MULTI-TASKER

• US 20150032889A1
• Filed: 09/05/2014
• Published: 01/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd. (Razer Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Nextbit Systems, Inc. (Razer Incorporated)
• Inventors: Chan, Michael A., Moss, Tom, Tong, Linda, Ganesh, Jaikumar, Engel, Matthew Blake
• Granted Patent: US 10,425,471 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/125 characterised by the use of retention policies retention policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4406 Loading of operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4416 Network booting; Remote initial program loading [RIPL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

The disclosure is directed to presenting a unified view of tasks and applications across multiple computing devices of a user. A unified view of the tasks can be presented using a task manager. The task manager presents a list of tasks that are executing at each of the devices. The user can perform multiple actions on the tasks, e.g., launch on a first device a task executing on a second device from the first device, or terminate from the first device a task that is executing on the second device. A unified view of the applications can be presented using an app tray. The app tray displays a list of apps installed on each of the devices of the user. In displaying the list on a particular device, the app tray displays the apps that are not installed on the particular device in a distinct format, e.g., as shadow icons.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

monitoring, by a server, each computing device of a group of computing devices of a user to determine a plurality of applications executing on the corresponding computing device;

generating, by the server and based on the monitoring, a master task list, the master task list containing a list of applications executing on the each computing device of the group;

receiving, at the server and from a first computing device of the group, a request for the master task list; and

transmitting, by the server, the master task list to the first computing device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending a message to the first computing device to display information regarding each of the applications in the master task list in association with device identification information of a computing device of the group at which the corresponding application is executing.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring includes:

receiving, from a third computing device of the group, an indication that a first application started to execute at the third computing device;

updating the master task list to include information regarding (a) the first application and (b) device identification information of the third computing device; and

transmitting the master task list to each of the group of computing devices.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the generating the master task list further includes:

transmitting, by the server, the master task list to each computing device of the group.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, at the server and from the first computing device, user input for terminating an execution of an application of the applications on a second computing device of the group.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 further comprising:

transmitting, by the server and to the second computing device, a first message containing instructions to terminate the execution of the application on the second computing device.

7. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

a network component that facilitates communication with a server and a group of computing devices associated with a user, the computing device being one of the group; and

a memory having instructions, which when executed by the processor, perform a method including;

requesting the server for a master task list, the master task list including information regarding a plurality of applications executing on each computing device of the group,

obtaining, from the server, the master task list, the obtaining including;

causing the server to generate the master task list by aggregating a plurality of task lists obtained from corresponding computing devices of the group, each of the task lists including information regarding a set of applications executing at the corresponding computing device, and

presenting the master task list via a task manager of the computing device.

8. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the memory further includes instructions which, when executed by the processor, perform the method of:

receiving a user input for performing an indication action on any of the applications executing on any computing device of the group, the first application action including launching an application of the applications executing on a first computing device of the group on the computing device.

9. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the memory further includes instructions which, when executed by the processor, perform the method of:

receiving a user input for performing an action on any of the applications executing on any computing device of the group, the action including transferring an execution of an application of the applications executing on the computing device to a first computing device of the group.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a server and from a first computing device of a group of computing devices associated with a user, a request to transfer execution of an application that is executing on the first computing device to a second computing device of the group, wherein the application is one of the applications displayed in a task manager at the first computing device, the task manager configured to display a list of applications executing on each computing device of the group;

synchronizing a state data of the application from the first computing device to the second computing device; and

sending, by the server, a message to the second computing device to continue the execution of the application using the state data.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein synchronizing the state data includes:

obtaining, by the server, the state data of the application from the first computing device,

transmitting, by the server, the state data of the application to the second computing device.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein synchronizing the state data includes causing, by the server, the first computing device to transmit the state data of the application to the second computing device directly.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein causing the first computing device to transmit the state data of the application to the second computing device directly if the first computing device and the second computing device are in proximity to each other.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the first computing device and the second computing device are in proximity to each other if the first computing device and the second computing device communicate with each other using a short range wireless communication.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the short range wireless communication includes at least one of (a) Bluetooth, (b) WiFi direct, (c) WiFi, (d) near field communication (NFC), (e) AirDrop, (f) Infrared, or (g) digital living network alliance (DLNA).

