Account information display for portable communication device

• US 20070149252A1
• Filed: 12/23/2005
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Chaudhri, Imran, Christie, Greg, Ording, Bas, Forstall, Scott, Anzures, Freddy, Jobs, Steven, Lemay, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 7,650,137 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/566
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72427 for supporting games or graphical animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/83 Notification aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/84 Types of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/81 Notifying aspects, e.g. notifications or displays to the user
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/8129 Type of notification
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/82 Advice-of-Charge [AOC], i.e. notify subscriber of charges/cumulative charge; meter at the substation

Abstract

A portable communication device includes a display and a processor coupled to the display. The processor is configured to automatically and repeatedly present an updated account usage metric for an account associated with usage of the portable communication device. In some embodiments, the presented account usage metric is an account balance associated with usage of the portable communication device, and the processor automatically and repeatedly presents an updated account balance on the display.

Claims

1. A portable communication device, comprising:

a display; and

a processor coupled to the display, wherein the processor is configurable to automatically and repeatedly determine at least one account balance associated with usage of the portable communication device and to present the account balance on the display.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the account balance is a balance associated with a plurality of resources and the account balance is based on a combination of usage amounts of the plurality of resources.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the account balance is presented as a graphical object on the display.

4. The device of claim 1, further including a menu system configurable to display one or more actions associated with the account balance.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor presents an updated account balance on the display in response to a trigger condition.

6. A portable communication device, comprising:

a display; and

a processor, coupled to the display, and configured to automatically and repeatedly present an updated account usage metric for an account associated with usage of the portable communication device.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the display is a touch sensitive display.

8. The device of claim 6, wherein the account usage metric is based on a combination of usage amounts of a plurality of resources.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the plurality of resources includes at least two resources selected from the set consisting of telephone connection time, data transmission, data storage, and message sending and message receiving.

10. The device of claim 6, wherein the account usage metric is presented as a graphical object on the display.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the graphical object is episodically updated by the portable communication device.

12. The device of claim 10, wherein the graphical object is updated in response to account information received from a computer associated with a service provider over a network connection.

13. The device of claim 10, wherein the graphical object is presented with related text on the display.

14. The device of claim 10, wherein the graphical object presents information from two or more service accounts.

15. The device of claim 10, wherein the graphical object presents both an account balance and information associated with a rate of resource usage associated with the account.

16. The device of claim 6, wherein the portable communication device includes a mobile telephone.

17. A method of displaying an account balance on a portable communication device, comprising:

in response to detection of a trigger condition, downloading account information from a service provider in response to detection of the trigger condition;

updating a graphical object based on the account information; and

displaying the updated graphical object on the portable communication device.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

updating a metric associated with an account balance using the account information;

updating a graphical object based on the updated metric; and

displaying the updated graphical object on the portable communication device.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein updating a metric includes updating a metric associated with account information from two or more accounts.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

automatically downloading account information based on a trigger condition occurring on the portable communication device.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the account information is based on a combination of usage amounts of a plurality of resources.

22. The device of claim 21, wherein the plurality of resources includes at least two resources selected from the set consisting of telephone connection time, data transmission, data storage, and message sending and message receiving.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

downloading account information in response to a manual request initiated by a user.

24. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

automatically displaying a menu in response to a trigger condition occurring.

25. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which, when executed by a processor in a portable communication device, causes the processor to perform the operations of:

in response to detection of a trigger condition, downloading account information from a service provider in response to detection of the trigger condition;

updating a graphical object based on the account information; and

displaying the updated graphical object on the portable communication device.

26. A portable communication device, comprising:

means for downloading account information from a service provider in response to detection of a trigger condition;

means for updating a graphical object based on the account information; and

means for displaying the updated graphical object on the portable communication device.

27. A graphical user interface on a portable communication device, comprising:

a graphical object that automatically and repeatedly displays an updated account usage metric associated with usage of the portable communication device.