Application Reporting in an Application-Selectable User Interface

[0001] This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/978,184 filed Dec. 23, 2010, entitled “Application Reporting in an Application-Selectable User Interface”, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

[0002] Conventional operating systems permit users to launch applications, often through a user interface having selectable icons for the applications. In some cases a user selects to launch an application from this user interface and does not care whether there is anything new for that application.

[0003] In many cases, however, users launch applications to find out what is new in those applications. A user wishing to find out what is new in her applications, for example, typically selects an icon for a desired application, in response to which the conventional operating system launches the application. This application then opens and, assuming it is one that presents content, presents that content. For some applications, such as news or social-networking websites, the application retrieves content from a remote source and then presents that content. It is at this point that the user sees the content, which may or may not be new since the last time the user viewed content for that application.

[0004] The user may continue this process of selecting applications, in response to which they are launched and present content, and then viewing the presented content to find out what, if anything, is new. Following this process will permit a user to see what is new in her applications, but doing so takes significant amounts of time and effort. This process also expends computing and bandwidth resources. Worse still, in some cases her applications may not have any new content, in which case all of this time, effort, and resources are wasted.

[0005] This document describes techniques for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface. These techniques permit a user to view reports for applications in a user interface through which these applications may be selected. By so doing, a user may quickly and easily determine which applications to select based on their respective reports and then select them through the user interface.

[0006] This summary is provided to introduce simplified concepts for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface that is further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. Techniques and/or apparatuses for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface are also referred to herein separately or in conjunction as the “techniques” as permitted by the context.

[0019] This document describes techniques and apparatuses for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface. These techniques enable a user to see a report from an application that may or may not be currently executing and to select this application. If the application is executing, the techniques present the application responsive to the selection. If the application is not already executing the techniques first execute the application.

[0020] Assume, for example, that a user wishes to check what is new for her fifteen favorite applications. Assume that the user viewed four of these applications earlier during the day, but did not view the other eleven. Thus, some of these four applications may still be executing, thought that is not required. These techniques present, in a user interface from which these fifteen applications may be selected, reports for each of the applications, assuming any reports have arrived since the respective applications where last selected.

[0021] By way of example, assume that reports have been received for two of the four applications viewed earlier in the day. One of these applications is local to the user's computing device, namely an email application. The techniques report, in an application-selectable user interface, that eight emails have arrived since the user last used the email application. The techniques also indicate some content associated with one or more of these emails, such as from whom they were received (e.g., Suzy Brown, Sales.com, etc.).

[0022] Assume that the other of the two applications is a social-networking website and that a report has been received that indicates that a friend of the user has added an entry to her social-networking page. The techniques indicate this in the user interface, and may also present content from the entry, such as “Bill Jones tagged you in a photo” along with a thumbnail image associated with Bill Jones (e.g., his picture).

[0023] Assume that a third application has received a report, this third application being a marketing website that has not recently been viewed by the user. The techniques report that this marketing website has a big sale going on through tomorrow.

[0024] As this example illustrates, the techniques can provide a user interface through which a user can view reports associated with multiple applications and select to present those applications. Here the user interface reports that a friend tagged the user, that a sale is on, and that eight emails from various entities have been received. Further still, the user interface shows that the other twelve applications have nothing new to report.

[0025] With all of this information at the user's fingertips, she may decide which application to select and which not to. She may select the social-networking website application to see the image in which she is tagged, the marketing application to see more about the sale, the email application to see the full content of one or more of the eight emails, or forgo selecting any of the applications. Thus, the user may decide that none of these reports are interesting enough to select the applications. In all of these cases the techniques permitted the user to make quick, easy, and informed decisions about what applications to select or not to select.

[0026] This is but one example of the many ways in which the techniques enable users to see reports from, and select application through, a user interface. Numerous other examples, as well as ways in which the techniques operate, are described below.

[0027] This discussion proceeds to describe an example environment in which the techniques may operate, methods performable by the techniques, and an example apparatus below.

