STORAGE MEDIUM FOR A CELLULAR TELEPHONE

• US 20080220830A1
• Filed: 03/07/2007
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ferguson, Lee H.
• Granted Patent: US 7,848,779 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/575.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0254 comprising one or a plurality of mechanically detachable modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0274 for an electrical connector module
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72409 by interfacing with external accessories hands-free H04M1/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/14 including a card reading device

Abstract

A storage medium for a cellular telephone is disclosed. An apparatus that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a cellular telephone having a housing assembly, and a Modular Hard Disk Drive (MHDD) storage medium that couples to the housing assembly as an integral portable accessory unit. The housing assembly can have a wireless transceiver that exchanges messages with at least one among a plurality of cellular base stations, and a controller that manages operations of the wireless transceiver and the MHDD storage medium. Additional embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A cellular telephone, comprising:

a housing assembly; and

a Modular Hard Disk Drive (MHDD) storage medium slideably insertable and removable from the housing assembly, wherein the housing assembly, comprises;

a wireless transceiver that exchanges messages with a communication system; and

a controller that manages operations of the wireless transceiver and the MHDD storage medium.

2. The cellular telephone of claim 1, wherein the MHDD storage medium comprises a short-range wireless device for wirelessly transmitting media files to one among the cellular telephone and a computing device.

3. The cellular telephone of claim 2, wherein the wireless messages transmitted by the short-range wireless device conform to at least one among a plurality of 802 communication protocols defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

4. The cellular telephone of claim 1, wherein the MHDD storage medium comprises a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector, and wherein the housing assembly comprises:

a slot having grooves for slidably engaging with the MHDD storage medium; and

a USB mating connector coupled to the controller and located at an end of the slot that couples to the USB connector of the MHDD storage medium for exchanging data and controlling operations of the MHDD storage medium.

5. The cellular telephone of claim 1, wherein the MHDD storage medium comprises a security element, and wherein the controller determines from the security element whether the MHDD storage medium is operable with the cellular telephone.

6. The cellular telephone of claim 5, comprising a User Interface (UI), wherein the controller presents by way of the UI a prompt to an end user and receives a verification code therefrom, and enables use of the MHDD storage medium responsive to validating the verification code with the security element.

7. The cellular telephone of claim 6, wherein the security element comprises at least one among a Subscriber Identity Module and a Removable User Identity Module, and wherein the UI comprises at least one among a keypad interface, a display and an audio system.

8. The cellular telephone of claim 1, wherein the MHDD storage medium comprises a Universal Serial Bus (USB) that couples to a computing device with a tethered wire for exchanging data.

9. The cellular telephone of claim 8, wherein the data exchanged with the computing device comprises at least one among computer instructions executable by the controller, and one or more multimedia files.

10. The cellular telephone of claim 1, wherein the MHDD storage medium comprises computer instructions corresponding to a print driver executable by the controller for directing a printer coupled to the cellular telephone to print one or more data files stored in the MHDD storage medium.

11. The cellular telephone of claim 2, wherein the controller detects a multimedia processing center by way of the short-range wireless device of the MHDD storage medium, and transmits one or more multimedia files stored in the MHDD storage medium to the multimedia processing center.

12. The cellular telephone of claim 1, comprising an imaging sensor that couples to the controller, wherein the controller directs the imaging sensor to record one among still and moving images, and stores said recorded images in the MHDD storage medium.

13. A cellular telephone, comprising:

a housing assembly; and

a Modular Hard Disk Drive (MHDD) storage medium that couples to the housing assembly as an integral portable accessory unit, wherein the housing assembly, comprises;

a wireless transceiver that exchanges messages with at least one among a plurality of cellular base stations; and

a controller that manages operations of the wireless transceiver and the MHDD storage medium.

14. The cellular telephone of claim 13, wherein the MHDD storage medium comprises:

a plurality of snap-on clips that correspondingly couple to a plurality of slots of the housing assembly that mates the MHDD storage medium to the housing assembly; and

a plurality of contacts that electromechanically couples the MHDD storage medium to a corresponding plurality of contacts of the housing assembly coupled to the controller for exchanging data and operational control of the MHDD storage medium.

15. The cellular telephone of claim 13, wherein the MHDD storage medium comprises a short-range wireless device for wirelessly transmitting media files to one among the cellular telephone and a computing device, and wherein the wireless messages transmitted by the short-range wireless device conform to at least one among Bluetooth, Zigbee and WiFi communication protocols.

16. The cellular telephone of claim 13, comprising a User Interface (UI), wherein the MHDD storage medium comprises a security element, and wherein the controller presents by way of the UI a prompt to an end user and receives a verification code therefrom, and enables use of the MHDD storage medium responsive to validating the verification code with the security element.

17. The cellular telephone of claim 13, wherein the MHDD storage medium comprises a communications interface that couples to a computing device, and wherein data exchanged with the computing device comprises at least one among computer instructions executable by the controller, and one or more multimedia files.

18. The cellular telephone of claim 13, wherein the cellular telephone comprises an imaging sensor that couples to the controller, wherein the controller directs the imaging sensor to record one among still and moving images, and stores said recorded images in the MHDD storage medium, and wherein the MHDD storage medium comprises computer instructions corresponding to a print driver executable by the controller for directing a printer coupled to the cellular telephone to print at least one of said stored images.

19. A Modular Hard Disk Drive (MHDD), comprising:

a storage medium having at least one or more spinnable platters comprising magnetic material;

a communications interface;

a controller that manages read-write operations of the storage medium and communications between the MHDD and a cellular telephone; and

a housing assembly that houses the foregoing components and modularly couples the MHDD to the cellular telephone as an integral portable accessory unit.

20. The MHDD of claim 19, wherein the housing assembly comprises at least one among a clip-on mechanism that couples to a mating clip-on mechanism of the cellular telephone and a slidable form factor that slidably couples to a slot of the cellular telephone, and wherein the communications interface comprises one among a wireless transceiver and a wired transceiver that conforms to at least one among a plurality of 802 communication protocols defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

21. The MHDD of claim 19, comprising a portable power supply that powers the components of the MHDD.