APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING DIRECTIONAL COMMANDS FOR A MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICE

• US 20080153459A1
• Filed: 12/19/2006
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Matiskella, David, Kansal, Sachin, Haitani, Robert Y., Fry, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 8,233,885 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/412.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/60 logging of communication history, e.g. outgoing or incoming calls, missed calls, messages or URLs logging of telephone numbers H04M1/56, H04M1/57

Abstract

Various embodiments for providing enhanced mobile messaging services are described. In one or more embodiments, a mobile computing device may send and receive messages of different types. The wireless computing device may comprise a threading engine to determine a sender of a received message and/or a recipient of a sent message. The threading engine may be arranged to correlate received messages of different message types with a particular sender and sent messages of different types with a particular recipient. The wireless device may display a messaging thread comprising correlated messages of different message types in a messaging user interface supported by a messaging application. The different message types correlated within the message thread are not limited to a message type associated with the messaging application. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a wireless computing device to send and receive messages of different types, the wireless computing device comprising a threading engine to determine at least one of a sender of a received message and a recipient of a sent message and to correlate received messages of different message types with a particular sender and sent messages of different types with a particular recipient, the wireless device to display a messaging thread comprising correlated messages of different message types in a messaging user interface supported by a messaging application, wherein the different message types correlated within the message thread are not limited to a message type associated with the messaging application.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, the messages of different types comprising one or more of telephone messages, voicemail messages, fax messages, video conferencing messages, instant messaging (IM) messages, e-mail messages, short message service (SMS) messages, and multimedia message service (MMS) messages.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, the threading engine to determine the sender or recipient using identifying information from a message, the identifying information comprising one or more of a telephone number, an e-mail address, an instant messaging screen name, a short message service identifier, and a multimedia messaging service identifier.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, the threading engine to match identifying information against stored contact records.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, the message thread comprising correlated messages including at least one SMS message or MMS message and one or more telephone messages, voicemail messages, fax messages, video conferencing messages, IM messages.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, the messaging application comprising an SMS messaging application.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, the messaging user interface comprising at least one of an SMS list view messaging user interface and an SMS chat view user interface.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein message appearance changes based on age or relevance of the message.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, the messaging user interface comprising a hyperlink to retrieve archived messages.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, the wireless device to display a unified composer messaging interface to enable a user to compose messages of different types.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, the unified composer messaging interface to enable composition of a message comprising one or more media objects.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, the unified composer messaging interface to enable composition of SMS messages and MMS messages, wherein messages are sent as MMS messages only if comprising at least one media object.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, the unified messaging interface to enable a message to be composed as one message type and sent as a different message type.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, the messaging interface comprising an icon corresponding to a hardware button of the wireless computing device.

11. The apparatus of claim 11, the unified messaging interface to automatically convert between different message types.

16. A method comprising:

determining at least one of a sender of a received message and a recipient of a sent message;

correlating received messages of different message types with a particular sender and sent messages of different types with a particular recipient; and

displaying a messaging thread comprising correlated messages of different message types in a messaging user interface supported by a messaging application, wherein the different message types correlated within the message thread are not limited to a message type associated with the messaging application.

17. The method of claim 16, the messages of different types comprising one or more of telephone messages, voicemail messages, fax messages, video conferencing messages, instant messaging (IM) messages, e-mail messages, short message service (SMS) messages, and multimedia message service (MMS) messages.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining the sender or recipient using identifying information from a message, the identifying information comprising one or more of a telephone number, an e-mail address, an instant messaging screen name, a short message service identifier, and a multimedia messaging service identifier.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising matching identifying information against stored contact records.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising correlating messages including at least one SMS message or MMS message and one or more telephone messages, voicemail messages, fax messages, video conferencing messages, IM messages.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising changing message appearance based on age or relevance of the message.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising displaying a hyperlink in the messaging user interface to retrieve archived messages.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising displaying a unified composer to enable a user to compose messages of different types.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising automatically converting between different message types.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising adding one or more media objects to a message.

26. The method of claim 25, the unified composer messaging interface to enable composition of SMS messages and MMS messages, the method further comprising sending messages as MMS messages only if comprising at least one media object.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising sending a message composed as one message type as a different message type.

28. The method of claim 16, further comprising displaying a messaging interface comprising an icon corresponding to a hardware button of the wireless computing device.

29. A machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that if executed enable a computing system to:

determine at least one of a sender of a received message and a recipient of a sent message;

correlate received messages of different message types with a particular sender and sent messages of different types with a particular recipient; and

display a messaging thread comprising correlated messages of different message types in a messaging user interface supported by a messaging application, wherein the different message types correlated within the message thread are not limited to a message type associated with the messaging application.

30. The storage medium of claim 29, the messages of different types comprising one or more of telephone messages, voicemail messages, fax messages, video conferencing messages, instant messaging (IM) messages, e-mail messages, short message service (SMS) messages, and multimedia message service (MMS) messages.

31. The storage medium of claim 29, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a computing system to determine the sender or recipient using identifying information from a message, the identifying information comprising one or more of a telephone number, an e-mail address, an instant messaging screen name, a short message service identifier, and a multimedia messaging service identifier.

32. The storage medium of claim 31, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a computing system to match identifying information against stored contact records.

33. The storage medium of claim 29, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a computing system to correlate messages including at least one SMS message or MMS message and one or more telephone messages, voicemail messages, fax messages, video conferencing messages, IM messages.

34. The storage medium of claim 29, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a computing system to change message appearance based on age or relevance of the message.

35. The storage medium of claim 29, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a computing system to display a hyperlink in the messaging user interface to retrieve archived messages.

36. The storage medium of claim 29, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a computing system to display a unified composer to enable a user to compose messages of different types.

37. The storage medium of claim 36, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a computing system to automatically converting between different message types.

38. The storage medium of claim 36, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a computing system to add one or more media objects to a message.

39. The storage medium of claim 38, the unified composer messaging interface to enable composition of SMS messages and MMS messages, the storage medium further comprising instructions that if executed enable a computing system to send messages as MMS messages only if comprising at least one media object.

40. The storage medium of claim 36, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a computing system to send a message composed as one message type as a different message type.

41. The storage medium of claim 29, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a computing system to display a messaging interface comprising an icon corresponding to a hardware button of the wireless computing device.