Method and apparatus for dispensing on a data-storage medium customized content comprising selected assets
First Claim
1. A programmed method for installing and distributing customized content, the method comprising:
- installing a collection of initially available installed content into a storage medium;
receiving selection data that distinguishes a user-selected portion of the initially available content to be kept from an extraneous portion of the initially available content to be removed;
coupling the storage medium having the initially installed content to a dispensing computer;
removing the extraneous portion using the dispensing computer based on the received selection data; and
after the removing of the extraneous content, operatively coupling the storage medium with an end-user device for a first time.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for obtaining a storage medium with a deeply customizable set of installed content. Soft assets (e.g., programs, songs, videos, etc.) that form the content are selected from among a much larger set of preinstalled soft assets previously stored on storage media, such as disk drives. In some embodiments, based on a user'"'"'s selections, the non-selected assets are permanently erased from a storage medium, while the remaining assets are available as installed (wherein substantially no further processing is required to install them). In some embodiments, a new device uses the storage medium to provide its user with a fully functional device without the need to separately install the soft assets from a plurality of sources (e.g., from program-distribution CDROMS and the like). Some embodiments include the storage medium having the soft assets installed, and including a program that elicits selections from a user and erases non-selected assets.
111 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A programmed method for installing and distributing customized content, the method comprising:
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installing a collection of initially available installed content into a storage medium; receiving selection data that distinguishes a user-selected portion of the initially available content to be kept from an extraneous portion of the initially available content to be removed; coupling the storage medium having the initially installed content to a dispensing computer; removing the extraneous portion using the dispensing computer based on the received selection data; and after the removing of the extraneous content, operatively coupling the storage medium with an end-user device for a first time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. The method of claim, further comprising:
after the removing of the extraneous portion of the available content, copying the user-selected portion from the storage medium to a final storage medium. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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16. A soft asset dispenser comprising:
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a processor; a storage medium storing a predetermined collection of installed digital assets, wherein the storage medium is operatively coupled to the processor in a manner such that the processor can process soft assets stored within the storage medium; a collection customizer that executes in the processor that is operatively coupled to the storage medium, wherein the customizer is operable to remove non-selected, installed soft assets from the collection such that a user-specified subset of the soft assets are retained and such that when the storage medium is connected to an end-user device for a first time, the removed assets are not available and the user-specified subset of the soft assets are functional and are thus dispensed as substantially ready-to-use. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. An apparatus comprising:
- a functional container that includes;
means for storing, reading and writing soft assets; means for coupling the means for storing, reading and writing soft assets to an information-processing appliance; a collection of individually accessible, installed soft assets, wherein the collection is sufficiently large that the functional container, prior to coupling to the information-processing appliance, serves as both a user-selectable inventory and a vehicle to sideload selected ones of the installed soft assets; means for modifying the means for storing to prevent access to soft assets that are non-selected and keep selected soft assets; and means for charging an account based on the selected soft assets. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
- a functional container that includes;
Specification