SECONDARY STATUS DISPLAY FOR MOBILE DEVICE

• US 20100240402A1
• Filed: 03/23/2009
• Published: 09/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Sadler, Jennifer, Malekzadeh, Feridoon, Wickman, Marianna, Goulart, Valerie
• Granted Patent: US 8,023,975 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/57 Arrangements for indicating or recording the number of the calling subscriber at the called subscriber's set at the operator set in a manual exchange H04M5/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/048 Arrangements providing optical indication of the incoming call, e.g. flasher circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/16 including more than one display unit

Abstract

A secondary display system on a mobile device to allow a user to check the status of mobile device services without having to turn on or otherwise rely upon the primary display of the mobile device. The secondary display presents a count of messages that are waiting to be accessed by the mobile device user. When a new message is received for the user, a summary of the message is displayed to the mobile device user. When a user accesses one of the waiting messages, the count of unopened messages is decremented. The secondary display system may perform queue management to ensure that only counts of recently received messages are displayed. The secondary display system may offer different status modes to highlight the status of different mobile device services or states. The secondary display system may also allow a user to respond to a received message in a limited manner.

Claims

1. A mobile device configured to interface with a plurality of messaging services, the mobile device comprising:

a primary display;

a secondary display;

a communications component configured to communicate with a telecommunications network;

user input and output components, including audio components configured to facilitate voice communications, and a keypad configured to facilitate text communications;

a processor coupled to the communications component, the primary display, the secondary display, and the user input and output components; and

a housing configured to at least partially enclose the processor, the communications component, the memory, the primary display, the secondary display, and the user input and output components,

wherein the processor is programmed to;

interface with a plurality of messaging services that are accessible via the telecommunications network and determine a number of messages that have not been accessed by a user at each of the plurality of messaging services;

for each of the plurality of messaging services, present on the secondary display an indication of the messaging service and the corresponding number of messages that have not been accessed by the user at the messaging service;

receive an indication from the user of a selection of one of the presented plurality of messaging services; and

cause the mobile device to be connected to the selected one of the plurality of messaging services to enable the user to access messages that have not previously been accessed by the user.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the indication of the messaging service presented on the secondary display is an icon.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the indication of the messaging service presented on the secondary display is the name of the messaging service.

4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of messaging services are selected from the group consisting of email, voicemail, instant messaging, SMS messaging, and MMS messaging.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of messaging services are social networking services.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the secondary display is a touchscreen and wherein receiving an indication from the user of a selection of one of the presented plurality of messaging services comprises detecting a user'"'"'s touch on the touchscreen in proximity to one of the presented plurality of messaging services on the touchscreen.

7. The mobile device of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of buttons adjacent to the secondary display.

8. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein receiving an indication from the user of a selection of one of the presented plurality of messaging services comprises detecting the selection of one of the plurality of buttons that is adjacent to a presented indication of one of the plurality of messaging services.

9. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the secondary display is substantially coplanar with the primary display in the housing.

10. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the secondary display is substantially perpendicular to the primary display in the housing.

11. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the indication of the corresponding number of messages is presented numerically.

12. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the indication of the corresponding number of messages is presented graphically.

13. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to, upon the receipt of an indication of a new message via one of the plurality of messaging services, present on the secondary display a summary of the new message.

14. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein the summary of the new message is scrolled across the secondary display.

15. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein the summary of the new message is a regarding (re:

) line of the new message.

16. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein the processor is further programmed to, after presentation of the summary of the new message, present an interface to allow the user to send a responsive message to the new message.

17. A method of presenting the status of a plurality of messaging services to a user on a secondary display of a mobile device, the method comprising:

connecting with a plurality of messaging services that are accessible from a mobile device via a telecommunications network;

determining a number of messages that have not been accessed by a user at each of the plurality of messaging services; and

for each of the plurality of messaging services, displaying on a secondary display of the mobile device an indication of the messaging service and an indication of the corresponding number of messages that have not been accessed by the user at the messaging service.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving an indication from the user of a selection of one of the presented plurality of messaging services; and

causing the mobile device to be connected to the selected one of the plurality of messaging services to enable the user to access messages that have not previously been accessed by the user.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the indication of the messaging service displayed on the secondary display is an icon.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the indication of the messaging service displayed on the secondary display is the name of the messaging service.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the plurality of messaging services are selected from the group consisting of email, voicemail, instant messaging, SMS messaging, and MMS messaging.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the plurality of messaging services are social networking services.

23. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

detecting when a user accesses a message that has not been previously accessed by the user; and

in response to detecting when a user accessed a message that has not been previously accessed, decrementing the displayed indication of the corresponding number of messages that have not been accessed by the user at the messaging service.

24. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

for each of the plurality of messaging services, determining a length of time that a message at the messaging service that has not been accessed by the user;

comparing the determined length of time with a threshold period; and

if the determined length of time exceeds the threshold period, decrementing the displayed indication of the corresponding number of messages that have not been accessed by the user at the messaging service.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein the indication of the corresponding number of messages is displayed numerically.

26. The method of claim 17, wherein the indication of the corresponding number of messages is displayed graphically.

27. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving an indication of the receipt of a new message via one of the plurality of messaging services; and

displaying on the secondary display a summary of the new message.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the summary is scrolled across the secondary display.

29. The method of claim 17, further comprising, after displaying the summary of the new method, displaying an interface to allow the user to send a responsive message to the new message.