U.S. patent application number 15/620666 was filed with the patent office on 2017-10-05 for cloud tabs.
The applicant listed for this patent is Apple Inc.. Invention is credited to Paul R. KNIGHT, Jeffrey S. MILLER.
Application Number | 20170289249 15/620666 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 48670364 |
Filed Date | 2017-10-05 |
United States Patent
Application |
20170289249 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
KNIGHT; Paul R. ; et
al. |
October 5, 2017 |
CLOUD TABS
Abstract
The presently disclosed techniques related to data transfer and
synchronization between multiple electronic devices. The multiple
electronic devices may be logged onto a user's account with a cloud
computing service so that they may transfer data relating to
websites that they have accessed to the cloud computing service so
that such data may be synchronized amongst the multiple electronic
devices. A tab screen on each electronic device may allow a user to
view the other linked devices as well as the websites that they
have accessed so that the user may select such websites if so
desired.
Inventors: |
KNIGHT; Paul R.; (San
Francisco, CA) ; MILLER; Jeffrey S.; (Mountain View,
CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Apple Inc. |
Cupertino |
CA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
48670364 |
Appl. No.: |
15/620666 |
Filed: |
June 12, 2017 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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13492057 |
Jun 8, 2012 |
9680927 |
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15620666 |
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61595114 |
Feb 5, 2012 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 67/1095 20130101;
H04L 67/02 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H04L 29/08 20060101
H04L029/08 |
Claims
1. A method of synchronizing data on a plurality of electronic
devices, the method comprising: using a cloud computing service to:
receive data relating to websites accessed by each of the plurality
of electronic devices; and transmit the data to each respective
electronic device from the other of the plurality of electronic
devices so that each respective electronic device obtains data
relating to the websites accessed by the other of the plurality of
electronic devices.
Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application is related to U.S. application Ser.
No. 61/595,114, filed on Feb. 5, 2012, the subject matter of which
is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirely for all
purposes.
BACKGROUND
[0002] The present disclosure relates generally to electronic
devices and cloud. computing, and more particularly, to techniques
for synchronizing electronic devices using cloud computing.
[0003] This section is intended to introduce the reader to various
aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the
present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This
discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with
background information to facilitate a better understanding of the
various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should
be understood that these statements are to be read in this light,
and not as admissions of prior art.
[0004] In today's fast-paced society, it is very common for people
to use several electronic devices to "stay connected" with their
various responsibilities. For example, those that spend time at
home or at the office often use a desktop or laptop computer to
monitor e-mail, stay current on social websites, browse the
Internet, and perform in various other tasks. However, such
electronic devices are not particularly convenient when called away
from the home or office, particularly for a relatively short
amounts of time, such as lunch, business meetings, soccer practice,
etc. During these periods, people often rely upon pocket-sized
handheld devices, such as cellular smart phones, to stay connected.
Additionally, people often turn to larger handheld devices, such as
tablet computers, to stay connected when circumstances permit,
since such devices strike a good balance between portability and a
larger, easier to use format.
[0005] Although each of the aforementioned devices typically
possess Internet capability, through the use of WiFi and/or
cellular networks, such devices are typically used independently of
one another. As a result, the data on one device is not
synchronized with the data on any of the other devices unless the
user purposely chooses to synchronize one device with another,
typically by connecting the devices together and performing a
specific synchronization routine. Because such synchronization
routines require user action and are relatively time consuming,
most users typically synchronize their devices relatively
infrequently. Moreover, such synchronization routines only
synchronize data between devices at the time the devices are
connected, so any subsequent use of the devices is again performed
independently in an unsynchronized manner.
[0006] The use of cloud computing services can facilitate the
synchronization of data between a user's multiple devices. The term
"cloud" is often used a generic reference to the Internet based
upon cloud drawings that are used to represent the internet in
computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying
infrastructure that it represents. More recently, however, the term
cloud has been used in conjunction with computing services that may
be provided over the Internet at a cost to customers. For example,
presently, at least Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Dropbox
offer cloud computing services that host data over the Internet.
