Methods, systems, and products for calendaring applications
Contents
1. 5 5406 1104 82 54 lt 19101300 548 TL 89 Nes ral 105592014 10SS89901g 99 US 7 640 507 B2 Sheet 6 of 10 Dec 29 2009 U S Patent 4 4 9 US 7 640 507 B2 Sheet 7 of 10 Dec 29 2009 U S Patent 901 L Old cl US 7 640 507 B2 Sheet 8 of 10 Dec 29 2009 U S Patent 6 4 8 0 7 640 507 2 Sheet 9 of 10 Dec 29 2009 U S Patent cel pueqaseg 9 v a 8 12 vel U S Patent Dec 29 2009 Sheet 10 of 10 US 7 640 507 B2 FIG 11 150 Associate event with rule in calendaring application 152 Rule comprises reminder expiration 1 4 Reminder comprises date time at which reminder is presented 156 Expiration comprises date time at after which reminder is no longer presented 158 Store calendar entry corresp2. ZIP JAZZ are registered trademarks of Iomega Corporation 1821 W Iomega Way Roy Utah 84067 801 332 1000 www iomega com This computer readable medium or media could be distributed to end users licens ees and assignees These types of computer readable media and other tangible types not mention here but considered within the scope of the exemplary embodiments allow the calendaring application to be easily disseminated A com puter program product comprises the calendaring application stored on the computer readable medium The calendaring application comprises computer readable instructions code for associating an event with a rule The rule comprises a reminder and an expiration A calendar entry corresponding to the event is stored After the expiration when the calen daring application is launched the calendaring application ceases to present the reminder The calendaring application may be physically embodied on or any addressable e g HTTP 802 11 Wire less Application Protocol WAP wireless device capable of presenting an IP address Examples could include a computer a wireless personal digital assistant PDA an Internet Pro tocol mobile phone or a wireless pager While the exemplary embodiments have been described with respect to various features aspects and embodiments those skilled and unskilled in the art will recognize the exem plary embodiments are not so limited Other varia
3. THE DRAWINGS These and other features aspects and advantages of the exemplary embodiments are better understood when the fol lowing Detailed Description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein FIG 1 is a schematic illustrating an electronic calendar produced by a calendaring application according to the exemplary embodiments FIG 2 is a schematic illustrating an expiration feature of the electronic calendar according to the exemplary embodi ments FIG 3 is a schematic further illustrating the expiration feature according to even more exemplary embodiments FIG 4 illustrates an operating environment for the exem plary embodiments FIG 5 depicts another operating environment for the exemplary embodiments FIG 6 is a schematic illustrating still more exemplary embodiments operating within various communications devices FIGS 7 9 are schematics further illustrating various com munications devices for processing the expiration according to the exemplary embodiments FIG 10 is a schematic further illustrating various commu nications devices for processing the expiration according to the exemplary embodiments and FIG 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method of managing an event in a calendaring application according to an exemplary embodiment DETAILED DESCRIPTION The exemplary embodiments will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying draw ings The exemplary
4. a date and a time at which the reminder is presented Block 154 The expiration on the other hand may comprise a date and a time at after which the reminder is no longer presented Block 156 calendar entry is stored that corresponds to the event Block 158 Prior to expiration Block 160 the calen daring application periodically presents the reminder until the expiration Block 162 The calendaring application may visually and or audibly present the reminder of the event The calendaring application may receive an acknowledgment of the reminder Block 164 After the expiration Block 160 however the calendaring application ceases to present the reminder when launched Block 166 After the expiration and when the calendaring application is refreshed the calen daring application ceases to present the reminder Block 0 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 168 calendaring application may be refreshed by maxi mizing a graphical window representing the calendaring application Block 170 The calendaring application shown as reference numeral 12 in FIGS 1 10 may be physically embodied on or in a computer readable medium This computer readable medium may include computer readable storage medium that includes CD ROM DVD tape cassette floppy disk memory card and large capacity disk such as IOMEGA ZIP JAZZ and other large capacity memory products
5. embodiments may however be embod ied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein These embodi ments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those of ordinary skill in the art Moreover all statements herein reciting embodiments as well as specific examples thereof are intended to encompass both structural and func tional equivalents thereof Additionally it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future 1 any elements developed that perform the same function regardless of struc ture Thus for example it will be appreciated by those of ordi nary skill in the art that the diagrams schematics illustra tions and the like represent conceptual views or processes illustrating the exemplary embodiments The functions of the various elements shown in the figures may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware as well as hardware capable of executing associated software Similarly any switches shown in the figures are conceptual only Their function may be carried out through the operation of program logic through dedicated logic through the interaction of program control and dedicated logic or even manually the particular technique being selectable by the entity imple menting this invention Those of ordinary skill
