Patent Application
20120311466
Various software applications (“apps”) for use with information handling devices, such as tablet/slate computing devices, smart phones, and the like, are available. Software for mobile electronic devices often includes for example operating system(s), middleware and/or applications for operating the devices. For example, ANDROID operating system is software for mobile devices provided by Google Inc. Many software developers create and make available applications that extend the functionality of the devices when implemented along with ANDROID operating system. Much the same occurs with other operating systems for use with other devices, such as those developed by Apple Inc. ANDROID is a registered trademark of Google, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
Applications may be downloaded to and installed on the devices for increasing and customizing their functionality. Applications are quite popular and provide a wide range of functionality to the devices. Users often download and install many (tens to hundreds) of applications to their mobile devices in order to personalize the mobile devices for use. Conventionally, device displays are arranged in desktops (or desktop views), which are screen views displayed on a display device. These desktops provide an organization of downloaded and installed applications resident on the device, and users may page through the desktops with an appropriate input (for example, swiping a finger in the case of a touchscreen display). Conventionally, one desktop is assigned as a homepage. For example, in devices operating with ANDROID operating systems, the homepage is usually the center desktop view; whereas the homepage for devices running Apple operating systems is typically the leftmost desktop view.
In summary, one aspect provides a method comprising: displaying a default homepage desktop view from among a plurality of scrollable desktop views; receiving user input via a user input device; opening a homepage re-assignment utility responsive to receiving said user input, said homepage re-assignment utility including a display indicating one or more desktop views selectable as a new homepage; and responsive to receiving a user input indicating a selection of a desktop view as a new homepage, changing a default homepage setting to a desktop view selected as a new homepage.
Another aspect provides a system comprising: one or more processors; and a display device; wherein, responsive to execution of computer program instructions accessible to the one or more processors, the one or more processors are configured to: display a default homepage desktop view from among a plurality of scrollable desktop views; receive user input; open a homepage re-assignment utility responsive to receiving said user input, said homepage re-assignment utility including a display indicating one or more desktop views selectable as a new homepage; and responsive to receiving a user input indicating a selection of a desktop view as a new homepage, change a default homepage setting to a desktop view selected as a new homepage.
A further aspect provides a computer program product comprising: a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising: computer readable program code configured to display a default homepage desktop view from among a plurality of scrollable desktop views; computer readable program code configured to receive user input; computer readable program code configured to open a homepage re-assignment utility responsive to receiving said user input, said homepage re-assignment utility including a display indicating one or more desktop views selectable as a new homepage; and computer readable program code configured to, responsive to receiving a user input indicating a selection of a desktop view as a new homepage, change a default homepage setting to a desktop view selected as a new homepage.
The foregoing is a summary and thus may contain simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting.
For a better understanding of the embodiments, together with other and further features and advantages thereof, reference is made to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The scope of the invention will be pointed out in the appended claims.
It will be readily understood that the components of the embodiments, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations in addition to the described example embodiments. Thus, the following more detailed description of the example embodiments, as represented in the figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments, as claimed, but is merely representative of example embodiments.
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” (or the like) means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” or the like in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided to give a thorough understanding of embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the various embodiments can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obfuscation.
With the growing popularity of applications, users often download many such applications to a device. For example, it is not uncommon for a user to have downloaded dozens of applications to his or her mobile device, such as a smart phone, tablet, et cetera. Given this, users are confronted with an organization problem with respect to the applications resident on the device. Users often pick the homepage to be the desktop view having the most frequently used applications. However, users may find that more than one grouping of applications would be appropriate for use with the homepage, yet the homepage can only contain a certain number of applications.
Accordingly, an embodiment provides a convenient and easy mechanism by which a user may reassign the homepage for his or her device. Thus, a user may assign a certain desktop view as a homepage initially, and later re-assign the homepage to be a different desktop view. For example, a user having work related applications on a default homepage, and social media related applications resident on another desktop view, may re-assign the homepage to that desktop view having the social media applications. An embodiment allows for multiple users to operate the device, each having a homepage assigned.
The illustrated example embodiments will be best understood by reference to the figures. The following description is intended only by way of example, and simply illustrates certain example embodiments.
While various other circuits, circuitry or components may be utilized,
The example of
In
In
The system, upon power on, may be configured to execute boot code 190 for the BIOS 168, as stored within the SPI Flash 166, and thereafter processes data under the control of one or more operating systems and application software (for example, stored in system memory 140). An operating system may be stored in any of a variety of locations and accessed, for example, according to instructions of the BIOS 168. As described herein, a device may include fewer or more features than shown in the system of
For example, with regard to smart phone and/or tablet circuitry, an example includes an ARM based system (system on a chip) design. Internal busses and the like depend on different vendors, but essentially all the peripheral devices may attach to a single chip. In contrast to the circuitry illustrated in
Referring to
Similarly, the view illustrated in
Referring to
An embodiment may implement a new “Options” tab (
As an example, the user may position the home icon 320B via movement as a slider mechanism (for example, if implemented in a touchscreen interface). Currently, in the example illustrated in
Referring to
Embodiments may be implemented in one or more computing devices configured appropriately to execute program instructions consistent with the functionality of the embodiments as described herein. In this regard,
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, various aspects may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment or an embodiment including software that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.
Any combination of one or more non-signal computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The non-signal computer readable medium may be a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of a computer readable storage medium would include the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, et cetera, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Computer program code for carrying out operations may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on a single device, partly on a single device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on single device and partly on another device, or entirely on the other device. In some cases, the devices may be connected through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made through other devices (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider) or through a hard wire connection, such as over a USB connection.
Aspects are described herein with reference to the figures, which illustrate example methods, apparatuses and computer program products according to various example embodiments. It will be understood that the actions and functionality illustrated may be implemented at least in part by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, implement the functions/acts specified.
The computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device(s) to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function/act specified.
The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device(s) to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other device(s) to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified.
This disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description but is not intended to be exhaustive or limiting. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The example embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain principles and practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the disclosure for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
Thus, although illustrative example embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying figures, it is to be understood that this description is not limiting and that various other changes and modifications may be affected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure.