Generally, users of these cloud computing services may store media
and other data on the Internet so that they can access it from any
of their multiple electronic devices, as opposed to storing such
information onto the memory of any of their particular electronic
devices. For example, a user may store music, photos, books, or
videos on the cloud and access it from any of their multiple
devices. Apple's iCloud.RTM., for example, operates "invisibly" or
automatically, so that when a user takes a photograph using their
iPhone.RTM., it is automatically sent to any other electronic
devices linked to their iPhone through iCloud.RTM., such as their
iMac.RTM. or iPad.RTM.. Similarly, if a user edits a document in
the Pages application on their iMac.RTM., the same edit appears on
the Pages application of their iPhone.RTM..
[0007] However, despite the number of different cloud computing
services available, none provide satisfactory synchronization of
Internet browsing amongst multiple devices. Further, none provide
any such synchronization techniques that may enhance a user's
experience and facilitate more efficient use of the various
devices.
SUMMARY
[0008] A summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein is set
forth below. It should be understood that these aspects are
presented merely to provide the reader with a brief summary of
these certain embodiments and that these aspects are not intended
to limit the scope of this disclosure. Indeed, this disclosure may
encompass a variety of aspects that may not be set forth below.
[0009] The present disclosure relates to various techniques that
may be used to synchronize data among multiple electronic devices.
For example, certain techniques facilitate the synchronization of
data used during website browsing on multiple devices. These
techniques may provide website information, such as URLs, between
any linked devices, as well as identify which device is associated
with such website information. This information may be provided to
the user in the form of a screen or a drop-down tab that may be
accessed on each of the user's devices. Furthermore, such
information may include information relating to whether the item in
the tab was in "reader" mode, information relating to magnification
of the window that was opened in another device, backward and/or
forward history, scroll position on the web page, and autocomplete
information when entering an address into an address field on any
of the linked devices.
[0010] Various refinements of the features noted above may be made
in relation to various aspects of the present disclosure. Further
features may also be incorporated in these various aspects as well.
These refinements and additional features may exist individually or
in any combination. For instance, various features discussed below
in relation to one or more of the illustrated embodiments may be
incorporated into any of the above-described aspects of the present
disclosure alone or in any combination. The brief summary presented
above is intended only to familiarize the reader with certain
aspects and contexts of embodiments of the present disclosure
without limitation to the claimed subject matter.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] Various aspects of this disclosure may be better understood
upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference
to the drawings in which:
[0012] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an electronic device
that may utilize the synchronization techniques disclosed herein,
in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure;
[0013] FIG. 2 illustrates a front view of a handheld device, such
as an iPhone, representing another embodiment of the electronic
device of FIG. 1, in accordance with an embodiment;
[0014] FIG. 3 illustrates a front view of a tablet device, such as
an iPad, representing a further embodiment of the electronic device
of FIG. 1, in accordance with an embodiment;
[0015] FIG. 4 illustrates a front view of a laptop computer, such
as a MacBook, representing an embodiment of the electronic device
of FIG. 1, in accordance with au embodiment;
[0016] FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic view of multiple electronic
devices linked together via a cloud computing service, in
accordance with an embodiment;
[0017] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a bookmarks screen that
provides access to a cloud tabs screen for the hand-held devices
illustrated in FIG. 3;
[0018] FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 7C illustrate and example of an initial
screen or drop down tab for a hand-held device, tablet device, and
laptop computer, respectively, in accordance with an
embodiment;
[0019] FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C illustrate examples of screens or
drop-down tabs for the handheld device, the tablet device, and
laptop computer, respectively, that show the websites that have
been accessed or opened on the other devices, in accordance with an
embodiment;
[0020] FIGS. 9A and 9B illustrate an example of a screen or
drop-down tab for the handheld device and the tablet device,
respectively, that show websites that have been accessed or opened
by the other device when the tablet device is in a private browsing
mode, in accordance with an embodiment;
[0021] FIGS. 10A and 10B illustrate two pages of a document that
has been opened on the tablet device when the tablet device is in
reader mode, and FIG. 10C illustrates the second page of the
document that has been opened on the handheld device, in accordance
with an embodiment; and
[0022] FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate an example of screens of the
handheld device and the table device showing a suggested auto
completion of a website entry, in accordance with an
embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0023] One or more specific embodiments of the present disclosure
will be described below. These described embodiments are only
examples of the presently disclosed techniques. Additionally, in an
effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all
features of an actual implementation may not be described in the
specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of
any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design
project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to
achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with
system-related and business-related constraints may vary from one
implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that
such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but
would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication,
and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of
this disclosure.
