Abstract: A docking station is provided for a computing device. The docking station may be used by, for example, a mobile computing device, such as a cellular or wireless telephony/messaging device. The docking station includes a housing comprising a receiving surface top receive and retain the mobile computing device. An inductive signal transfer interface is included with the housing to inductively signal at least one of power or data to the mobile computing device. The docking station further provides an output component and processing resources. The processing resources are configured to detect placement of the mobile computing device on the receiving surface. The data is received from the mobile computing device, and an output is signaled to the output component based on the received data.

Abstract: A system and a method are disclosed to determine if a client (e.g., an accessory (or peripheral)) is appropriately licensed for interoperation with a host (e.g., host computer). The client communicatively couples the host and receives a contract from the host. The client computes a checksum of the contract and compares the checksum of the contract with a previously stored version of the contract or a checksum of the contract to determine a match. If there is no match, the host communicatively decouples the client in response to the determination being a no match. If there is a match, the client transmits a contract response to the host and awaits host authorization. Once authorized the client transmits enumeration data to the host.

Abstract: Embodiments described herein include a computing device that is capable of inductive signal transfer with other computing devices. Such computing devices are provided a shield that protects the device and other components from electromagnetic interference and unwanted electrical affects resulting from the inductive signal transfer.

Abstract: A mobile computing device and an accessory device are individually equipped with features and components that enable magnetic coupling of the two devices. Specific embodiments provide for the use of one or more horseshoe magnets for use in the magnetic coupling mechanisms. As an addition or alternative, electromagnetic coupling may be used to selectively maintain and/or orient the two devices in a mated position.

Abstract: Closed system heat engines can be used to deliver useful electrical power by harvesting ambient energy in the environment. The present invention provides a means of harvesting these low temperature differences in to useful energy and provides while providing rectification and regulation features.

Abstract: A mobile computing device (‘MCD’) and docking station (‘dock’) are individually equipped with features and components that enable charging/power signals to be communicated from the dock to the MCD without use of connectors. Other embodiments provide for the MCD or the dock to identify an orientation of the MCD as retained on the docking station. As an addition or alternative, magnetic coupling may be used to maintain and/or orient the two devices in a mated position.

Abstract: At least two devices are provided that can each form part of a system to inductively exchange power and data. One device is capable of inductively transmitting a power signal to a second device, and to receive feedback from the second device in order to regulate the power signal.

Abstract: An input feature is provided for a computing device. The input feature is multi-dimensional in ability to detect position information, applied pressure and/biometric characteristics about the user or finger. The input feature may also include a haptic feedback mechanism.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus to monitor mobile devices are disclosed. A disclosed example method involves operating first and second wireless telephone device terminals. In the example method, the first wireless telephone device terminal includes a first media decoder configured to decode a first media encoding format and the second wireless telephone device terminal includes a second media decoder configured to decode a second media encoding format. The example method also involves receiving a first media presentation via the first wireless telephone device terminal and a second media presentation via the second wireless telephone device terminal. The first media presentation is encoded using the first media encoding format and the second media presentation is encoded using the second media encoding format. The first and second media presentations include substantially similar media content.

Abstract: Consumer electronics devices such as remote controls, toys, and other handheld battery powered electronics are often misplaced. The present invention embeds a locating device in the battery for such devices such that when a signal is sent from a wireless transmitter, ultrasonic transmitter, or via human sounds such as clapping, whistling, and speaking or the like, the battery beeps to make the lost device findable. Further enhancements allow for multiple families of devices to be tracked and located, and even communicate battery status back to the user or transmitting device.

Abstract: A connector that is structured to electrically and physically connect with (i) a first connector type using a first set of electrical contacts, and (ii) a second connector type that uses the first set of electrical contacts and a second augmenting set of electrical contacts.

Abstract: The present invention allows the simple measurement of position and orientation with low cost setup and simple calibration using a small set of transmitting nodes and a simple handheld wand. This can be used in place of measuring tools such as non contact reflection based ultrasonic measurement tools or traditional tools such as tape measures and rulers where multiple high precision measurements are needed with minimal set up time. The present invention also provides true three dimensional output and orientation calculation.

