Docking station with network based personality profile

• US 8,566,498 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2010
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Lemarchand, Romuald Francois, Smith, Ian Cameron
• Primary Examiner(s): Zaman, Faisal M
• Application Number:
  US12/872,813
• Publication Number:
  US 20120054399A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,148 Days
• Field of Search: 710/303, 710/304
• US Class Current: 710/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A network system and method are disclosed. The network system includes at least one docking station to which a portable electronic device is individually couplable. Each of the at least one docking station is configured to allow the portable electronic device to access a network to receive information corresponding to a personality profile associated with the respective one of the at least one docking station upon the portable electronic device being coupled to the respective one of the at least one docking station.

Claims

1. A network system comprising at least one docking station to which a portable electronic device is individually couplable, each of the at least one docking station being configured to allow the portable electronic device to access a network to receive information corresponding to a personality profile associated with the respective one of the at least one docking station upon the portable electronic device being coupled to the respective one of the at least one docking station.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the portable electronic device is configured to query the network to receive the information corresponding to the personality profile associated with the respective one of the at least one docking station based on a unique identifier associated with the respective one of the at least one docking station.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the at least one docking station comprises a memory that is configured to store a website uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the information corresponding to the respective personality profile, wherein the information corresponding to the respective personality profile is received by and displayed on the portable electronic device via the website URL accessed from the Internet.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the portable electronic device is configured to save a currently browsed URL that is accessed via an Internet browser associated with the portable electronic device as a new website URL associated with the information corresponding to the respective personality profile in the memory.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the at least one docking station comprises at least one switch configured to be setable between different states associated with one or more personality profiles.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the portable electronic device is further configured to access a configuration screen configured to allow a user to at least one of add, edit, and delete respective personality profiles associated with the at least one docking station.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the configuration screen is accessed by the user via the Internet.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein a plurality of portable electronic devices are individually couplable to each of the at least one docking station, each of the at least one docking station being configured to allow a respective one of the plurality of portable electronic devices to access the network to receive the information corresponding to the respective personality profile upon a respective one of the plurality of portable electronic devices being coupled to the respective one of the at least one docking station.

9. A method for providing information to a user via a portable electronic device, the method comprising:

coupling the portable electronic device to one of at least one docking station;

accessing an identifier associated with the respective one of the at least one docking station in response to the coupling of the portable electronic device to the one of at least one docking station;

accessing a web service on the Internet to retrieve information corresponding to a respective personality profile based on the identifier; and

displaying the information corresponding to the respective personality profile that is retrieved from the network on the portable electronic device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein accessing the web service comprises:

accessing the web service via an Internet browser on the portable electronic device; and

querying the web service for information corresponding to the respective personality profile associated with the respective one of the at least one docking station based on the identifier.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein querying the web service comprises querying the web service for a website uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the information corresponding to the respective personality profile that has been assigned to the identifier by the user.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising at least one of adding personality profiles, editing personality profiles, deleting personality profiles, and customizing personality profiles associated with at least one of the at least one docking station via a configuration screen in the web service.

13. A docking station to which each of at least one portable electronic device are individually couplable, the docking station comprising a memory that is configured to store at least one website uniform resource locator (URL) associated with information corresponding to the respective personality profile associated with the docking station, the docking station being configured to allow the at least one portable electronic device to automatically access at least one website associated with the respective at least one website URL from the Internet to receive the information corresponding to the respective personality profile upon the respective one of the at least one portable electronic device being coupled to the docking station.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein at least one of the at least one portable electronic device is further configured to access a configuration screen configured to allow the user to at least one of add, edit, and delete at least one personality profile associated with the docking station.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the docking station comprises at least one switch configured to be setable between different states associated with one or more personality profiles.