[0024] When introducing elements of various embodiments of the
present disclosure, the articles "a," "an," and "the" are intended
to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms
"comprising," "including," and "having" are intended to be
inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than
the listed elements. Additionally, it should be understood that
references to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" of the present
disclosure are noted to be interpreted as excluding the existence
of additional embodiments that also incorporate the recited
features.
[0025] As will be discussed in detail below, the present disclosure
relates to various techniques for transferring and synchronizing
data amongst multiple different electronic devices. In
particularly, the techniques relate to the sharing and
synchronization of website information amongst the devices in a
manner that is user friendly and convenient. The disclosure
techniques allow a user to view and select websites that have been
accessed by any of the devices. The techniques also allow a user to
access a website in the same mode and/or same location as the
website is currently being accessed or was previously being
accessed by one of the other devices.
[0026] With the foregoing in mind, it is useful, to begin with a
general description of suitable electronic devices that may employ
the various data transferring and synchronizing techniques
described below. In particular, FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting
various components that may be present in an electronic device
suitable for use with such a display. FIGS. 2, 3, and 4
respectively illustrate perspective and front views of suitable
electronic devices, which may be, as illustrated, a notebook
computer, a handheld electronic device, or a tablet computing
device.
[0027] Turning first to FIG. 1, an electronic device 10 according
to an embodiment of the present disclosure may include, among other
things, a display 12, input/output (I/O) ports 14, input structures
16, one or more processor(s) 18, memory 20, nonvolatile storage 22,
an expansion card 24, RF circuitry 26, and a power source 28. The
various functional blocks shown in FIG. 1 may include hardware
elements (including circuitry), software elements (including
computer code stored on a computer-readable medium) or a
combination of both hardware and software elements. It should be
noted that FIG. 1 is merely one example of a particular
implementation and is intended to illustrate the types of
components that may be present in the electronic device 10.
[0028] By way of example, the electronic device 10 may represent a
block diagram of the notebook computer depicted in FIG. 2, the
handheld device depicted in FIG. 3, the tablet computing device
depicted in FIG. 4, or similar devices, such as desktop computers.
It should be noted that the processor(s) 18 and/or other data
processing circuitry may be generally referred to herein as "data
processing circuitry." This data processing circuitry may be
embodied wholly or in part as software, firmware, hardware, or any
combination thereof. Furthermore, the data processing circuitry may
be a single contained processing module or may be incorporated
wholly or partially within any of the other elements within the
electronic device 10.
[0029] In the electronic device 10 of FIG. 1, the processor(s) 18
and/or other data processing circuitry may be operably coupled with
the memory 20 and the nonvolatile storage 22 to execute
instructions. Such programs or instructions executed by the
processors) 18 may be stored in any suitable article of manufacture
that includes one or more tangible, computer-readable media at
least collectively storing the instructions or routines, such as
the memory 20 and the nonvolatile storage 22. The memory 20 and the
nonvolatile storage 22 may include any suitable articles of
manufacture for storing data and executable instructions, such as
random-access memory, read-only memory, rewritable flash memory,
hard drives, and optical discs. Also, programs (e.g., an operating
system encoded on such a computer program product may also include
instructions that may be executed by the processor(s) 18.
[0030] The display 12 may be a touch-screen liquid crystal display
(LCD), for example, which may enable users to interact with a user
interface of the electronic device 10. In some embodiments, the
electronic display 12 may be a MultiTouch.TM. display that can
detect multiple touches at once.