Abstract: Various embodiments are directed to an application management framework for web applications that may provide speed improvements, capability improvements, user experience improvements, increased advertising profit opportunities, and simplified application development to wide range of network devices. The described embodiments may employ techniques for containing, controlling, and presenting multiple web-based applications in a shared web browser application management framework. Sharing a web browser application management framework provides the capability for rapidly switching between applications, allows for multitasking, facilitates using a common set of input controls for applications, and makes it possible for applications to be available with little perceived startup (“boot”) time. The described embodiments also provide incentives for web application users, web application developers, web application portal providers, and web advertising providers to share in transactions between one another.

Abstract: Various embodiments are directed to selecting a web advertisement based on caller identifier information. The caller identifier information may be obtained from an incoming call to the mobile device or from an outgoing call from the mobile device. An ad request may be generated based on the caller identifier information by the mobile device and sent to a web advertising server. In response to the ad request, the web advertising server may select a relevant web advertisement based on the caller identifier information and may send the relevant web advertisement to the mobile device. On the mobile device, the web advertisement may be inserted into a web application for display in a user interface.

Abstract: A method in a portable electronic device (100) including inputting a first word component, for example, a letter or stroke, displaying a first candidate list having at least a first completion candidate including the first word component, inputting a second word component, displaying a second candidate list having a second completion candidate, the second completion candidate including the first and second word components, and de-prioritizing the first completion candidate of the first candidate list relative to at least one other candidate of the second candidate list.

Abstract: Various embodiments are directed to a proxy system for implementing an automatic conversion schema which allows data results from a publishing application to be extracted and displayed by a display application other than the publishing application. In one embodiment, a proxy publisher may receive a request from a publishing application to retrieve a data result from a data server. The request may include a path to the data server and appended publishing parameters. In accordance with the automatic conversion schema, the publishing parameters may comprise decode parameters associated with the publishing application for allowing a display application other than the publishing application to decode variables of the data result and to transform the decoded variables for display. The proxy publisher may cache the request including the appended publishing parameters and retrieve the data result from the data server.

Abstract: Various embodiments are described for providing a terminal with access to a desktop and applications of a mobile device. In one embodiment, a mobile device may comprise an interface to establish a connection to a terminal and one or more browser based applications to be run locally on the mobile device. The mobile device may serve a browser based user interface to a browser of the terminal via the connection for interacting with the applications on the mobile device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: Various embodiments are described for obtaining coarse location for a mobile device. In one embodiment, a mobile device may comprise one or more interfaces for detecting location reference nodes in view of the mobile device and a client module to send a location query to a location database. The location query may comprise node data identifying the reference nodes in view of the mobile device. The location database may be configured to respond to the location query with positioning information for providing an estimated position of the mobile device. The positioning information may be based on correlated position data and node data received from one or more client devices having Global Positioning System (GPS) position determination capability and configured to report position data and node data for location reference nodes in view. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: Various embodiments are described for an application runtime environment that provides secure safe access to local resources from web based applications when applications are locally hosted or cached or when a safe broker is needed to ensure that a trusted program is given access to specific functionality. The application runtime environment allows enhanced scripting interfaces and locally running web service interfaces to provide individual function level security controls which restrict access to only those applications which are signed. The application runtime environment provides finer granularity and control at the function level by allowing scripted runtime based applications to call local functions in a signed manner with function call level control. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: Web applications such as email, photo-sharing website, or web widgets work only when the offsite server is available to provide content in real-time. The present invention provides a generic web standards based method of encapsulating the offline web application along with its runtime environment so that web applications can run even when connection to the server is not available. In addition the present invention combines methods for creating, provision, and running multiple offline web applications on a desktop computer or a mobile device such as cellular telephone or personal digital assistant. In addition the present invention also provides the ability to synchronize user data so that multiple devices can be provisioned for offline use with the same set of personalized user information.