Methods and apparatus for associating mapping functionality and information in contact lists of mobile communication devices

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a device, causes one or more processors to perform a method, comprising:

• receiving, from a user input, an instruction to map a location of an address of a contact in a contact list;
• in response to receipt of the instruction, determining geographic coordinate information of the location;
• sending, via a wireless communication network from a mobile communications device to a remote server, a request for a maplet index comprising only a portion of a maplet that provides a table of contents of available map data within the maplet without data points that represent artifacts and labels;
• receiving, via the wireless communication network at the mobile communications device from the remote server, the maplet index;
• determining, by the mobile communications device, a set of determined map artifacts comprising map artifacts specified in the maplet index that are appropriate for a display of a map of the location corresponding to the geographic coordinate information, the set of determined map artifacts comprising fewer map artifacts than are specified in the maplet index;
• when any of the set of determined map artifacts is not cached in a memory of the mobile communication device:
• requesting, from the remote server by the mobile communications device, the map artifacts within the set of determined map artifacts not cached in the memory of the mobile communications device;
• and
• causing the map with the set of determined map artifacts to be rendered in a display.

A mobile communication device, comprising:

• a radio frequency (RF) transceiver operative for communications with a wireless network;
• a display;
• a memory storing a contact list including a plurality of contacts, and for storing map data;
• one or more processors coupled to the RF transceiver, the display, and the memory;
• the one or more processors, when operating:
• receives an instruction from a user input to map a location of an address of a contact in the contact list;
• in response to receipt of the instruction, determines geographic coordinate information of the location;
• sends, via the wireless network to a remote server, a request for a maplet index comprising only a portion of a maplet that provides a table of contents of available map data within the maplet without data points that represent artifacts and labels;
• receives, via the wireless network from the remote server, the maplet index;
• determines a set of determined map artifacts comprising map artifacts specified in the maplet index that are appropriate for a display of a map of the location corresponding to the geographic coordinate information, the set of determined map artifacts comprising fewer map artifacts than are specified in the maplet index;
• when any of the set of determined map artifacts is not cached in the memory of the mobile communication device:
• requests, from the remote server, the map artifacts within the set of determined map artifacts not cached in the memory of the mobile communications device;
• receives the map artifacts within the set of determined map artifacts not cached in the memory of the mobile communications device;
• and
• causes the map with the set of determined map artifacts to be rendered in the display.