COMPUTER PROGRAM UPDATES FOR MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICE

• US 20090260004A1
• Filed: 04/10/2008
• Published: 10/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Datta, Mainak, Shiradwade, Sateesh Krishna, Stewart, Andrew, Fan, James (Jianhua)
• Application Number:
  US12/101,004
• Publication Number:
  US 20090260004A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/175
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading

Abstract

A system and method for updating a computer program on a mobile computing device comprises uploading of packages to a repository, wherein each package comprises update data for a different portion of the computer program, a server identifying portions of the computer program to be updated on a device based on comparing information reported by the device and metadata about packages in the repository and a download server configured to wirelessly download the packages to the mobile computing device. The device may report back installation status to a server.

Claims

1. A method of updating a computer program on a mobile computing device, comprising:

at a server computer, receiving version data from the mobile computing device for portions of a computer program;

identifying portions of the computer program to be updated on the mobile computing device based on the version reported by the mobile computing device and based on metadata in the database; and

sending a list of packages to the mobile computing device based on the identified portions of the computer program to be updated.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises, at the server computer, initiating a communication session with the mobile computing device, wherein the server computer comprises a software update server.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the communication session is initiated using a request-response protocol.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the request-response protocol comprises an OMA-DM protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of packages comprises resource locator data identifying locations on a download server of packages to be downloaded.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the packages have been created using a Linux-based package distribution.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer program comprises firmware configured to operate a plurality of different applications for a user of the mobile computing device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of different applications comprise an e-mail messaging application and a contacts application

9. A system for updating a computer program on a mobile computing device, comprising:

a first server module configured to identify portions of the computer program to be updated;

a second server module to generate a package list based on information from a database and the mobile device and

a download server module configured to wirelessly download the packages to the mobile computing device.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a fourth server module configured to respond to a communication session initiated from the mobile computing device.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the communication session is initiated using a request-response protocol.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the request-response protocol comprises an OMA-DM protocol.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the packages have been created using a Linux-based package distribution.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the download server module is configured to serve packages representing wireless communication firmware.

15. A method of updating a computer program on a mobile computing device, comprising:

receiving from the mobile computing device version data relating to each of a plurality of portions of the computer program on the mobile computing device;

comparing the version data to version data for update data stored in a database;

identifying the portions of the computer program to be updated based on the comparing; and

wirelessly downloading packages to the mobile computing device based on the identifying step.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the update data is sent in the form of packages.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the packages have been created using a Linux-based package distribution.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the version data is received and the update package list is sent using a request-response protocol.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the request-response protocol comprises an OMA-DM protocol

20. A mobile computing device, comprising:

a wireless transceiver configured for communication with a remote download server;

a memory configured to store a computer program; and

a processing circuit configured to transmit version data for different portions of the computer program and to receive update data for portions of the computer program to be updated.

21. The mobile computing device of claim 20, wherein the update data is in the form of a package for each portion of the computer program to be updated.

22. The mobile computing device of claim 21, wherein the processing circuit is configured to operate at least two different update managers, wherein at least one of the update managers is configured to update a computer program portion relating to wireless communication.

23. The mobile computing device of claim 22, wherein the processing circuit is configured to receive resource locators for each of a plurality of packages, wherein the update data is received by the processing circuit using the resource locators.

24. The mobile computing device of claim 22, wherein the processing circuit is configured to issue an execute command to the update managers and, in response, the update managers are configured to update different portions of the computer program.