Apparatus and method for supplying electronic content to network appliances

• US 7,216,177 B1
• Filed: 06/15/2001
• Issued: 05/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Patel, Vivek, Lehner, John N, Strong, Jack B, Kleid, Jonathan J
• Primary Examiner(s): Wiley; David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Phuoc H.
• Application Number:
  US09/883,101
• Time in Patent Office: 2,153 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/219, 709/234, 709/236, 709/246, 709/203, 709/230, 709/249, 370/401, 370/466, 379/900
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 379/90 Internet, e.g. Internet phone, webphone, internet-based telephony

Abstract

A system and method communicates data from a web content provider to a wireless computing device (e.g., a PDA, a cellular phone) via a proxy server. The proxy server transforms web content “on-the-fly” into a streamlined format, optimizes it for display, and delivers it to the device, where it is progressively rendered by a browser installed on the device.

Claims

1. A method of providing web content to a wireless computing device, comprising:

receiving at a proxy server a first portion of data for a web page;

determining whether a web browsing program of the wireless computing device is capable of displaying the received first portion of the web page data; and

if the web browsing program is not capable of displaying the received first portion of the web page data,

transforming the received first portion of the web page data for display by the web browsing program of the wireless computing device,

sending the transformed first portion of the web page data to the wireless computing device,

receiving at the proxy server a second portion of the web page data after the transforming of the received first portion of the web page data has begun,

transforming the received second portion of the web page data for display by the web browsing program, and

sending the transformed second portion of the web page data to the wireless computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, the transforming comprising:

compressing the received first portion of the web page data.

3. The method of claim 1, the transforming comprising:

converting the received first portion of the web page data from HTML to WML.

4. The method of claim 1, the transforming comprising:

converting the received first portion of the web page data from HTML to HDML.

5. The method of claim 1, the transforming comprising:

converting the received first portion of the web page data from HTML to PQA.

6. The method of claim 1, the transforming comprising:

converting the received first portion of the web page data from HTML to XHTML.

7. The method of claim 1, the transforming comprising:

reformatting the received first portion of the web page data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a type of the received first portion the web page data,

wherein the transforming is dependent on the type.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a type of the web browsing program,

wherein the transforming is dependent on the type.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

determining a size of a display screen of the wireless computing device; and

determining at least one preference set by a user of the wireless computing device,

wherein the transforming is dependent on at least one of the size and the at least one preference.

11. An apparatus physically separate from a wireless computing device, comprising:

a module arranged to receive a first portion of data for a web page;

a module arranged to determine whether a web browsing program of the wireless computing device is capable of displaying the received first portion of the web page data;

a module arranged to transform the received first portion of the web page data for display by the web browsing program in response to a determination that the web browsing program is not capable of displaying the received first portion of the web page data;

a module arranged to send the transformed first portion of the web page data to the wireless computing device;

a module arranged to receive a second portion of the web page data after transformation of the received first portion of the web page data has begun;

a module arranged to transform the received second portion of the web page data for display by the web browsing program; and

a module arranged to send the transformed second portion of the web page data to the wireless computing device.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first portion of the web page data is received from a web content provider operatively connected to the apparatus.

13. A system, comprising:

a web content provider arranged to host data for a web page; and

a proxy server operatively connected to the web content provider, wherein the proxy server is capable of communicating data to a wireless computing device,

wherein the proxy server is arranged to receive a first portion of the web page data from the web content provider, determine whether a web browsing program of the wireless computing device is capable of displaying the first portion of the web page data, transform the received first portion for display by the web browsing program in response to determining that the web browsing program is not capable of displaying the received first portion of the web page data, send the transformed first portion to the wireless computing device, receive from the web content provider a second portion of the web page data after transformation of the first portion of the web page data has begun, transform the received second portion for display by the web browsing program, and send the transformed second portion to the wireless computing device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the wireless computing device has a web browser arranged to progressively render web page data received from the proxy server.