[0031] The input structures 16 of the electronic device 10 may
enable a user to interact with the electronic device 10 (e.g.,
pressing a button to increase or decrease a volume level). The I/O
ports 14 may enable electronic device 10 to interface with various
other electronic devices, as may the expansion card 24 and/or the
RF circuit 26. The expansion card 24 and/or the RF circuitry 26 may
include, for example, interfaces for a personal area network (PAN),
such as a Bluetooth network, for a local area network (LAN), such
as an 802.11x Wi-Fi network, and/or for a wide area. network (WAN),
such as a 3G or 4G cellular network. The power source 28 of the
electronic device 10 may be any suitable source of power, such as a
rechargeable lithium polymer (Li-poly) battery and/or an
alternating current (AC) power converter.
[0032] As mentioned above, the electronic device 10 may take the
form of a computer or other type of electronic device. Such
computers may include computers that are generally portable (such
as laptop, notebook, and tablet computers) as well as computers
that are generally used in one place (such as conventional desktop
computers, workstations and/or servers). FIG. 2 depicts a front
view of a handheld device 10A, which represents one embodiment of
the electronic device 10. The handheld device 10A may represent,
for example, a portable phone, a media player, a personal data
organizer, a handheld game platform, or any combination of such
devices. By way of example, the handheld device 10A may be a model
of an iPod.RTM. or iPhone.RTM. available from Apple Inc. of
Cupertino, Calif.
[0033] The handheld device 10A may include an enclosure 36 to
protect interior components from physical damage and to shield them
from electromagnetic interference. The enclosure 36 may surround
the display 12, which may display indicator icons 38. The indicator
icons 38 may indicate, among other things, a cellular signal
strength, Bluetooth connection, and/or battery life. The I/O ports
14 may open through the enclosure 36 and may include, for example,
a proprietary I/O port from Apple Inc. to connect to external
devices.
[0034] User input structures 16, in combination with the display
12, may allow a user to control the handheld device 10A. For
example, the input structures 16 may activate or deactivate the
handheld device 10A, navigate a user interface to a home screen,
navigate a user interface to a user-configurable application
screen, activate a voice-recognition feature of the handheld device
10A, provide volume control, and toggle between vibrate and ring
modes. The electronic device 10 may also be a tablet device 10B, as
illustrated in FIG. 3. For example, the tablet device 10B may be a
model of an iPad.RTM. available from Apple Inc.
[0035] In certain embodiments, the electronic device 10 may take
the form of a computer, such as a model of a MacBook.RTM.,
MacBook.RTM. Pro, MacBook Air.RTM., iMac.RTM., Mac.RTM. mini, or
Mac Pro.RTM. available from Apple Inc. By way of example, the
electronic device 10, taking the form of a notebook computer 10C,
is illustrated in FIG. 4 in accordance with one embodiment of the
present disclosure. The depicted computer 10C may include a housing
32, a display 12, I/O ports 14, and input structures 16. In one
embodiment, the input structures 16 (such as a keyboard and/or
touchpad) may be used to interact with the computer 10C, such as to
start, control, or operate a GUI or applications running on
computer 10C. For example, a keyboard and/or touchpad may allow a
user to navigate a user interface or application interface
displayed on the display 12.
[0036] Various types of electronic devices 10, such as the handheld
device 10A, the tablet device 10B, and the laptop computer 10C, may
be linked together by a cloud computing service 40, as illustrated
in FIG. 5. The cloud computing service 40 may be any suitable cloud
computing service, such as those offered by Apple, Amazon,
Microsoft, Google, and DropBox. However, for the purposes of the
remaining examples discussed herein, the handheld device 10A, the
tablet device 10B, the laptop computer 10C, and the cloud computing
service 40, will be presumed to be an iPhone.RTM., an iPad.RTM., a
MacBook Pro.RTM., and iCloud.RTM., respectively, which are
available from Apple Inc. Although the synchronization and data
transfer techniques will be discussed in the context of these Apple
devices and services, it should be readily understood by those of
ordinary skill in the art that similar synchronization and data
transfer techniques may be employed using other devices and cloud
computing services.
