Apparatuses for requesting, retrieving and storing contact records
OwnerJoseph G. Swaninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided are wireless and standalone handheld devices, such as PDAs and wireless telephones, that are configured for inputting a unique contact identifier that uniquely identifies a desired contact record, querying a central database of contact information to obtain the desired contact record, receiving the record and storing it. In various embodiments, such requests can be made directly over a wireless network or indirectly when synchronizing the handheld device with a computer connected to the Internet or to another network.
Claims37
A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable process steps for supplementing the contents of an electronic address book, said process steps comprising steps of:
- inputting a designation of a contact record within an electronic address book;
- based on said designation, creating a request message that includes at least one of:
- (i) contact information from said contact record or (ii) information identifying said contact record;
- transmitting the request message to a central hub that maintains and distributes contact information;
- receiving information from the central hub in response to the transmitted request message;
- and
- incorporating the received information into the contact record.
An apparatus for implementing and supplementing the contents of an electronic address book, comprising:
- an electronic address book that stores contact information records;
- means for inputting a designation of a contact record within said electronic address book;
- means for creating a request message, based on said designation, that includes at least one of:
- (i) contact information from said contact record or (ii) information identifying said contact record;
- means for transmitting the request message to a central hub that maintains and distributes contact information;
- means for receiving information from the central hub in response to the transmitted request message;
- and
- means for incorporating the received information into the contact record.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.