6. graphical window representing the calendaring application 2 method according to claim 1 further comprising con figuring the predefined reminder to expire at an overdue date 3 A method according to claim 1 further comprising pre senting the predefined reminder of the event prior to the expiration 4 A method according to claim 1 further comprising con figuring the expiration to resume reminders at a future date thus producing reminders of a past task that was not accom plished 5 A method according to claim 1 further comprising peri odically presenting the predefined reminder until the expira tion 6 A method according to claim 1 further comprising receiving an acknowledgement of the predefined reminder 7 A system for managing recurring events in a calendaring application comprising a processor executing code stored in memory the code causing the processor to launch the calendaring application establish profiles for different types of events receive a selection of a profile automatically establish parameters for a rule according to the selected profile associate an event with the rule the rule comprising a predefined reminder an expiration and an associated predefined interval the expiration defining a date after which the predefined reminder is no longer produced the profile automatically establishing a date and a time at which the predefined reminder is first presented and automatically estab
7. have expired The expiration 24 is important in a work group environ ment The networked calendaring application 12 illustrated in FIG 4 may have hundreds perhaps thousands of users The calendaring application 12 for example might be offered to employees of a large corporation or government entity The calendaring application 12 could also be distributed over the Internet to thousands of users perhaps part of an Internet Service Provider s suite of subscriber features All these users would each have their own user profile and each user s pro file could store many calendar events The calendaring appli cation 12 and the computer server 30 may execute hundreds or even thousands of individual calendar events at any one time The expiration 24 however prevents expired events from unnecessarily consuming software and processor time As a result the calendaring application 12 runs faster and the computer server 30 is more efficient The expiration 24 also prevents the communications network 34 from carrying and from processing packets of data containing expired events FIG 5 depicts another possible operating environment for the exemplary embodiments FIG 5 is a block diagram show ing the calendaring application 12 residing in a computer system 58 such as the computer server 30 shown in FIG 4 The computer system 58 however could also represent any computer communications device or processor controlled device The calendari
8. the reminder expires the calendaring application ceases to remind the user of the calendared event The event may remain on the user s calendar but the calendaring application will no longer remind the user of the event The expiration described by the exemplary embodiments prevents the calendaring applica tion from reminding the user of stale or outdated events Even if the user fails forgets to cancel or dismiss the reminder the reminder is no longer processed after expiration Even if the user re launches the calendaring application once an event expires no reminder is presented 20 25 40 45 50 55 65 2 According to exemplary embodiments the expiration is configurable The expiration comprises at date and a time at which the reminder expires Upon expiration the calendaring application ceases to process or disposes of that portion of the rule that defines the reminder The user can define at what date and or at what time expiration occurs The user may decide that some event has a hard due date after which any reminder is pointless An executive for example may require that employees be promptly seated at the start time or else not attend In such an instance a tardy reminder is pointless A reminder of your spouse s belated birthday is perhaps also a pointless useless reminder The expiration then may be configured such that after a certain date time no reminder is produced Some calend
9. 42 US 2006 0203620 Al Sep 14 2006 cited by examiner 51 Int Primary Examiner Weilun Lo 06 3 00 2006 01 Assistant Examiner Tuyetlien T Tran 52 SUS HG 715 752 715 751 715 753 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Scott P Zimmerman PLLC 709 204 709 205 709 206 709 207 58 Field of Classification Search 715 751 753 57 ABSTRACT 709 204 207 See application file for complete search history Methods systems and products are disclosed for managing events electronic calendar One such method associates 56 References Cited an event with a rule with the rule comprising a reminder and U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 097 429 A 3 1992 Wood 5 634 100 5 1997 Capps 705 9 5 842 009 11 1998 Borovoy et al 707 1 5 855 006 12 1998 Huemoeller et al 705 9 5 884 306 3 1999 Blissetal 707 7 5 970 466 10 1999 Detjen etal 705 8 6 462 660 B1 10 2002 Cannon date and a time of expiration A calendar entry correspond ing to the event is stored After the date and time of the expiration the electronic calendar ceases to present the reminder when launched That is when the electronic calen dar is initialized no reminders of expired events are visually audibly presented by the electronic calendar 17 Claims 10 Drawing Sheets Refresh calendaring application by maxtmizing minimizin
10. US007640507B2 az United States Patent 10 Patent No US 7 640 507 B2 Bedingfield Sr 45 Date of Patent Dec 29 2009 54 METHODS SYSTEMS AND PRODUCTS FOR 6 466 969 1 10 2002 Bunney etal 709 206 CALENDARING APPLICATIONS 6 504 908 1 2003 Bellomo etal 379 38 6 587 036 B2 7 2003 Somers 75 Inventor James C Bedingfield Sr Lilburn GA 7 188 073 3 2007 Tam etal 705 9 US 2002 0024540 1 2 2002 McCarthy 345 844 2002 0076015 1 6 2002 Norwitz etal 379 93 09 2003 0005150 1 1 2003 Thompson et al 709 238 73 Assignee AT amp T Intellectual Property I L P 2003 0097361 1 5 2003 Huang etal 707 10 Reno NV US 2003 0171973 Al 9 2003 Wilce 2004 0131050 1 7 2004 Beringer et al 370 352 Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this 2004 0142711 Al 7 2004 Mahonen et al patent is extended or adjusted under 35 2004 0243547 1 12 2004 Chhatrapati et al 707 2 U S C 154 b by 472 days 2006 0074844 1 4 2006 Frankel et al 707 1 2006 0150175 Al 7 2006 Etelapera 21 Appl No 11 068 418 OTHER PUBLICATIONS 22 Filed Feb 28 2005 Talking Reminder user manual published 2004 pp 1 26 Gordon Padwick ebook titled Special Edition Using Microsoft 65 Prior Publication Data Outlook 2002 published on May 17 2001 pp 1