[0028] FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment 100 in which techniques for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface can be embodied. Environment 100 includes a computing device 102, remote provider 104, optional report compiler 106, and communication network 108, which enables communication between these entities. In this illustration, computing device 102 receives reports 110 from three sources, remote provider 104, report compiler 106, and an application executing on computing device 102 (this application is shown in FIG. 2). Reports 110 indicate what is new or of potential interest for the selectable applications, such as a change to an application's content or status (e.g., a new email, entry, or article, or that a software update or expiration is approaching, to name just a few). Computing device 102 presents user interface 112, which includes selectable labels for applications and reports some or all of the information received in reports 110.

[0029] FIG. 2 illustrates an example embodiment of computing device 102 of FIG. 1, which is illustrated with six examples devices: a laptop computer 102-1, a tablet computer 102-2, a smart phone 102-3, a set-top box 102-4, a desktop computer 102-5, and a gaming device 102-6, though other computing devices and systems, such as servers and netbooks, may also be used.

[0030] Computing device 102 includes or has access to computer processor(s) 202, computer-readable storage media 204 (media 204), and one or more displays 206, four examples of which are illustrated in FIG. 2. Media 204 includes an operating system 208, reporter 210, and applications 212, each of which may provide content 214.

[0031] Operating system 208 includes or has access to window-based environment module 216 and/or immersive environment module 218. Applications selected through the techniques can be presented through a windows-based or immersive environment, as well as others.

[0032] Windows-based environment module 216 presents applications and accompanying content through windows having frames. These frames provide controls through which to interact with an application and/or controls enabling a user to move and size the window.

[0033] Immersive environment module 218 provides an environment by which a user may view and interact with one or more of applications 212 and corresponding content 214. In some embodiments, this environment presents content of, and enables interaction with, applications with little or no window frame and/or without a need for a user to manually size or position content. This environment can be, but is not required to be, hosted and/or surfaced without use of a typical desktop environment. Thus, in some cases immersive environment module 218 presents an immersive environment that is not a window (even one without a substantial frame) and precludes usage of desktop-like displays (e.g., a taskbar). Further still, in some embodiments this immersive environment is similar to an operating system in that it is not closeable or capable of being un-installed. Examples of immersive environments are provided below as part of describing the techniques, though they are not exhaustive or intended to limit the techniques.

[0034] Reporter 210 includes, has access to, or generates an application-selectable user interface 220, an example of which is shown at 112 in FIG. 1. Interface 220 includes or has access to presentation formats 222. Reporter 210 reports changes associated with one or more of applications 212 through interface 220. As noted above, reports 110 may be received directly from one or more of applications 212, or another entity associated with one or more of applications 212, such as remote provider 104 or report compiler 106.

[0035] In some cases a report indicates which presentation format 222 is intended, in which case reporter 210 reports changes in the appropriate format through interface 220. Presentation formats 222 can be eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) in cases where reports 110 are received in eXtensible Markup Language (XML). In such a case, reporting in interface 220 is presenting using Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML), though use of XSLT, XML, and HTML are optional, as are presentation formats 222 in general.

[0036] FIG. 3 illustrates example embodiments of remote provider 104. Remote provider 104 is shown as a singular entity for visual brevity, though multiple remote providers are also contemplated herein. Remote provider 104 includes or has to access to provider processor(s) 302 and provider computer-readable storage media 304 (media 304). Media 304 includes report generator 306 and content provider 308.

[0037] Report generator 306 is capable of providing one or more reports 110 to computing device 102, either directly or indirectly through report compiler 106. In some embodiments, reports 110 include information useful for indicating a change, presenting content associated with the change, or visiting the application (e.g., with universal resource locators (URLs)).

[0038] Report generator 306 may act responsive to reporter 210, such as a request from reporter 210 for reports 110, though report generator 306 may also act to periodically send, or consistently make available, new and/or interesting content or data as it become available. Report generator 306 may indicate what is new since a user last selected a particular application, though it may also simply provide reports 110, with which reporter 210 may instead determine what is or is not new.

[0039] Content provider 308 provides content, such as content 214 associated with application 212. Content provider 308 may act in conjunction with report generator 306, such as to provide content 214 to report generator 306, which report generator 306 then provides a portion of (or sometimes all of) in report 110.

