Managing content to constrained devices

• US 8,081,955 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2006
• Issued: 12/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Mayya, Niranjan, Davis, William James, Padiasek, Grzegorz J., Rao, Mohan Krishna, Steele, Jay David
• Primary Examiner(s): Corsaro, Nick
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, MAHENDRA R
• Application Number:
  US11/584,474
• Publication Number:
  US 20070130589A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,888 Days
• Field of Search: 355/24, 355/9, 514/338, 709/246, 725/38, 455/436, 455/414, 424/439
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25833 involving client hardware characteristics, e.g. manufacturer, processing or storage capabilities allocation of resources considering hardware capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5044; allocation of resources considering software capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5055
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26208 the scheduling operation being performed under constraints
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8453 by locking or enabling a set of features, e.g. optional functionalities in an executable program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Content is managed and delivered to mobile devices, often through a wireless network. Mobile devices have content management software containing instructions to receive and manage content at the mobile device. Content management servers select and manage content and transmit content to the mobile devices, receiving requests for content, and up-to-date information regarding quantity of content to be transmitted. Up-to-date information regarding quantity is repeatedly sent and received, and content is repeatedly selected and transmitted using the information to make selections. Specific embodiments provide methods, systems, and devices for automatically managing content to increase the probability that the user is gaining access to the content they want to see and for decreasing the chance that the delivery of content is tying up limited resources of mobile devices.

Claims

1. A mobile device for receiving content through a wireless communication network, the mobile device comprising content management software comprising instructions to:

transmit up-to-date quantity information from the mobile device to a content management server via the wireless communication network, wherein the quantity information relates to available memory and identifies a quantity of the content that the mobile device is prepared to receive;

receive a select set of the content at the mobile device from the management server via the wireless communication network, wherein the select set of the content received is determined using the quantity information; and

repeat at least a plurality of times the instructions to transmit the up-to-date quantity information and receive the select set of content;

wherein the content comprises a plurality of items having a plurality of parts, and wherein the content management software contains instructions to organize the plurality of items into content handles, each content handle representing at least one part of one of the plurality of items;

wherein the content management software contains instructions to assign a priority to each of the content handles for a particular item of the plurality of items, wherein a first priority is assigned to a first content handle for the particular item and a second priority is assigned to a second content handle for the particular item; and

wherein the content management software further contains instructions to sort the content handles according to priority and delete at least some of the content-based on the priority to make room for the select set of content.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the content management software includes instructions to receive the content in a plurality of channels, each channel comprising a plurality of items, each item comprising a title, a short description and a long description.

3. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the content management software further contains instructions to sort the previously received content according to priority and delete lower priority-content to make room for the select set of content.

4. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the content comprises a plurality of articles and the content management software further contains instructions to assign a higher priority to recently received articles than to previously received articles.

5. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the content comprises a plurality of articles and the content management software further contains instructions to assign a higher priority to unread articles than to articles that have been read.

6. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the content comprises a plurality of articles and the content management software further contains instructions to assign a higher priority to saved articles than to unread articles.

7. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the content management software further contains instructions to sort the previously received content in a plurality of channels, each channel having a limit for a minimum quantity of content.

8. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the content management software further contains instructions to fetch one of the plurality of parts from the content management server when the mobile device requests the one of the plurality of parts and the content handle has been deleted.