AD HOC FILE SHARING

• US 20120185520A1
• Filed: 01/13/2011
• Published: 07/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Linn, Christopher Scott, Krochmal, Marc Jason, Stattenfield, Keith, Iarocci, John Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 8,990,273 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/827
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A method and apparatus of a device that transfers files and performs file browsing using an ad hoc file sharing service is described. In an exemplary method, the device transmits an advertisement of the ad hoc file sharing service to each of one or more of other devices. The transmitted advertisements each include a user identity of the user associated with the first device. Furthermore, access to the ad hoc file sharing service is granted on a per-user basis. The device establishes a connection with each of the other devices and transfers files with each of the plurality of other devices.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method of transferring files between a first device and one or more other devices, the method comprising:

transmitting, with the first device, an advertisement of an ad hoc file sharing service to each of the other devices, wherein the advertisement includes a user identity of the user associated with the first device and access to the ad hoc file sharing service is granted on a per-user basis;

establishing a connection with each of the other devices;

transferring files with each of the other devices.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the establishing a connection is a file sharing connection.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the establishing the connection for the each of the other devices comprises:

presenting a user identification of a user corresponding to that other device to the user of the first device; and

allowing access to the ad file sharing service to the user corresponding to that other device.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the access to the ad hoc file sharing service is accomplished without the user corresponding to that other device having a file sharing account on the first device.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the access to the ad hoc file sharing service is accomplished without using an authentication service on another device that is not the first device or one of the other devices.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the access to the ad hoc file sharing service is accomplished without the user corresponding to that other device having to log into the ad hoc file sharing service.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

establishing a file repository for the ad hoc file sharing service.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

fulfilling a file browsing request from one of the other devices.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the file repository is directory.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method of transferring files between a first device and one or more other devices, the method comprising:

transmitting, with the first device, an advertisement of an ad hoc file sharing service to each of the other devices, wherein the advertisement includes a user identity of the user associated with the first device; and

allowing access to the ad hoc file sharing service to each of the other devices, wherein the access to the ad hoc file sharing service is granted on a per-user basis and the access is accomplished without a user corresponding to the each of the other devices having a file sharing account on the first device.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the access to the ad hoc file sharing service is accomplished without the user corresponding to that other device having a file sharing account.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the access to the ad hoc file sharing service is accomplished without an authentication service using another device that is not the first device nor one of the other devices.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the access to the ad hoc file sharing service is accomplished without the user corresponding to that other device having to log into the ad hoc file sharing service.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

establishing a file repository for the ad hoc file sharing service.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the file repository is directory.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

fulfilling a file browsing request from one of the other devices.

17. An apparatus comprising:

means for transmitting an advertisement of an ad hoc file sharing service to each of one or more other devices, wherein the advertisement includes a user identity of the user associated with a first device and access to the ad hoc file sharing service is granted on a per-user basis;

means for establishing a connection with each of the other devices;

means for transferring files with each of the other devices.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the means for establishing a connection is a file sharing connection.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the means for establishing the connection for the each of the other devices comprises:

means for presenting a user identification of a user corresponding to that other device to the user of the first device; and

means for allowing access to the ad file sharing service to the user corresponding to that other device.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the access to the ad hoc file sharing service is accomplished without the user corresponding to that other device having a file sharing account on the first device.

21. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method of an ad hoc file sharing process that is used to transfer files between a first device and one or more other devices, the method comprising:

in response to a user selecting a folder configured for an ad hoc file sharing process,

initiating, at the first device, the ad hoc file sharing process, and

enabling the ad hoc file sharing process by transmitting an advertisement of the ad hoc file sharing service to each of the one or more other devices, wherein the advertisement includes a user identity of the user associated with the first device and access to the ad hoc file sharing service is granted on a per-user basis and the access is accomplished without a user corresponding to the each of the other devices having a file sharing account on the first device.