[0040] FIG. 4 illustrates an example embodiment of report compiler 106. Report compiler 106 is shown as a singular entity for visual brevity, though multiple compilers may also be used. Report compiler 106 includes or has to access to compiler processor(s) 402 and compiler computer-readable storage media 404 (media 404). Media 404 includes compiling module 406, which is capable of receiving and compiling reports 110 from one or more sources, such as report provider 104. Compiling module 406 may receive reports for later provision to computing device 102, such as periodically or when computing device 102 indicates that it is on. Compiling module 406 may determine which changes are new since a particular user last viewed content from an application and provide those of the reports 110 indicating these changes.

[0041] Ways in which entities of FIGS. 1-4 act and interact are set forth in greater detail below. The entities illustrated for computing device 102, remote provider 104, or report compiler 106, respectively, can be separate or integrated.

[0042] FIG. 5 depicts a method 500 for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface. In portions of the following discussion reference may be made to environment 100 of FIG. 1 and as detailed in FIGS. 2-4, reference to which is made for example only.

[0043] Block 502 presents a user interface having multiple, selectable labels associated with multiple applications, respectively. One of the multiple selectable labels reports a change associated with the application to which the selectable label is associated, though multiple changes for multiple applications or the same application may also be reported. Reporting of one or more changes is not required (e.g., at some times none of the applications will have a change to report).

[0044] By way of example, consider a case where reporter 210 of FIG. 2 presents a user interface 600 shown in FIG. 6. This user interface 600 is but one of many types of user interfaces contemplated by user interface 220 of FIG. 2, including a user interface having a single label. User interface 600 includes fifteen selectable labels, twelve of them relatively large and three relatively small.

[0045] This example user interface 600 reports changes to eleven of the twelve larger labels and one of the three small labels, though any variation of such a presentation is contemplated, such as changes to all or none of the selectable labels. Note that these changes, even if all of these changes were already received at the time a user selects to view user interface 600, may be presented to each of the various labels and portions of the labels progressively. This progressive alteration of the labels can make user interface 600 look animated. Thus, the changes to the labels are not necessarily made all at once.

[0046] Further, in cases where multiple changes for an application are known, reporter 210 may present the newest of the changes or rotate through these changes. Reporter 210 may rotate through changes to maintain a “live” feel to user interface 600 or responsive to activity or inactivity with a label. Inactively with a label may indicate that the currently-indicated change is not of interest to a user. As another of the changes may be of more interest, the most-recent change may be rotated off of a label and an older (but still new) change rotated on to the label.

[0047] Consider first selectable label 602, which is shown expanded in FIG. 6. This selectable label 602 is associated with one of applications 212 of FIG. 2, namely a “News” application. As shown, selectable label 602 reports a change associated with this application 212 within selectable label 602, the change relative to a prior viewing, selection, or launching of this application 212 by a user associated with computing device 102.

[0048] Assume that a user viewed the News application at 9 am and, on viewing user interface 600, is presented with selectable label 602 reporting a change to the News application since 9 am (at 3 pm the same day, for example). Here the change is a new article concerning a weather satellite that has been damaged by a meteor and may crash to earth. Portions of content associated with the change (the change being the new article) are shown in selectable label 602. These portions each report the change by indicating that a new article is now available, here with an image 604 of a satellite, a title of the article at 606, and a first sentence of the article at 608.

[0049] Consider also three other example selectable labels, small selectable labels 610 and 612, and another of the large selectable labels 614. Small selectable label 610 reports a change to an application associated with this label, namely the “ASN” application. Label 610 reports a change with a change indicator 616 marked as “*”, though this indicator 616 does not indicate how many changes or any content associated with that change. This abbreviated report on a change may be desirable when the application associated with the label is not generally important to the user, or changes are often of a similar type and thus presenting content of the change is not meaningful, or simply because the user desires it.

[0050] Small selectable label 612, on the other hand, does not report any changes. This non-reporting provides the user with valuable information, namely that the user need not select label 612 to see something new for the “Duke” application, as no changes exist since the user last visited the application.