11. and then re launches later that same Saturday the reminder 22 is again presented to the user Conventional calendaring appli cations in fact will continue to present the reminder 22 on Sunday Monday and onward until cancellation dismissal The expiration 24 however ceases presentation of the reminders 22 The expiration 24 defines a date and or a time at which the reminder 22 is no longer presented At and or after the date and the time of the expiration 24 the calendar ing application 12 ceases to audibly visually present the reminder 22 When the calendaring application 12 is then again launched the calendaring application 12 ceases to pro cess rules having expired events So in this example the user specified that the event 18 again Cut Grass includes the expiration of Saturday at midnight So when the calendaring application 12 is launched on Sunday Monday or any day onwards the electronic calendaring application 12 ceases to process expired reminders The calendaring application 12 will not notify the user of events that have expired FIG 3 is a schematic further illustrating the exemplary embodiments FIG 3 illustrates another example of the ration 24 using four 4 consecutive days of the user s calen dar Suppose Mary s birthday is March 20 The user defines the rule 20 to specify that the event 18 here Mary s Birth has an event date of March 20 The user also specifies that th
12. ar events however may lend them selves to overdue reminders A task for example having a low priority may slide on the user s calendar The user wants to be reminded of the task and doesn t mind daily overdue reminders The user then can configure the task s associated rule such that the reminder endures The user alternatively may decide that once the task is a month due the priorities are such that the task will not be accom plished The user may decide then that reminders should expire at one month past the event s due date The user may even configure the expiration to resume reminders at a future date perhaps reminding the user of a past task that was not accomplished The exemplary embodiments include methods systems and products for managing events in an electronic calendar One such exemplary embodiment associates an event with a rule with the rule comprising a reminder and an expiration A calendar entry corresponding to the event is stored in memory After the expiration the exemplary embodiment ceases to present the reminder when launching the electronic calendar The reminder portion of the rule is thus disposable whereupon at the date and time of expiration no reminder of the now expired event is presented by the electronic calendar The electronic calendar is thus not burdened and or cluttered with expired events In another of the embodiments a system manages events in an
13. ation 12 may entirely or partially operate within a personal digital assistant PDA 92 a Global Positioning System GPS device 94 an interactive television 96 an Internet Protocol IP phone 98 a pager 100 acellular satellite phone 102 or any computer system and or communications device utilizing a digital signal processor DSP 104 The communications device 16 may also include 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 60 65 10 watches radios vehicle electronics clocks printers gate ways and other apparatuses and systems FIGS 7 9 are schematics further illustrating various com munications devices for processing the expiration 24 accord ing to the exemplary embodiments FIG 7 is a block diagram of a Subscriber Identity Module 106 while FIGS 8 and 9 illustrate respectively the Subscriber Identity Module 106 embodied in a plug 108 and the Subscriber Identity Module 106 embodied in a card 110 As those of ordinary skill in the art recognize the Subscriber Identity Module 106 may be used in conjunction with many communications devices such as the cellular satellite phone 102 shown in FIG 6 The Subscriber Identity Module 106 stores user information such as the user s International Mobile Subscriber Identity the user s K number and other user information the expiration 24 and any portion of the calendaring application 12 As those of ordinary skill in the art also recognize the plug 108 and the card 110
14. ble implementations for the calendaring applica tion 12 MICROSOFT for example offers OUTLOOK and OUTLOOK EXPRESS both of which provide elec tronic calendars MICROSOFT OUTLOOK and OUT LOOK EXPRESS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond Wash 98052 6399 425 882 8080 www Microsoft com Other vendors also offer other calendaring software applications and the concepts described herein may be applied to any calendaring application by any vendor The concepts described herein are also applicable to both GUI based calendaring applications and to text based calendaring applications In addition to the calendaring features provided by conven tional calendaring applications exemplary embodiments described below include an expiration 24 As FIG 1 illus trates the rule 20 comprises both the reminder 22 and the expiration 24 The expiration 24 defines a date and or a time at which the reminder 22 is no longer presented Before the date and the time of the expiration 24 the calendar applica tion 12 presents an audible visual notification of the reminder 05 7 640 507 2 5 22 as defined by rule 20 When the calendar application 12 determines that an external and or internal clock source frequency oscillator such as a system clock Windows Time and or an online networked source matches the date time of the expiration 24 the calendar application 12 ceases to audi bly visually
15. bus 118 The memory mod ules may include Read Only Memory ROM 120 Random Access Memory RAM and or flash memory 122 and Elec trically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory EE PROM 124 The Subscriber Identity Module 106 stores some or all of the calendaring application 12 in or more of the memory modules 116 FIG 7 shows the calendaring application 12 residing in the Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory 114 yet the calendaring application 12 could alternatively or additionally reside in the Read Only Memory 120 and or the Random Access Flash Memory 122 An Input Output module 126 handles communication between the Subscriber Identity Module 106 and the communications device As those skilled in the art will appreciate there are many suitable ways for implementing the operation and physical memory structure of the a Subscriber Identity Mod ule If however the reader desires more information on the Subscriber Identity Module the reader is directed to the fol lowing sources LawrENcE Harte al GSM SupERPHONES 99 100 113 14 1999 et al GSM anD PER SONAL COMMUNICATIONS 303 69 1998 JoacHIM Tisat GSM TELEPHONY 99 130 1997 with each incorporated herein by reference 05 7 640 507 2 11 FIG 10 is a schematic further illustrating various commu nications devices for processing the expiration 24 according to the exempla
