Method of updating a display screen on a battery powered mobile computing device

• US 20050108185A1
• Filed: 11/26/2002
• Published: 05/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: ShoZu, Inc. (Synchronoss Technologies Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: ShoZu, Inc. (Synchronoss Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: East, Simone Jeremy, Spence, Stephen Timothy
• Application Number:
  US10/496,540
• Publication Number:
  US 20050108185A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The battery powered mobile computing device has a local database which eliminates the need for an application or user interface program on the device to poll the database for changed data by instead continuously pushing data that has changed in the database to that application or user interface program for that application or user interface program to display. The data that is continuously pushed is preferably only that data which the application (or UI program/component) defines as being needed-for example, needed for display. This approach is better than conventional approaches that use intrusive prompt screens since it is an automatic background process; it is better than automatic background approaches which require the application to regularly poll the database even when no data has changed since it uses power and processing cycles only when there has been a data change that in fact needs to be displayed.

Claims

1. A method of updating a display screen on a battery powered mobile computing device in a manner that minimises power consumption and processing requirements;

wherein the method comprises the step of providing a database on the device which eliminates the need for an application or user interface program on the device to poll the database for changed data by instead continuously pushing data that has changed in the database to that application or user interface program for that application or user interface program to display.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the data that is continuously pushed is only that data which the application or UI program defines as being needed.

3. The method of claim 2 in which the application or UI program defines as being needed only that data which it needs for display.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the database provides data for use by several different applications.

5. The method of claim 1 in which an application never directly updates its own display of the data but instead updates the database which in turn updates the display.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the changed data can be a new object or record in the database, an object or record deleted from the database, a changed property of an object or field of a record in the database.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the application is an application selected from the following list

(a) contacts;

(b) agenda/diary;

(c) messaging;

(d) presence and instant messaging;

(e) photo gallery;

(f) ringtone download, sampling and ordering

(g) banking

(h) device management.

8. The method of claim 1 in which the application can specify how data is sorted by the database and if only a small window on the sorted list of data is required.

9. A battery powered mobile computing device programmed to update a display screen in a manner that minimises power consumption and processing requirements;

wherein the device comprise a database which eliminates the need for an application or user interface program to poll the database for changed data by instead continuously pushing data that has changed in the database to that application or user interface program for that application or user interface program to display.

10. The device of claim 9 in which the data that is continuously pushed is only that data which the application or UI program defines as being needed.

11. The device of claim 9 in which the application or UI program defines as being needed only that data which it needs for display.

12. The device of claim 9 in which the database provides data for use by several different applications.

13. The device of claim 9 in which an application never directly updates its own display of the data but instead updates the database which in turn updates the display.

14. The device of claim 9 in which the changed data can be a new object or record in the database, an object or record deleted from the database, a changed property of an object or field of a record in the database.

15. The device of claim 9 in which the application is an application selected from the following list

(a) contacts;

(b) agenda/diary;

(c) messaging;

(d) presence and instant messaging,

(e) photo gallery;

(f) ringtone download, sampling and ordering

(g) banking

(h) device management.

16. The device of claim 9 in which the application can specify how data is sorted by the database and if only a small window on the sorted list of data is required.