[0051] Large selectable label 614 also does not report any changes, thus also providing the user with valuable information concerning changes (or lack thereof) for the “CSI” application.

[0052] As described, reporter 210 enables selection of applications and reports changes to those applications. Reporter 210 may also enable different selections through different areas of a label. Consider again label 602. Here reporter 210 enables selection through application-identifying area 618 and reporting area 620. This application-identifying area 618 shows an application-selected identifier for the “News” application at 622, namely “News” in a particular font and color (color not shown). Reporter 210 enables a selection made to this application-identifying area 618 to present the “News” application at a default or prior-viewed setting, such as a home page or a last-viewed page of content. Thus, on selection of application-identifying area 618, reporter 210 may refrain from presenting content associated with the reported change.

[0053] Reporter 210 enables a selection made to reporting area 620 to present the “News” application with the change, such as presenting content associated with the change, here opening a webpage at a universal resource locator (URL) associated with the content change. In such a case, reporter 210 presents the News application having the article that was shown in part in reporting area 620.

[0054] Some labels may indicate multiple changes, such as reporting (with some associated content) the two newest entries to a social-networking website or emails received since the user last viewed an email application. In such a case, reporter 210 enables selection to each section reporting the change to present the associated application with content associated with that change, such as to open one of multiple emails reported.

[0055] By way of review, reporter 210 can report changes to various applications responsive to received reports, such as reports 110 of FIG. 1, which can be received one-at-a-time, after compiling into batches, and/or from various sources. These reports 110 can be received or retrieved periodically, on selecting to display user interface 220, and/or in real time. User interface 600, for example, may alter selectable labels as a user views it due to reports coming in and being reported. Thus, reporter 210 may act to actively update reporting for applications in a user interface through which a user can select applications.

[0056] Reporter 210 may determine which reports 110 indicate changes to an application since the user last viewed or interacted with the application, though in some other cases an entity providing the report instead determines this (e.g., remote provider 104, report compiler 106, or application 212).

[0057] Further, in some embodiments reporter 210 receives reports along with an indication of a presentation format in which the reports are preferred to be presented. This presentation format preference may be selected by an entity associated with the respective application, such as a social-networking server associated with a social-networking application, or based on user preference. Various examples of presentation formats 222 are illustrated in FIG. 6. Large selectable label 602, for example, presents only a most-recent change along with three portions of content for that change. Small selectable label 610, conversely, presents only a change indicator 616 with no content.

[0058] Returning to method 500, block 504 receives selection of one of the multiple, selectable labels, such as a label reporting a change. The selection received can be to various areas (or sections of areas) of a selectable label, responsive to which reporter 210 presents the application associated with the selectable label, though how presented may vary based on which area is selected. As noted, the application associated with a selectable label may or may not be executing. Consider, for example, large selectable label 602 and another large selectable label 622. Label 602 is associated with a “News” application of applications 212 of FIG. 2. Label 622 is associated with an email application of applications 212. For this example, assume that the News application is not executing and that reports are received from a remote entity associated with the News application, such as remote provider 104. Assume also that the email application is local to computing device 102 and is executing. Reports 110 for the email application are received by reporter 210 direct from the email application.

[0059] Continuing the ongoing embodiment, assume that reporter 210 receives a selection to application-identifying area 618, such as through a mouse selector or a gesture via a touch-screen displaying user interface 600, such as one of displays 206 shown in FIG. 2.

[0060] Block 506 presents the application associated with the selected label and/or content associated with a change reported in the selected label. When block 506 presents the application, it does so in a manner in which the application may be interacted with, e.g., in an immersive or windows-based environment. This presentation may also or instead present content associated with a reported change but not necessarily the application itself as described in further detail below.

[0061] This presentation may include launching the application and then presenting it, such as in a window via windows-based environment module 216 or in an immersive environment via immersive environment module 218, both of FIG. 2. If the application is already executing, a launch is not needed. Responsive to receiving a selection of a selected label, the techniques may provide a visual indication of the selection, such as to animate the selected portion of the label. By so doing, the techniques reinforce the type of selection.