16. cal endar 10 is produced by a calendaring application 12 stored in memory 14 of a communications device 16 Although the communications device 16 is generically shown the commu nications device 16 as will be later explained may be a computer a personal digital assistant PDA a cordless cel lular IP phone or other wireline wireless communications device The calendaring application 12 tracks an event 18 suchas an appointment a meeting a holiday a birthday other occasion important dates deadlines and or anniversaries The calendaring application 12 associates the event 18 with rule 20 The rule 20 may comprise a date and or a time at which the event is to occur The calendaring application 12 stores a calendar entry corresponding to the event 18 As FIG 1 shows for example the event 18 is Mary s Birthday and the rule 20 specifies an event date of March 20 The rule 20 may also comprise a reminder 22 The reminder 22 may includes a date and a time at which a notification or an alert is audibly and or visually presented by the calendar application 12 The reminder 22 provides advance notice of the approach ing event 18 The alert for example may be an audible sound alarm and or visual notification that reminds a user of the upcoming event 18 FIG 1 for example illustrates that the reminder 22 will be presented one week prior to Mary s birthday Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are many suita
17. canceling expired recurring event without user interaction and after the date of expiration ceasing to present the pre defined reminder when launching the calendaring appli cation wherein ceasing to present includes the event remaining on a users calendar but no reminders of expired recurring events are presented by the calendar ing application 14 A computer program product according to claim 13 further comprising code for configuring the predefined reminder to expire at an overdue date 15 A computer program product according to claim 13 further comprising computer code for presenting the pre defined reminder of the event prior to the expiration 16 A computer program product according to claim 13 further comprising computer code for configuring the expi ration to resume reminders at a future date thus producing reminders of a past task that was not accomplished 17 A computer program product according to claim 13 further comprising computer code for periodically presenting the predefined reminder until the expiration
18. e event reminder 22 is to occur three days prior to the event date of March 20 Although not necessary for this example the event date 18 and the event reminder 22 may even include a time component That is the user wants a reminder three days prior to Mary s birthday The calendaring application 12 therefore will produce an audible e g ding and or visual notification e g pop up window of the reminder 22 on March 17 Unless the user cancels dismisses the reminder 22 or reschedules the reminder 22 the calendaring application 12 will continue to present the audible and or visual notification of Mary s Birthday on March 18 March 19 and March 20 The prior art calen daring applications in fact will continue to present the 0 20 25 35 40 45 65 6 audible visual notification Mary s Birthday a daily basis even after the event date Although Mary s birthday is March 20 prior art calendaring applications will present notifications on March 21 March 22 and onward until cancellation dismissal So even though reminders of Mary s Birthday are perhaps pointless after March 20 the prior art calendaring applications continue to produce notifi cations of Mary s Birthday until cancellation The expiration 24 causes the calendaring application to cease presentation of reminders In one embodiment the expiration 24 defines a da
19. each interface with the communications device according to GSM Standards 2 17 and 11 11 and ISO Standard 7816 with each incorporated herein by reference The GSM Standard 2 17 is formally known as European digital cellular telecommunications system Phase 1 Sub scriber Identity Modules Functional Characteristics GSM 02 17 V3 2 0 1995 01 The GSM Standard 11 11 is for mally known as Digital cellular telecommunications system Phase 2 GSM Specification of the Subscriber Identity Module Mobile Equipment Subscriber Identity Module ME interface GSM 11 11 V5 3 0 1996 07 Both GSM standards are available from the European Telecommunica tion Standards Institute 650 route des Lucioles 06921 Sophia Antipolis Cedex FRANCE Tel 33 0 4 92 94 42 00 Fax 33 0 4 93 65 47 16 www etsi org The ISO Standard 7816 is formally known as Information technol ogy Identification cards Integrated circuit s cards with contacts and the standard is available from the International Organization for Standardization ISO 1 rue de Varemb Case postale 56 1211 Geneva 20 Switzerland Tele phone 41 22 749 01 11 Telefax 41 22 733 34 30 www iso org FIG 7 is a block diagram of the Subscriber Identity Mod ule 106 whether embodied as the plug 108 of FIG 8 or as the card 110 of FIG 9 Here the Subscriber Identity Module 106 comprises a microprocessor 114 uP communicating with memory modules 116 via a data
20. electronic calendar An electronic calendar is stored in memory and a processor communicates with the memory The processor executes an event associated with a rule with the rule comprising a reminder and an expiration The pro cessor also executes a calendar entry corresponding to the event The processor upon and or after the expiration ceases to execute the reminder when launching the electronic calen dar Whereupon expiration no reminder of the expired event is executed by the processor In yet another embodiment a computer program product manages events in an electronic calendar An electronic cal endar is stored on a computer readable medium The elec tronic calendar includes computer code for associating an event with a rule The rule includes a reminder and an expi ration A calendar entry corresponding to the event is stored in memory After the expiration expires the electronic calendar ceases to present the reminder upon launch Other systems methods and or computer program prod ucts according to the exemplary embodiments will be or become apparent to one with ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following drawings and detailed description It is intended that all such additional systems methods and or US 7 640 507 2 3 computer program products be included within this descrip tion be within the scope of the claims and be protected by the accompanying claims BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF
