Elyssa Cox

A system for dynamic content delivery is provided. The system includes a control component to determine location, preferences, and state of a user. A delivery component dynamically selects and provides content to the user as a function of the user's location, preferences, and state.

Dynamic awareness involving location

Background tasks are managed through background task settings that allow or prevent the execution of agents associated with mobile device applications in the background of a mobile computing device. Background task management can extend the battery life of a mobile device and can be done by a user, the mobile device or a combination thereof. Agents scheduled for execution by a mobile device are executed according to the background task settings associated with the application. Background task settings can be controlled via background task control panels. Background task settings can be set on a system-wide, application or background task basis. Disabled background tasks can be enabled when the application is next launched. A user can be invited to navigate to the background task control panels when various events occur such as the battery life dropping below a threshold or the current power consumption exceeding a threshold.

Management of background tasks

A channel updater. The channel updater maintains an accurate channel line-up by automatically testing accessible channels to determine if those channels are available for viewing. Available channels are added to the channel line-up, and unavailable channels are subtracted from the channel line-up. The updater persistently retests the channels so that changes in channel availability are reflected in the channel line-up.

Maintaining accurate channel line-up by persistently monitoring availability of accessible channels

Described is a method and system for downloading information to a mobile device. The system and method provide a mechanism for selectively identifying the type of information that can be downloaded to the mobile device. In one embodiment, the mechanism includes a user interface resident on the mobile device that allows user selection of the type of information. Alternatively, the mechanism includes a profile maintained on a server. The profile identifies the type of information, such as a file extension, that a particular mobile device supports. In addition, the type of information may be based on a file size associated with the information. Once the type of information is identified, the server downloads the identified type of information to the mobile device without downloading undesired types of information. Thus, the synchronization session is efficiently managed so that undesired information is not downloaded to the mobile device.

System and method for downloading information to a mobile device

The UI of the present invention increases the number of contacts initially shown to the user of a hand-held device to aid the user in finding information in a Contacts database. While displaying a list of Contacts database entries, the UI displays a column which contains single letters indicating the type of information displayed for the names represented in the list of entries. A tap on a letter in that column causes a sub-list of other most commonly needed information to be deployed for the corresponding entry, potentially eliminating the need for the user to open the entire record for that entry.

Smart column for contact information on palm-sized computing devices and method and apparatus for displaying the same

The present invention provides a quick searching method for filtering a contact list in a hand-held device. Under the method, upon receiving a search string from a user, a database object is opened that is sorted alphabetically on the first name of each contact. A search is then performed on the sorted list to retrieve the ID's of the first record in the sorted list and the last record in the sorted list that have a first name that matches the search string. A second database object is then opened that is sorted alphabetically on a &ldquo;filed as&rdquo; field. The &ldquo;filed as&rdquo; list is then searched to find the first and last records that match the search string. The first name search results and the &ldquo;filed as&rdquo; search results are then combined. The records in the combination are then displayed to the user.

Method and apparatus for fast searching of hand-held contacts lists

A method and system of installing applications for a plurality of mobile devices from a storage source, wherein each mobile device is of a different type, includes storing on the storage source a plurality of applications. Each application is designed for a unique type of mobile device. The mobile device is connected to the storage source and the type of mobile device is detected. A selected application is then transferred to the mobile device.

System and method for managing application installation for a mobile device

Described herein is a portable computer having a limited display area. An Internet or other hypermedia browser executes on the portable computer to load and display content in a content viewing area. During times when the browser is loading content, the browser displays a temporary, animated graphic element over the content viewing area. The graphic element is removed after the content is loaded, allowing unobstructed viewing of the loaded content.

Loading status in a hypermedia browser having a limited available display area

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, whereby the touch-sensitive area extends beyond the viewing area to form a border outside of the viewing area but within the touch-sensitive area. The handheld computing device has an operating system that executes on the processor to provide a graphical user interface environment capable of presenting a program taskbar within the viewing area. The operating system is configured to present a taskbar within the viewing area in response to contact from a stylus in the border beneath the viewing area.

Operating system for handheld computing device having program icon auto hide

A system and method for sorting accented character strings involves creating an expanded character string containing the characters in their base form (without accents) and corresponding ordinal values indicating whether the base characters are accented or unaccented. The ordinal values are assigned in a manner that differentiates accented from unaccented characters as well as one type of accented character from another. The expanded character strings are then sorted, first according to their base characters and then according to their ordinal values.

System and method for sorting character strings containing accented and unaccented characters

A portable computing device has a processor and a touch-sensitive display. The display includes a touch-sensitive area superimposed on a viewing area, whereby the touch-sensitive area extends beyond the viewing area to form a border outside of the viewing area but within the touch-sensitive 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 graphical window and a program taskbar within the viewing area. The program taskbar presents a program icon representing a program that is active within the graphical window. The operating system is configured to minimize the graphical window to remove the graphical window from the viewing area or to enlarge the graphical window to restore the graphical window in the viewing area in response to contacting the program icon.

Operating system for handheld computing device having graphical window

Operating system for handheld computing device having taskbar auto hide

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Kevin Timothy Shields