[0062] Concluding the ongoing embodiment, reporter 210 presents the News application in response to selection of selectable label 602, here to application-identifying area 618. This presentation includes launching the News application, as it was not executing at selection. As noted, reporter 210 may present and/or launch an application through an instruction to another entity, such as the above-mentioned modules 216 or 218.

[0063] FIG. 7 illustrates an example presentation of the News application in an immersive environment 700. Because application-identifying area 618 was selected, a default presentation (here a home page) for the News application is shown. This home page is shown at 702 and includes various headlines 704 for selection, one of which is the most-recent article also shown at 606 in FIG. 6. While this title is shown, the home page is presented rather than a webpage having a full representation of the content or otherwise devoted to the article, which would otherwise be presented had the selection been made to reporting area 620.

[0064] By way of another example, consider a case where selection is received at block 504 through large selectable label 622 of FIG. 6, which is expanded for clarity in FIG. 8. Label 622 is shown having an application-identifying area 802 and a reporting area 804. Reporting area 804 includes four selectable sections reporting changes, sections 806, 808, 810, and 812. Each of selectable sections 806, 808, and 810 reports content associated with a change, here each a sender and a subject line of an email. Section 812 reports five changes, here that five other emails have also been received since the email application was last viewed by the user. In this example, selection is received to section 808 through a gesture 814 made to a touch screen.

[0065] Reporter 210, at block 506, presents the selected email application and content of the email associated with the selection. Here the application is currently executing, therefore reporter 210 does not launch the email application. Presentation of the email application and the change reported, rather than a home or default presentation, is shown in FIG. 9 at 902 in a window 904. Note that reporter 210 may cause this presentation in a window superimposed over the application-selectable user interface or hide the user interface and present the window in a different environment. Here reporter 210 hides the user interface and presents the email application at 902 showing content associated with the selection received at 906.

[0066] In still another example, consider again FIG. 8. In some cases selection made to a selectable label indicating a change may present content associated with that change. This presentation may be commensurate with presentation of the application as described above. In some other cases, the content is shown without hiding the user interface and/or without presenting the application in a conventional manner. Assume, for the selection 814 of FIG. 8, that reporter 210, rather than presenting the email application and the content, instead presents content associated with the change on its own. In this case, more or all of the content associated with that change is shown. Assume, for example, that most or all of the content associated with a new email from Sue was received in one of the reports 110. Reporter 210 may present the rest of this content, such as within or superimposed over user interface 600.

[0067] An example of this is shown in FIG. 10, which shows a pop-up window 1002 having more content associated with a reported change. This may also be used to expand the “5 More Emails” shown at section 812 in FIG. 8 to show, for example, the sender and subject lines for those emails. This may be used to show some content associated with a change for which no content is currently shown, such as change indicator 616 of FIG. 6. This alternative operation of block 506 permits a user to select to see more content associated with a change, which in some cases is enough for the user to forgo selecting the application generally.

[0068] The preceding discussion describes methods for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface. These methods are shown as sets of blocks that specify operations performed but are not necessarily limited to the order shown for performing the operations by the respective blocks.

[0069] Aspects of these methods may be implemented in hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), firmware, software, manual processing, or any combination thereof. A software implementation represents program code that performs specified tasks when executed by a computer processor. The example methods may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, which can include software, applications, routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, procedures, modules, functions, and the like. The program code can be stored in one or more computer-readable memory devices, both local and/or remote to a computer processor. The methods may also be practiced in a distributed computing environment by multiple computing devices.

[0070] These techniques may be embodied on one or more of the entities shown in environment 100 of FIG. 1 (and as detailed in FIGS. 2-4) and/or example device 1100 described below, which may be further divided, combined, and so on. Thus, environment 100 and/or device 1100 illustrate some of many possible systems or apparatuses capable of employing the described techniques. The entities of environment 100 and/or device 1100 generally represent software, firmware, hardware, whole devices or networks, or a combination thereof. In the case of a software implementation, for instance, the entities (e.g., reporter 210 of FIG. 2, report generator 306 of FIG. 3, and compiling module 406 of FIG. 4) represent program code that performs specified tasks when executed on a processor (e.g., processor(s) 202, 302, and 402, respectively). The program code can be stored in one or more computer-readable memory devices, such as computer-readable storage media 204, 304, or 404 or computer-readable media 1114 of FIG. 11. The features and techniques described herein are platform-independent, meaning that they may be implemented on a variety of commercial computing platforms having a variety of processors.