21. eless 0 5 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 8 portions utilizing any portion of the electromagnetic trum and any signaling standard such as the 802 family of standards GSM CDMA TDMA or any cellular standard and or the ISM band The calendaring application 12 provides calendar services to auser of the client computer 32 When the user at the client computer 32 makes a login request 36 to the calendaring application 12 the calendaring application 12 retrieves the user s personal calendar entries As FIG 4 illustrates the calendaring application 12 consults a database 38 of user profiles The database 38 of user profiles stores a profile 40 for each authorized user Each profile 40 stores the corresponding user s calendar entries 42 That is each user s calendar entry comprises the event 18 and its associated rule 20 Each rule 20 as earlier explained comprises the reminder 22 and the expiration 24 The calendaring application 12 return commu nicates a representation 44 of the user s calendar entries 42 to the client computer 32 Before return communicating user s calendar entries 42 however the calendaring application prunes those events that have expired The expiration 24 defines a date and or a time at which the reminder 22 is no longer processed or presented At and or after the date and the time of the expiration 24 the calendaring application 12 prunes those reminders that
22. eminder until the expira tion 12 A system according to claim 7 further operative to receive an acknowledgement of the predefined reminder 13 A computer program product comprising computer readable storage medium storing processor executable code for performing a method of managing recurring events in a calendaring application the method comprising establishing profiles for different types of events receiving a selection of a profile from a menu of profiles automatically establishing parameters for a rule according to the selected profile associating each recurring event with a rule the rule com prising a predefined reminder a predefined expiration and an associated predefined interval the predefined expiration defining a date after which the predefined reminder is no longer produced the predefined interval causing presentation of the predefined reminder and subsequent presentations of the predefined reminder according to the predefined interval until the predefined expiration storing a calendar entry corresponding to each recurring event upon the date of expiration disposing of a portion of the rule that defines the predefined reminder recurring the expiration of each recurring event minimizing a graphical window associated with the calen daring application when the graphical window is maximized then trigger a refresh of the calendaring application to review events and to cease processing expired rules
23. g graphical window representing application US 7 640 507 B2 Sheet 1 of 10 Dec 29 2009 U S Patent 5 4 US 7 640 507 B2 Sheet 2 of 10 Dec 29 2009 U S Patent WY ZI WY 8 ABPANJES 55819 112 US 7 640 507 B2 Sheet 3 of 10 Dec 29 2009 U S Patent 02 YB sAN 905 JEW SAW 61 eN 405 PIEN 8 YEN Old 91 IAM 202 9248 US 7 640 507 B2 Sheet 4 of 10 Dec 29 2009 U S Patent salu SAN yaro ysonbay 807 52140414 1981 ywr 59 5 1981 US 7 640 507 B2 Sheet 5 of 10 Dec 29 2009 U S Patent 88 92 1525 pupa 1895 sng 221104 002 Og asn sng se prydd 2 08
24. in the art further understand that the exemplary hardware software 30 35 40 45 60 4 processes methods and or operating systems described herein are for illustrative purposes and thus are not intended to be limited to any particular named manufacturer According to exemplary embodiments a calendaring application manages entries in an electronic calendar Each entry in the calendar is associated with an event and a rule The rule defines a date and or a time at which the event is to occur The rule may include date and a time at which the user desires a reminder of the event The rule however also includes an expiration The expiration describes a date and or a time at which the reminder expires That is when the reminder expires the calendaring application ceases to remind the user of the calendared event The event may remain on the user s calendar but the calendaring application will no longer remind the user of the event The expiration described by the exemplary embodiments prevents the calen daring application from reminding the user of stale or out dated events Even if the user fails forgets to cancel or dismiss the reminder the reminder is no longer processed after expi ration Even if the user re launches the calendaring applica tion once an event expires no reminder is presented FIG 1 is a schematic illustrating an electronic calendar 10 according to an exemplary embodiment The electronic
25. ith the rule would trigger a refresh of the calendaring application 12 The reminder interval would be a rule that presents a reminder and the rule then re presents that reminder according to an interval The rule for example could provide a reminder three days prior to a calendared event That same reminder would then be presented every thirty 30 minutes afterwards until expiration 05 7 640 507 2 7 According to an exemplary embodiment the calendaring application 12 may autonomously determine expiration The calendaring application 12 could automatically discard or dispose of a reminder 22 after some condition or occurrence The calendaring application 12 for example could autono mously dispose ofarule and or its associated reminder when stale That is the calendaring application 12 may be config ured to disregard reminders after a predetermined number of hours days weeks months or some other time period The user for example may configure the calendaring application 12 to automatically expire a reminder when one 1 week overdue The reminder 22 and the expiration 24 may be established according to a profile As the above paragraphs demonstrate the event 18 the rule 20 the reminder 22 and the expiration 24 may have many variables that define each component The user may find it cumbersome and perhaps even complicated to configure a calendar entry with all these variables These concepts then also include a pr
