Abstract: A configuration of an electronic device (400) is managed by obtaining (1005) stakeholder attributes of a component resident in the electronic device from stakeholder requirements (FIGS. 7, 8) of one or more stakeholders and correlating (1020) the respective stakeholder attributes as well as available sets of values of attributes of the component to determine (1025) a set of selected values of the attributes, and establishing (1030) at least a portion of a new configuration of the electronic device using the set of selected values of the attributes of the component. When the stakeholder requirements cannot be met with an existing application in the electronic device, the application may be formed (1200) from components of existing applications.

Abstract: A configuration of an electronic device (400) is managed by obtaining (1005) stakeholder attributes of a component resident in the electronic device from stakeholder requirements (FIGS. 7, 8) of one or more stakeholders and correlating (1020) the respective stakeholder attributes as well as available sets of values of attributes of the component to determine (1025) a set of selected values of the attributes, and establishing (1030) at least a portion of a new configuration of the electronic device using the set of selected values of the attributes of the component. When the stakeholder requirements cannot be met with an existing application in the electronic device, the application may be formed (1200) from components of existing applications.

Abstract: An electronic device (130) uses a theme record (120) which defines themes desired for the electronic device. An example patriotic theme might call for red, white and blue screen colors. A processor compares the theme record (120) against at least components (140) of the electronic device to determine operation characteristics of the electronic device (130). The processor can execute a correlation process (133) to resolve conflicts among configurations. The theme records (120) can be shared among users of the portable devices.

Abstract: A method (100) or system (600) of controlling audible alerts includes detecting (102) a communication event among participant devices (204 and 206), detecting (104) a non-participant device (208, 210 or 212) within a predetermined range of a participant device, and sending (106) a wireless control signal by at least one among the participant devices to the non-participant device to control audible alert functions. The wireless control signal can be sent (108) after a start of the communication event and can be sent (110) for example using Bluetooth signaling, signaling using an IEEE 802.11 standard, or any other signaling. The method can mute (112) audible alerts on the non-participant device in response to receipt of the wireless control signal. Detecting the communication event can include detection of an instant messaging session, a telephone conference, a video conference, a audio-visual conference, internet or online or web conferencing, or a calendared event.

Abstract: A device (300) having a user interface (303) is provided with an automatic discretionary capability of determining use of a wireless message. The wireless message may contain user interface preference information that is initially sourced by an end user platform. The device uses the automatic discretionary capability to determine whether and to what extent to use the user interface preference information to influence control of the user interface (303). The device (300) may contain a wireless receiver (302) for receiving the wireless messages with a memory (304) for storing the user interface preference information therein. Also provided in the device (300) is a processor (301) which provides and uses the automatic discretionary capability to determine to what extent to use the user interface preference information to influence control of the user interface (303). The automatic discretionary capability of the device (300) may override, accept, or weight the user interface preference information.

Abstract: Textual documents are readily classified and/or characterized with respect to other documents by determining a corresponding level of semantic distance between such documents. For example, particular parts of speech are identified, and those words in the documents that correspond to such parts of speech are identified and extracted. Matches of such wording between the documents permit identification of a given corresponding semantic distance value. When no matches occur (or when otherwise desired), synonyms for such words can be used to ascertain more distant semantic relationships. The process can be repeated in an iterative fashion using ever-deepening tiers of synonyms.