An Apple patent (number 8099332) for an user interface for application management for a mobile device has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.
This specification describes technologies relating to user interfaces for mobile devices. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of receiving a touch input to access an application management interface on a mobile device; presenting an application management interface; receiving one or more inputs within the application management interface including an input to install a particular application; installing the selected application; and presenting the installed application. The inventors are Steve Lemay and Sean Kelly.
Here's Apple's background and summary of the invention: "Conventional mobile devices are often dedicated to performing specific functions. For example, a mobile phone provides telephony services, a personal digital assistant (PDA) provides a way to organize addresses, contacts and notes, a media player plays content, email devices provide email communication, a browser to surf the Internet, etc. Modern mobile devices can include two or more of these functions.
"In particular, a mobile device can include a number of different applications, which a user can access independent of other applications. For example, the mobile device can include one or more games, web applications, or productivity applications.
"This specification describes technologies relating to user interfaces for mobile devices. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of receiving a touch input to access an application management interface on a mobile device; presenting an application management interface; receiving one or more inputs within the application management interface including an input to install a particular application; installing the selected application; and presenting the installed application. Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer program products.
"These and other embodiments can optionally include one or more of the following features. Presenting the application management interface further includes presenting a menu portion and a display portion. The display portion includes one or more application objects corresponding to respective applications, each application object presenting information about the respective application. The menu portion includes multiple tabs, each tab providing access to particular features of the application management interface.
"Receiving one or more user inputs includes receiving a selection of a particular application object. The method further includes, in response to the selection, transitioning the display portion to present additional information about the selected application. Presenting additional information includes presenting one or more reviews of the selected application. The selected application object is an application update object associated with an update to an application previously installed on the mobile device.
"Installing the selected application includes presenting a placeholder object on a display of the mobile device, the placeholder object including an indicator of installation progress. The method further includes receiving payment information from a user to purchase the particular application. The mobile device includes a multi-touch-sensitive display.
"In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in systems that include a processor and a user interface for providing interaction with a user, the user interface including a display portion including one or more application objects corresponding to respective applications, each application object presenting information about the respective application, and a menu portion including multiple tabs, each tab providing access to particular features of the application management interface. Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding methods, apparatus, and computer program products.
"Particular embodiments of the invention can be implemented to realize one or more of the following advantages. A user can easily navigate an application store to identify and download applications for a mobile device. Users can be notified of updates to previously downloaded applications without navigating to an update interface. Users can quickly provide feedback on applications including rating the applications and reporting identified problems.
"Additionally, users can quickly and easily share information on particular applications of interest with other users. Once an application is selected, the user can access other features and applications of the mobile device while waiting for the application to download."
Also, Apple has been granted a patent (number 8098256) involving video acquisition with integrated GPU (graphics processing unit) processing. Per the patent, ystems and techniques for processing sequences of video images involve receiving, on a computer, data corresponding to a sequence of video images detected by an image sensor. The received data is processed using a graphics processor to adjust one or more visual characteristics of the video images corresponding to the received data.
The received data can include video data defining pixel values and ancillary data relating to settings on the image sensor. The video data can be processed in accordance with ancillary data to adjust the visual characteristics, which can include filtering the images, blending images, and/or other processing operations. The inventors are Jay Zipnick, Brett Bilbrey, Alexi V. Ouzilevski, Fernando Urbinia and Harry Guo.