26. le architectural configurations for the elements of the communications device 128 If the reader desires a more detailed explanation the reader is invited to consult the fol lowing sources Lawrence Harte et al GSM SUPERPHONES 105 120 1999 Stecmunp Rept et al GSM AND PERSONAL Communications 389 474 1998 and GSM TELEPHONY 99 130 1997 with each incorporated herein by reference The expiration 24 may be utilized regardless of signaling standard As those of ordinary skill in the art recognize FIGS 7 10 illustrate a Global System for Mobile GSM commu nications device That is the communications device utilizes the Global System for Mobile GSM communications sig naling standard Those of ordinary skill in the art however also recognize the concepts of the expiration 24 are equally applicable to any communications device utilizing the Time Division Multiple Access signaling standard the Code Divi sion Multiple Access signaling standard the dual mode GSM ANSI Interoperability Team GAIT signaling stan dard any variant the GSM CDMA TDMaA signaling standard FIG 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method of managing an event in a calendaring application according to an exemplary embodiment The calendaring application associates the event with a rule Block 150 The rule comprises a reminder and an expiration Block 152 The reminder comprises
27. lishing the predefined interval at which the predefined reminder is subsequently re pre sented until the expiration store a calendar entry corresponding to the event upon the date of expiration dispose of a portion of the rule that defines the predefined reminder recur the expiration of the event minimize a graphical window associated with the calen daring application when the graphical window is maximized then trigger a refresh of the calendaring application to review events and to cease processing expired rules cancel an expired recurring event without user interaction and after the date of expiration cease to present the predefined reminder when launching the calendaring application wherein ceasing to present includes the event remaining on a users calendar but no reminders of an expired recurring event is presented by the calendaring applica tion 8 A system according to claim 7 further operative to configure the predefined reminder to expire at an overdue date 9 A system according to claim 7 further operative to present the predefined reminder of the event prior to the expiration 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 14 10 A system according to claim 7 further operative to configure the expiration to resume reminders at a future date thus producing reminders of a past task that was not accom plished 11 A system according to claim 7 further operative to periodically present the predefined r
28. n dared event the user would simply select the profile that best suits the event The parameters of the rule associated with the event would then be automatically established If some parameter does not suit the event the user could individually modify that parameter to satisfy a specific need FIG 4 is a schematic illustrating one possible operating environment for the calendaring application 12 FIG 4 shows the calendaring application 12 operating in a networked envi ronment The calendaring application 12 as before is stored in the memory 14 of the communications device 16 Here however the communications device 16 is shown as a com puter server 30 The calendaring application 12 and the com puter server 30 communicate with one or more client com puters 32 via a communications network 34 Some portions of the calendaring application 12 may operate within memory of the client computer 32 The communications network 34 may be a cable network operating in the radio frequency domain and or the Internet Protocol IP domain The communica tions network 34 however may also include a distributed computing network such as the Internet sometimes alterna tively known as the World Wide Web an intranet a local area network LAN and or a wide area network WAN The communications network 34 may include coaxial cables copper wires fiber optic lines and or hybrid coaxial lines The communications network 34 may even include wir
29. ng application 12 operates within a sys tem memory device The calendaring application 12 for example is shown residing in a memory subsystem 60 The calendaring application 12 however could also reside in flash memory 62 or peripheral storage device 64 The com puter system 58 also has one or more central processors 66 executing an operating system The operating system as is well known has a set of instructions that control the internal functions of the computer system 58 A system bus 68 com municates signals such as data signals control signals and address signals between the central processor 66 and a sys tem controller 70 typically called Northbridge The system controller 70 provides a bridging function between the one or more central processors 66 a graphics subsystem 72 the memory subsystem 60 and a PCI Peripheral Con troller Interface bus 74 The PCI bus 74 is controlled by a Peripheral Bus Controller 76 The Peripheral Bus Controller 76 typically called a Southbridge is an integrated circuit that serves as an input output hub for various peripheral ports 05 7 640 507 2 9 These peripheral ports could include for example port 78 a mouse port 80 a serial port 82 and or a parallel port 84 for a video display unit one or more external device ports 86 and networking ports 88 such as SCSI or Ethernet The Peripheral Bus Controller 76 could also include an audio s
30. ofile for different types of reminders When the user sets a new calendar entry the user may choose what profile best describes the desired reminder The user for example may define the event and or its asso ciated reminder as critical This critical profile would automatically establish the parameters that define the rule 18 A critical event would have a predefined type of reminder a predefined pre event notification interval a predefined post start time reminder interval and a predefined reminder expi ration interval This critical profile then would automati cally establish what type of reminder is presented for the event The profile would also automatically establish the date time at which the reminder is first presented and at what interval the reminder is re presented to the user The profile would also automatically establish how and when the reminder is re presented after the scheduled start of the event and when the reminder expires Although only a critical profile is discussed in detail the user could choose from several profiles ina menu The available profiles for example could include critical meeting personal reminder ference call low priority or any other category The cal endaring application 12 could even permit the user to create define new profiles and the user would configure each profile to best suit their needs When the user creates a new cale