16. A server comprising:

a processor;

a network component that facilitates communication with a group of computing devices associated with a user; and

a memory having instructions, which when executed by the processor, performs a method including;

receiving, from a first computing device of the group, a request to launch an application on the first computing device that is executing on a second computing device of the group, wherein the application is one of the applications displayed in a task manager at the first computing device, the task manager configured to display a list of applications executing on each computing device of the group,

obtaining a state data of the application from the second computing device,

transmitting the state data of the application to the first computing device, and

sending a message to the first computing device to launch the application.

17. The server of claim 16, wherein sending the message further includes:

causing the first computing device to execute the application at a state at which the application is executing on the second computing device at the time of transmitting the state data from the second computing device to the first computing device.

18. The server of claim 16, wherein sending the message to launch the application includes:

determining if the application is installed on the first computing device, and

responsive to a determination that the application is not installed on the first computing device, sending a second message to the first computing device to download the application from a remote server and install the application.

19. The server of claim 16, wherein the memory further includes instructions which, when executed by the processor, perform the method of:

sending a second message to the second computing device to terminate the application from executing at the second computing device.

20. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

a network component that facilitates communication with a server and a group of computing devices associated with a user, the computing device being one of the group; and

a memory having instructions, which when executed by the processor, perform a method including;

receiving, from the user, a request to transfer execution of an application on that is executing on a first computing device of the group to a second computing device of the group, wherein the application is one of the applications displayed in a task manager at the computing device, the task manager configured to display a list of applications executing on each computing device of the group,

requesting the server to transfer the execution of the application from the first computing device to the second computing device,

causing the server to synchronize a state data of the application from the first computing device to the second computing device, and

causing the server to send a message to the second computing device to launch the application.

21. The computing device of claim 20, wherein the memory further includes instructions which, when executed by the processor, perform the method of:

presenting the task manager as an interactive graphical user interface (GUI), wherein the interactive GUI is configured to receive a user input for transferring the execution of the application.

22. The computing device of claim 21, wherein the user input is received via a swipe user interaction on the application displayed in the task manager, the swipe user interaction performed by the user on a display screen of the computing device.

23. The computing device of claim 20, wherein the instructions for receiving the request to transfer the execution of the application from the first computing device to the second computing device further includes instructions for:

displaying a list of computing devices of the group to which the application is transferable, and

receiving a user selection of one of the computing devices from the list of computing devices as the second computing device.

24. The computing device of claim 20, wherein causing the server to synchronize the state data includes causing the server to transmit the state data of the application from the first computing device to the second computing device.

25. The computing device of claim 20, wherein causing the server to synchronize the state data includes causing the server to instruct the first computing device to transmit the state data of the application to the second computing device.

26. The computing device of claim 20, wherein requesting the server to transfer the execution of the application to the second computing device includes causing the server to confirm that the application is executable on the second computing device.

27. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining, by a server and from each computing device of a group of computing devices associated with a user, a list of applications installed on the corresponding computing device to generate a plurality of application lists;

aggregating, by the server, the application lists to generate a master application list; and

transmitting, by the server, the master application list to the first computing device, the transmitting including causing the first computing device to;

generate information regarding a set of applications of the master application list that is installed on the first computing device in a first format, and

generate information regarding a remaining set of applications of the master application list that is not installed on the first computing device in a second format, the second format being distinct from the first format.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein causing the first computing device to display information regarding the remaining set of applications in the second format includes:

causing the first computing device to display a set of icons associated with the remaining set of applications as shadow icons.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 28 further comprising:

receiving, at the server and from the first computing device, a user selection of one of the shadow icons; and

transmitting an instruction to the first computing device to download an application of the applications corresponding to the one of the shadow icons to the first computing device and install the application.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 27 further comprising:

receiving, from a third computing device of the group, an indication of installation of a first application at the third computing device; and

causing the first computing device to display an icon associated with the first application as a shadow icon.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 30 further comprising:

updating the master application list to (a) include information regarding the first application and (b) associate device information of the third computing device with the first application; and

transmitting the master application list to each computing device of the group.

32. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

a network component that facilitates communication with a server and a group of computing devices associated with a user, the computing device being one of the group; and

a memory having instructions, which when executed by the processor, perform a method including;

receiving, from the user, a request to display on the computing device a list of a plurality of applications installed on each computing device of the group,

obtaining, from the server, the list of the applications, a first subset of the applications in the list installed on the computing device and a second subset of the applications installed on one or more of the computing devices of the group other than the computing device, and

presenting information regarding the first subset of the applications in a first format, and information regarding the second subset of the applications in a second format, the second format being distinct from the first format.