[0037] To link the devices 10A, 10B, and 10C together, the devices
are typically registered under the same account for the cloud
computing service 40. To begin this process, the handheld device
10A, for example, may be configured to display a screen 50 that
includes an item 52 for selecting information relating to the cloud
computing service 40. In this example, since the handheld device
10A is an iPhone.RTM. and since the cloud computing service is
iCloud.RTM., the item 52 is entitled "iCloud Tabs." Prior to the
devices 10A, 10B, and 10C being registered or logged onto a common
account or the cloud computing service 40, the selection of a
respective item 52A, 52B, or 52C for accessing information relating
to the cloud computing service 40 may cause an initial screen or
tab 54A, 54B, or 54C to be displayed on the respective device 10A,
10B, and 10C. In this example, the initial screen or tab 54A, 54B,
and 54C displays a symbol of a cloud along with the statement
"iCloud.RTM. auto deafly shows all the open tabs on your other
devices" to explain what function the item 52A, 52B, and 52C is
will perform once the devices are logged onto the user's
iCloud.RTM. account.
[0038] Once a user has registered the devices 10A, 10B, and 10C
with the user's iCloud.RTM. account, data may be transferred and
synchronized between the devices 10A, 10B, and 10C. Although
various specific types of data transfer and synchronization will be
described below with respect to the various examples described with
respect to the remaining figures, the data transfer and
synchronization using iCloud.RTM. as the cloud computing service 40
may generally be accomplished using iCloud.RTM. document storage
and/or iCloud.RTM. key value storage, as is understood by those of
ordinary skill in the art. Furthermore, data synchronization may
take place as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.
13/349,519, filed on Jan. 12, 2012, and entitled "Data
Synchronization," which is hereby incorporated by reference in its
entirety for all purposes.
[0039] As discussed above, a person may use several different types
of electronic devices 10 during the course of a given day to "stay
connected" depending largely upon where the person is and what the
person is doing. In other words, if a person is at home or at the
office, they may likely employ a less mobile electronic device,
such as a desktop computer or laptop computer 10C, whereas if a
person is lounging in their backyard or waiting at a gate in an
airport, they may utilize a more portable device such as the tablet
device 10B. Similarly, if someone is sitting in a meeting or
running errands, they may likely choose to stay connected using a
more mobile device, such as the handheld device 10A. Since users of
any of these devices 10A, 10B, and 10C often stay connected by
doing various types of web browsing, it would be useful and
convenient if information relating to the web browsing performed on
one device would be available on the user's other devices Should
the user switch between devices during the course of their various
activities.
[0040] One technique for providing a user with website information
accessed on the various devices 10A, 10B, and 10C is illustrated in
FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C. In these examples, FIG. 8A illustrates a tab
screen 56A on the handheld device 10A, FIG. 8B illustrates a
drop-down tab screen 56B on the tablet device 10B, and FIG. 8C
illustrates a drop-down tab screen 56C on the laptop computer 10C.
It should be noted that each of the tab screens 56A, 56B, and 56C
include an indication of what websites have been accessed or opened
on the user's (e.g., "John Doe's") other devices 10A, 10B, and 10C,
that are linked together via the cloud computing service 40. For
example, the tab screen 56A indicates that the user's laptop
computer 10C (e.g., John Doe's Mac.RTM.) has accessed the Apple
website and the New York Times website, and further provides an
indication that the user's tablet device 10B (e.g., John Doe's) has
accessed the BBC website and the Fox News website. Similarly, FIG.
8B illustrates that the tab screen 56B of the tablet device 10B
provides an indication that the user's laptop computer 10C (e.g.,
John Doe's Mac.RTM.) has accessed the Apple website and the New
York Times website, and provides a further indication that the
user's handheld device 10A (e.g., John Doe's iPhone.RTM.) has
accessed the CNN website and the ESPN website. Finally, FIG. 8C
illustrates that the tab screen 56C of the laptop computer 10C
provides an indication that the user's handheld device (e.g., John
Doe's iPhone.RTM.) has accessed the CNN website and the ESPN
website, and provides a further indication that the user's tablet
device 10B (e.g., John Doe's iPad.RTM.) has accessed the BBC
website and the Fox News website. Also, it should be appreciated
that the user may have accessed the mobile version of the CNN
website http://m.cnn.com on the handheld device 10A, but the tab
screen 56C of the laptop computer 10C may instead provide the full
version of the CNN website (http://cnn.com), and vice versa, or
both versions may be provided as an option for the user. This type
of data synchronization allows the user to select any of the
illustrated websites that are provided under the tab screens 56A,
56B, and 56C so that the user can easily access any of the websites
the user has recently visited on any of the various devices 10A,
10B, and 10C in a user-friendly and convenient manner.