31. onding to event 160 166 Cease presenting reminder when launched Has expiration expired Periodically visually audibly Cease presenting reminder when refreshed present reminder 170 164 Receive acknowledgment by maximizing minimizing graphical of reminder window representing application STOP 05 7 640 507 2 1 METHODS SYSTEMS AND PRODUCTS CALENDARING APPLICATIONS CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application relates to the commonly assigned U S patent application Ser No 11 095 391 filed Mar 31 2005 and entitled Methods Systems and Products for Calendar ing Applications and incorporated herein by reference NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTION A portion of this disclosure and its figures contain material subject to copyright protection The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever BACKGROUND This application generally relates to electrical communi cations and to data processing and more particularly to scheduling to task assignment and to reminders in electronic calendaring applications Conventional electronic calendaring applications utilize reminders These calendaring applications allow users to cre ate calendar entries and to associate the entries with dates and times These calendaring a
32. pplications also allow users to establish reminders of the calendared events The user may even specify at what date and time the reminder is presented prior to the event These conventional reminders however have a common annoyance Unless the user cancels or dismisses the reminder the conventional calendaring application continues to present the reminder It s not uncommon to have reminders that are days or weeks overdue At some date or time the reminder becomes pointless That is if the user has not canceled dis missed the reminder by a particular date and or time the calendaring application could assume the reminder is no longer useful to the user If the reminder expires calen daring application would not waste processor time presenting a pointless reminder What is needed then is a calendaring application that permits reminders to expire SUMMARY The aforementioned problems and other problems are reduced according to the exemplary embodiments using methods systems and products that manage entries in elec tronic calendar software applications Each entry in the cal endar is associated with an event and a rule The rule defines a date and or a time at which the event is to occur The rule may include a date and a time at which the user desires a reminder of the event The rule however also includes an expiration The expiration describes a date and or a time at which the reminder expires That is when
33. present the reminder 22 When the calendar application 12 is then again launched the calendar applica tion 12 will not produce reminders of the expired event 18 The terms launch launched launches and its variants mean the calendaring application is opened initialized or started The concept of the expiration 24 may be applied to both one time calendar events and to recurring events The expiration 24 of the reminder 22 would naturally recur when the event recurs on the calendar FIG 2 is a schematic further illustrating the exemplary embodiments Suppose the user decides to schedule time on Saturday to cut grass FIG 2 illustrates the user s calendar 26 for Saturday The user defines the rule 20 to specify that the event 18 here Cut Grass has an event date of Saturday The user also defines the rule 20 to include the event reminder 22 for Saturday morning at 8 AM The user however also defines the rule 20 to include the expiration 24 for Saturday at midnight So should the user launch the calendaring appli cation 12 Saturday morning the reminder 22 will alert the user of the scheduled time for cutting the grass Without including the expiration 24 in the rule 20 the reminder 22 is again presented each time the user re launches the calendaring application 12 unless the user cancels or dismisses the reminder 22 Thus for example if the user closes or logs out of the calendaring application 12
34. rule 20 to be disposable at the date and time of expiration The event rules could be refreshed without re launching the calendaring application 12 Each time the calendaring application 12 is refreshed the calendaring application 12 reviews each event rule Those rules that have expired since the last refresh or since the last launch would no longer be processed Each refresh then would cause the calendaring application to review all the event rules and discard ignore delete or otherwise not process expired events A refresh for example could occur each time a window corresponding to the calendaring application 12 is maximized or minimized Most readers are assumed familiar with an operating system that permits simultaneous operation of more than one ware application Each running application is represented by a graphical window The user can minimize or maximize each window thus viewing each application s respective window Here then the calendaring application 12 is refreshed each time its respective window is maximized minimized The calendaring application could additionally or alternatively include an icon or other graphical selection that causes a refresh The refresh could also be an automatic feature of the calendaring application perhaps periodically occurring according to schedule and or to activity Another refresh mechanism could be the expiration of a reminder interval This reminder interval also associated w
35. ry embodiments FIG 10 is a block diagram of another communications device 128 utilizing the expiration 24 in the calendaring application 12 Here the communica tions device comprises a radio transceiver unit 130 an antenna 132 a digital baseband chipset 134 and a man machine interface MMI 136 The transceiver unit 130 includes transmitter circuitry 138 and receiver circuitry 140 for receiving and transmitting radio frequency RF signals The transceiver unit 130 couples to the antenna 132 for con verting electrical current to and from electromagnetic waves The digital baseband chipset 134 contains a digital signal processor DSP 142 and performs signal processing func tions for audio voice signals and RF signals As FIG 14 shows the digital baseband chipset 134 may also include an on board microprocessor 144 that interacts with the man machine interface MMI 136 The man machine interface MMI 136 may comprise display device 146 a keypad 148 and the Subscriber Identity Module 106 The on board micro processor 144 performs GSM protocol functions and control functions for the radio circuitry 138 and 140 for the display device 146 and for the keypad 148 The on board micropro cessor 144 may also interface with the Subscriber Identity Module 106 and with the calendaring application 12 residing in the memory module 116 of the Subscriber Identity Module 106 Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there may be many suitab
36. te and or a time at which the reminder 22 will no longer be presented At and or after the date and the time defined by the expiration 24 the calendaring application 12 ceases to audibly visually present the reminder 22 When the calendaring application 12 is then again launched the calendaring application 12 ceases to process rules having expired events So in the example of Mary s Birthday the user specifies that the event 18 again Mary s Birthday includes the expiration 24 of March 217 This expiration 24 acknowledges that any reminder after the actual date of the event is pointless So when the calendaring appli cation 12 is launched on March 217 the calendaring appli cation 12 ceases to process expired reminders The calendar ing application 12 will not notify the user of events that have expired wherein a reminder is pointless According to exemplary embodiments no cancellation is required to cease reminders The expiration 24 is processed without subsequent user intervention That is once the user has defined the expiration 24 in the rule 20 the calendaring application 12 ceases to process expired rules associated with expired events The calendaring application 12 ceases to pro cess expired rules independent of clicks inputs or acknowl edgments of the reminder and or the event The user is thus not burdened with reminders that have no present scheduling value or task value The expiration 24 thus causes the
37. ting system may be used Other operating systems however are also suitable Such other operating systems would include the UNIX operating system UNIX is a registered trademark of the Open Source Group www opensource org the UNIX based Linux operating system WINDOWS NT and Mac OS Mac is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino Calif 95014 408 996 1010 www apple com Those of ordinary skill in the art again understand that the program processes methods and sys tems described herein are not limited to any particular oper ating system The system memory device shown as memory subsystem 60 flash memory 62 or peripheral storage device 64 may also contain an application program The application program cooperates with the operating system and with a video display unit via the serial port 82 and or the parallel port 84 to provide a Graphical User Interface GUI The Graphical User Interface typically includes a combination of signals communicated along the keyboard port 78 and the mouse port 80 The Graphical User Interface provides a convenient visual and or audible interface with a user of the computer system 58 FIG 6 is a schematic illustrating still more exemplary embodiments FIG 6 illustrates that the calendaring applica tion 12 may alternatively or additionally operate within vari ous communications devices 16 FIG 6 for example illus trates that the calendaring applic
38. tions modi fications and alternative embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the exemplary embodi ments What is claimed is 1 method of managing events a calendaring applica tion comprising establishing profiles for different types of events receiving a selection of a profile automatically establishing parameters for a rule according to the selected profile associating an event with the rule the rule comprising a predefined reminder and an expiration the expiration defining a date after which the predefined reminder is no longer produced the profile automatically establishing a date and a time at which the predefined reminder is first presented and automatically establishing a predefined interval at which the predefined reminder is re pre sented storing a calendar entry corresponding to the event upon the date of expiration disposing of a portion of the rule that defines the predefined reminder ceasing processing of any rules having expired events after the date of expiration ceasing to present the pre defined reminder when launching the calendaring appli cation wherein ceasing to present includes the event remaining on a user s calendar but no reminders of expired events are presented by the calendaring applica tion and 05 7 640 507 2 13 ceasing to present predefined reminder when refreshing the calendaring application upon maximizing or mini mizing a
39. ubsystem 90 Those of ordinary skill in the art understand that the program processes methods and systems described herein are not limited to any particular computer system or computer hardware One example of the central processor 66 is a microproces sor Advanced Micro Devices Inc for example manufac tures a full line of ATHLON microprocessors ATHLON is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices Inc One AMD Place P O Box 3453 Sunnyvale Calif 94088 3453 408 732 2400 800 538 8450 www amd com The Intel Corporation also manufactures a family of X86 and P86 microprocessors Intel Corporation 2200 Mission College Blvd Santa Clara Calif 95052 8119 408 765 8080 www intel com Other manufacturers also offer micropro cessors Such other manufacturers include Motorola Inc East Algonquin Road P O Box A3309 Schaumburg 60196 www Motorola com International Business Machines Corp New Orchard Road Armonk N Y 10504 914 499 1900 www ibm com and Transmeta Corp 3940 Freedom Circle Santa Clara Calif 95054 www transmeta com Those skilled in the art further understand that the program processes methods and systems described herein are not limited to any particular manufacturer s central pro cessor According to an exemplary embodiment the WIN DOWS WINDOWS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond Wash 98052 6399 425 882 8080 www Microsoft com opera
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