[0071] FIG. 11 illustrates an apparatus having various components, here as part of an example device 1100, which can be implemented as any type of client, server, and/or computing device as described with reference to the previous FIGS. 1-10 to implement techniques for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface. In embodiments, device 1100 can be implemented as one or a combination of a wired and/or wireless device, as a form of television client device (e.g., television set-top box, digital video recorder (DVR), etc.), consumer device, computer device, server device, portable computer device, user device, communication device, video processing and/or rendering device, appliance device, gaming device, electronic device, and/or as another type of device. Device 1100 may also be associated with a user (e.g., a person) and/or an entity that operates the device such that a device describes logical devices that include users, software, firmware, and/or a combination of devices.

[0072] Device 1100 includes communication devices 1102 that enable wired and/or wireless communication of device data 1104 (e.g., received data, data that is being received, data scheduled for broadcast, data packets of the data, etc.). The device data 1104 or other device content can include configuration settings of the device, media content stored on the device, and/or information associated with a user of the device. Media content stored on device 1100 can include any type of audio, video, and/or image data. Device 1100 includes one or more data inputs 1106 via which any type of data, media content, and/or inputs can be received, such as user-selectable inputs, messages, music, television media content, recorded video content, and any other type of audio, video, and/or image data received from any content and/or data source.

[0073] Device 1100 also includes communication interfaces 1108, which can be implemented as any one or more of a serial and/or parallel interface, a wireless interface, any type of network interface, a modem, and as any other type of communication interface. The communication interfaces 1108 provide a connection and/or communication links between device 1100 and a communication network by which other electronic, computing, and communication devices communicate data with device 1100.

[0074] Device 1100 includes one or more processors 1110 (e.g., any of microprocessors, controllers, and the like), which process various computer-executable instructions to control the operation of device 1100 and to enable application reporting in an application-selectable interface. Alternatively or in addition, device 1100 can be implemented with any one or combination of hardware, firmware, or fixed logic circuitry that is implemented in connection with processing and control circuits which are generally identified at 1112. Although not shown, device 1100 can include a system bus or data transfer system that couples the various components within the device. A system bus can include any one or combination of different bus structures, such as a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, a universal serial bus, and/or a processor or local bus that utilizes any of a variety of bus architectures.

[0075] Device 1100 also includes computer-readable storage media 1114, such as one or more memory devices that enable persistent and/or non-transitory data storage (i.e., in contrast to mere signal transmission), examples of which include random access memory (RAM), non-volatile memory (e.g., any one or more of a read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, EPROM, EEPROM, etc.), and a disk storage device. A disk storage device may be implemented as any type of magnetic or optical storage device, such as a hard disk drive, a recordable and/or rewriteable compact disc (CD), any type of a digital versatile disc (DVD), and the like. Device 1100 can also include a mass storage media device 1116.

[0076] Computer-readable storage media 1114 provides data storage mechanisms to store the device data 1104, as well as various device applications 1118 and any other types of information and/or data related to operational aspects of device 1100. For example, an operating system 1120 can be maintained as a computer application with the computer-readable storage media 1114 and executed on processors 1110. The device applications 1118 may include a device manager, such as any form of a control application, software application, signal-processing and control module, code that is native to a particular device, a hardware abstraction layer for a particular device, and so on.

[0077] The device applications 1118 also include any system components or modules to implement techniques for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface. In this example, the device applications 1118 can include reporter 210 and applications 212.

[0078] Although embodiments of techniques and apparatuses for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface have been described in language specific to features and/or methods, it is to be understood that the subject of the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or methods described. Rather, the specific features and methods are disclosed as example implementations for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface.