Dynamic updating and renaming virtual pre-installation stub applications

• US 9,092,291 B1
• Filed: 07/11/2013
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Adib, Fared A., Burcham, Robert H., Delker, Jason R., Stone, M. Jeffrey, Salge, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chen, Zhan
• Application Number:
  US13/940,253
• Time in Patent Office: 747 Days
• Field of Search: 717100-178
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A method of renaming stub applications on a mobile communication device comprises installing a plurality of stub applications, wherein each of the stub applications comprises a generic file name. The method further comprises determining a plurality of interactive thumbnail images to present on a display, wherein the determining is done by a widget, displaying the plurality of interactive thumbnail images within a graphical user interface frame of the widget in response to the determining, wherein each of the interactive thumbnail images is linked to one of the stub applications, identifying that the generic file names of the stub applications do not match the file names of the interactive thumbnail images to which they are linked, and replacing the generic file names of the stub applications linked to the interactive thumbnail images with file names that match the file names of the interactive thumbnail images in response to the identifying.

Claims

1. A method of dynamic updating and renaming generic stub applications on a mobile communication device, comprising:

installing, on the mobile communication device, a plurality of generic stub applications, wherein at installation the plurality of generic stub applications are not yet associated with any application or their functionality, and wherein each of the plurality of generic stub applications comprises a generic file name configured to allow the generic stub application to be matched to an interactive thumbnail image by replacing the generic file name with a file name that matches the interactive thumbnail image;

determining, by a widget that configures a processor of the mobile communication device upon execution, a plurality of interactive thumbnail images to present on a display of the mobile communication device, wherein each of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images are updateable to represent one of the plurality of generic stub applications and are not initially linked to any of the plurality of generic stub applications;

based on the generic file name of each generic stub application, linking one of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images to one of the plurality of generic stub applications that is available;

displaying the plurality of interactive thumbnail images within a graphical user interface frame of the widget in response to the determining, wherein displaying each of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images presents the linked generic stub application as a virtual representation of a full application via the interactive thumbnail image;

identifying that the generic file names of the plurality of generic stub applications do not match the file names of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images to which they are linked; and

responsive to the identifying, replacing the generic file names of the plurality of generic stub applications linked to the plurality of interactive thumbnail images within the graphical user interface frame of the widget with file names that match the file names of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images to which they are linked and correlate to full applications that the plurality of interactive thumbnail images represents.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input on the mobile communication device to receive a first full application that replaces a first generic stub application in response to the user selecting a first interactive thumbnail image linked to the first generic stub application;

downloading, to the mobile communication device, the first full application from an application repository based on the received user input; and

replacing the first generic stub application with the first full application in response to downloading the first full application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a subset of the plurality of generic stub applications are installed at the time of manufacture.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the widget reads at least one of an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file and a Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed to determine the plurality of interactive thumbnail images to present on the display of the mobile communication device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying is done by a daemon application configured to compare the file names of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images in the frame of the widget with the file names of the plurality of generic stub applications to which they are linked.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of generic stub applications comprises functionality that is independent from the functionality of the full application, the full application being capable of at least limited functionality for a user responsive to the full application being installed on the mobile device, and wherein the virtual representation presents the generic stub application via the interactive thumbnail image without the generic stub application providing the at least limited functionality of each of the plurality of the full applications.

7. A mobile communication device, comprising:

a display;

a processor;

a non-transitory memory;

a plurality of generic stub applications stored in the non-transitory memory, wherein at installation the plurality of generic stub applications are not yet associated with any application or their functionality, and wherein each of the plurality of generic stub applications comprises a generic file name;

a widget stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by the processor, configures the processor to;

determine a plurality of interactive thumbnail images to present on the display, wherein each of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images are updateable to represent one of the plurality of generic stub applications and are not initially linked to any of the plurality of generic stub applications,

link one of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images to one of the plurality of generic stub applications that is available, and

present, on the display of the mobile communication device, the plurality of interactive thumbnail images, each of which is linked to one of the plurality of generic stub applications, wherein presentation of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images virtually represents the plurality of generic stub applications as full applications; and

a daemon application that, when executed by the processor, configures the processor to;

compare file names of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images with the generic file names of the plurality of generic stub applications to which they are linked, and

rename generic stub applications that comprise generic file names that do not match the file names of the corresponding interactive thumbnail images to which they are linked with file names that match the file names of the corresponding thumbnail images to which they are linked and correlate to full applications that the corresponding interactive thumbnail images represent.

8. The mobile communication device of claim 7, wherein the plurality of interactive thumbnail images are presented within a frame of the widget on the display.

9. The mobile communication device of claim 8, wherein the widget provides the plurality of interactive thumbnail images that are linked to the plurality of generic stub applications subsequent to installation of the plurality of generic stub applications.

10. The mobile communication device of claim 7, wherein the plurality of interactive thumbnail images presented on the display of the mobile communication device comprises at least two interactive thumbnail images.

11. The mobile communication device of claim 7, wherein the plurality of interactive thumbnail images are presented based on the widget reading at least one of an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file and a Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed.

12. The mobile communication device of claim 7, wherein the widget further configures the processor to:

elicit, in response to a received selection of a first interactive thumbnail image linked to a first generic stub application, retrieval and installation of a first full application in place of the first generic stub application.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of generic stub applications comprises functionality that is independent from the functionality of the full applications, the full applications being capable of at least limited functionality for a user responsive to the full applications being installed on the mobile device, and wherein the virtual representation presents the plurality of generic stub applications via the plurality of interactive thumbnail image without the plurality of generic stub applications providing the at least limited functionality of the full applications.

14. A method of dynamic updating and renaming generic stub applications on a mobile communication device, comprising:

determining, by a widget that configures a processor of the mobile communication device upon execution, a plurality of interactive thumbnail images to present on a display of the mobile communication device, wherein each of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images are updateable to represent one of a plurality of generic stub applications and are not initially linked to any of the plurality of generic stub applications;

identifying, in a generic stub application repository, the plurality of generic stub applications to be linked to the plurality of interactive thumbnail images, wherein at installation the plurality of generic stub applications are not yet associated with any application or their functionality, and wherein each of the plurality of generic stub applications comprises an updateable version number and a generic file name that is configurable to match a file name of the interactive thumbnail image to which the corresponding generic stub application is to be linked and correlate to a full application that the interactive thumbnail image represents;

installing, on the mobile communication device, the plurality of generic stub applications identified in the generic stub application repository;

linking, by the widget, one of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images to one of the plurality of generic stub applications that is available;

displaying the plurality of interactive thumbnail images within a frame of the widget in response to the determining, wherein each of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images is linked to one of the plurality of generic stub applications and presents the plurality of generic stub applications as a virtual representation of full applications; and

replacing, by the widget, the generic file names of the plurality of generic stub applications linked to the plurality of interactive thumbnail images with file names that match the file names of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images to which they are linked.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving user input on the mobile communication device to receive a first full application that replaces a first generic stub application in response to the user selecting a first interactive thumbnail image linked to the first generic stub application;

downloading, to the mobile communication device, the first full application from an application repository based on the received user input and the updateable version number; and

replacing the first generic stub application with the first full application in response to downloading the first full application.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the generic stub application repository is stored on a network.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the generic stub application repository is a service provider repository.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the widget reads at least one of an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file and a Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed to determine the plurality of interactive thumbnail images to present.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the identifying is done by a daemon application configured to compare the file names of the plurality of interactive thumbnail images in the frame of the widget with the file names of the plurality of generic stub applications to which they are linked.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of generic stub applications comprises functionality that is independent from the functionality of the full application, the full application being capable of at least limited functionality for a user responsive to the full application being installed on the mobile device, and wherein the virtual representation presents the generic stub application via the interactive thumbnail image without the generic stub application providing the at least limited functionality of each of the plurality of the full applications.