[0041] For the websites accessed on the laptop computer 10C, the
data stored on e server might take the following form:
TABLE-US-00001 { "24B19C75-EE8A-4EC9-B523-506BFE8303F4"= {
DeviceName="John Doe's Mac"; LastModified ="2012-05-30
17:00:35+0000"; Tabs= ( { Title="Apple"; URL=http://www.apple.com/;
} { Title="The New York Times-Breaking News, World News &
Multimedia"; URL=http://www.nytimes.com/; } ); }; }
[0042] The first entry (the long string of digits, characters, and
dashes) is an identifier that uniquely identifies the device. The
data also includes the URLs of the accessed websites. In other
words, when the data relating to the websites accessed on the
laptop computer 10C is uploaded to the cloud computing service 40,
the data may take the above form. Similar data may be uploaded to
reflect the websites accessed on the handheld device 10A and the
tablet device 10B. Once the website data from the various devices
10A, 10B, and 10C has been uploaded to the cloud computing service
40, the data may be downloaded to the other devices so that all the
devices 10A, 10B, and 10C are synchronized.
[0043] Of course, there may be circumstances where a user may
desire not to upload certain data to the cloud computing service 40
and/or not to share or synchronize such data amongst the various
data devices 10A, 10B, and 10C. One example of such s circumstance
is illustrated in FIGS. 9A and 9B, where a user is engaging in a
private browsing session using the tablet device 10B. During a
private browsing session, a user may not want other users of their
device or of their linked devices to be able to access information
or websites that they have accessed during the private browsing
session. Hence, a private browsing session typically allows a user
to browse websites without saving any information about which sites
or pages have been visited. In accordance with the present
techniques, when a user of the tablet 10B is engaged in a private
browsing session, other devices that are linked to the tablet
computer 10B via the cloud computing service 40, such as the
handheld device 10A, will not be provided with information relating
to websites that the user has accessed using the tablet device 10B.
For example, the tab screen 60A of the linked handheld device 10A
may continue to show the websites accessed on the user's laptop
device 10C (e.g., John Doe's Mac.RTM.), but the tab screen 60A does
not provide any indication of which websites may have been accessed
during the private browsing session on the tablet device 10B. In
this example, the tab screen 60A does not list any indication of
the tablet device 10B nor the websites that have been visited
during the private browsing session. However, the tab screen 60A
could continue to provide an indication that the handheld device
10A is linked to the tablet device 10B, but simply not provide any
indication of which websites have been visited using the tablet
device 10B. It should also be noted that since the other linked
devices 10A and 10C, (e.g., John Doe's iPhone.RTM. and Mac.RTM.)
are not in private browsing mode, the tab screen 60B on the tablet
device 10B continues to provide an indication of these devices
along with the websites that have been accessed using these
devices.
[0044] During a website browsing session, a user may prefer to view
information on the website in a "reader" mode. In the reader mode,
the web browser typically strips a webpage down to a
newspaper-style text on a blank white page and retains only simple
text formatting and inline images. In the reader mode, the web
browser may also automatically append pages together so that a user
may read the whole article without making any navigational inputs.
In the example illustrated in FIGS. 10A, 10B, and 10C, the user of
the tablet device 10B has selected the reader mode and is viewing
an article. The first page of the article is shown in the screen
62A and the second page of the article is shown in screen 62B.
