Method and system for managing email attachments for an electronic device
First Claim
1. A method usable for an electronic device having an email application, the method comprising:
- downloading at least a portion of an email to the electronic device independent of an operating mode of the email application without downloading at least one attachment associated with the email;
presenting a user interface to allow selection of at least one attachment associated with the downloaded email for download; and
in response to a user selection on the user interface of at least one attachment for download, downloading the selected attachment to the electronic device independent of the operating mode of the email application.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic device, such as a hand-held portable computer is provided with client-side email capability that allows emails to be independently downloaded from a server, regardless of an operating mode of an email application and without using the standard email retrieval mechanism of the email application. The emails are periodically downloaded without attachments in response to a poll of the server and if a sufficient high-speed connection to the server is available, and then the downloaded email is locally stored in a local cache of the portable computer. Attachments associated with downloaded emails stored in the local cache can be selectively downloaded, via a background process, from the server independently of the operating mode of the email application and during any suitable power state of the electronic device. Synchronization of attachments to emails in the local cache is also independently performed, thereby bypassing synchronization that is normally performed by the email application while in the online mode.
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Citations
44 Claims
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1. A method usable for an electronic device having an email application, the method comprising:
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downloading at least a portion of an email to the electronic device independent of an operating mode of the email application without downloading at least one attachment associated with the email;
presenting a user interface to allow selection of at least one attachment associated with the downloaded email for download; and
in response to a user selection on the user interface of at least one attachment for download, downloading the selected attachment to the electronic device independent of the operating mode of the email application. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method usable for an electronic device having an email application and having a primary display screen and a secondary display screen, the method comprising:
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downloading at least a portion of an email to the electronic device independent of an operating mode of the email application absent at least one attachment associated with the email;
displaying an inbox having the downloaded email without the attachment on the secondary display screen;
presenting a user interface on the secondary display screen for user selection of at least one attachment associated with the downloaded email for download; and
in response to a user selection on the user interface of at least one attachment for download, downloading the selected attachment to the electronic device independent of the operating mode of the email application. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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20. A method usable for an electronic device having an email application, the method comprising:
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downloading at least a first portion of an email to the electronic device independent of an operating mode of the email application without downloading at least a second portion of the email;
presenting a user interface to allow selection of at least the second portion of the email for download;
in response to a user selection on the user interface of the second portion of the email for download, downloading the selected second portion to the electronic device independent of the operating mode of the email application; and
storing the downloaded portion in a memory. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. An article of manufacture usable for an electronic device having an email application, the article of manufacture comprising:
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a machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon to cause a processor to manage email attachments by;
downloading at least a portion of an email to the electronic device independent of an operating mode of the email application without downloading content associated with the email;
displaying a representation of at least some content associated with the downloaded portion of the email for selective download; and
responsive to selection of a displayed representation of content, downloading the selected content to the electronic device independent of the operating mode of the email application. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29)
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30. A system usable in an electronic device having an email application, the system comprising:
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a means for downloading at least a portion of an email to the electronic device while the email application is in any mode of operation without downloading at least one attachment associated with the email;
a means for presenting a user interface to allow selection of at least one attachment associated with the downloaded email for download; and
a means for downloading the selected attachment to the electronic device while the email application is in any mode of operation, in response to a user selection on the user interface of at least one attachment for download. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. An apparatus having an email application, the apparatus comprising:
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a memory;
a first component to download at least a portion of an email to the memory while the email application is in any operating mode without download of content associated with the email; and
a second component to present a user interface to allow selection, for separate download, of at least some content associated with the downloaded email, wherein in response to a user selection on the user interface of at least some content for download, the first component can download the selected content to the memory while the email application is in any operating mode and can cause the email application to access the downloaded content from the memory instead of retrieving the content from a location different from the memory. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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Specification