Hence, if the user is viewing the second page of the article when
the user decides to switch from the tablet device 10B to the
handheld device 10A, when the user accesses the website that the
user had previously been viewing using the tablet device 10B, not
only does the selected website appear on the handheld device, but
it appears in the same mode (e.g., form and/or location) as the
user had left it on the tablet device 10B. The information on the
handheld device 10A appears in reader mode and the second page of
the article is displayed. To accomplish this, the tablet device 10B
may upload data to the cloud computing service 40, where the data
may take the following form:
TABLE-US-00002 { "24B19C75-EE8A-4EC9-B523-506BFE8303F4"= { Device
Name="John Doe's iPad"; LastModified="2012-05-30 17:00:35 +0000";
Tabs= ( { IsShowingReader = 1; ReaderScrollPosition = { pageIndex =
2; version = 1; }; Title = "Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: the Ars Technica
review | Ars Technica"; URL =
"http:/arstechnica.com/apple/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7/"; } ); }; }
[0045] As can be appreciated, this data identifies the device 10B
(e.g., John Doe's iPad.RTM., along with the URL website being
visited, as well as an indication that the tablet 10B is in reader
mode and located at page indicator 2. It should also be appreciated
that the data may include current scroll position, magnification,
form field contents, current video or audio playback position, as
well as forward and/or backward history.
[0046] The data that is transferred to the cloud computing service
40 that may be used to synchronize the devices 10A, 10B, and 10C
may also include information relating to the autocompletion of
information that is entered into the address field of a web browser
on the devices 10A, 10B, or 10C. As discussed with regard to the
previous devices, the handheld 10A had accessed the CNN website.
Hence, as illustrated in FIG. 11A, if a user starts to input the
address to the CNN website in the address field 64A, an
autocompletion screen 66A appears with the full website address
that may be selected by the user. Since the data relating to the
websites accessed by the handheld device 10A has been uploaded to
the cloud computing service so that it may be shared with the other
linked devices, such as the tablet device 10B and the laptop
computer 10C, an autocompletion routine running on the devices 10B
and 10C may use this shared data as well as their individual data
when providing autocompletion suggestions. Accordingly, in the
example illustrated in FIG. 11B, when the user of the tablet device
10B begins to input the address of the CNN website in the address
field 64B, the autocompletion screen 66B provides the complete
address of the CNN website which may be selected by the user.
[0047] In a typical cloud computing system, the cloud computing
system "pushes" data to the various devices with which it is
linked. However, depending upon the frequency of this type of data
transmission, the amount of power consumption may become
problematic, especially for battery powered devices. Hence, in the
embodiments discussed herein, if the electronic device 10 is
strictly an AC powered device, such as a desktop computer, it may
operate in a manner in which is receives data periodically
transmitted from the cloud computing service 40 and in which is
periodically transmits data to the cloud computing service 40.
Furthermore, data may be transmitted to and/or from the cloud
computing service 40 when a new tab screen is opened, when an
existing tab screen is closed, when a window containing multiple
tab screens is closed, or when the user: navigates to a new website
in an existing tab screen, selects a different tab screen in a
window, enters or exits reader mode, scrolls through a webpage or
pages through an article, makes an existing window active that was
behind another window, reorders a tab within a window, enters
information into a form field, and/or pauses playback of a video or
audio track. Indeed, even battery-powered electronic devices 10 may
operate in this manner during periods in which they are
AC-powered.
[0048] However, when battery-powered electronic devices 10, such as
the handheld device 10A, the tablet device 10B, and the laptop
computer 10C, are operating in a battery-powered mode, they may
selectively "pull" data from the cloud computing service 40 in
order to save power. For example, such devices may pull data from
the cloud computing service 40 in response to a web browser on the
device being opened and/or in response to the user opening a tab
screen. Depending upon the power saving requirements of the
battery-powered electronic device, they may not pull any further
data from the cloud computing service 40 until another web browsing
session has begun or until another tab screen is opened.
Alternatively, once the initial data pull has occurred, the device
may periodically pull data from the cloud computing service 40
thereafter until the web browser is closed and/or until the tab
screen is closed. Similarly, a battery-powered electronic device 10
may only push its data to the cloud computing service 40 upon the
selection of a new website or when its web browser is closed.
[0049] The specific embodiments described above have been shown by
way of example, and it should be understood that these embodiments
may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms.
It should be further understood that the claims are not intended to
be limited to the particular forms disclosed, but rather to cover
all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the
spirit and scope of this disclosure.
* * * * *
References