AN OVERBROAD PATENT ON Away/Available/Busy status - This application from Apple seeks to patent the idea of...displaying a status to contacts that would indicate whether you’re available to field a call or not! 10 minutes of your time can help narrow US patent applications before they become patents. Follow @askpatents on twitter to help.
QUESTION - Have you seen anything that was published before 6/13/2007 that discusses:
- Sharing Away/Available/Busy status on a mobile phone along with your location
If so, please submit evidence of prior art as an answer to this question. We welcome multiple answers from the same individual.
EXTRA CREDIT - A reference to anything that meets all of the criteria to the question above AND ALSO takes into account user preferences, determining what information it can share as set by a user, or filtering inbound calls against a phone’s contact list to help preserve privacy before sharing any information
TITLE: Away/Available/Busy status on a mobile phone
Summary: [Translated from Legalese into English] A method for displaying contact information about a first phone to user of a second phone. Contact information of user includes Away/Available/Busy status for the user of the first phone and his location. Main idea is letting user set and forget preferences around just how much status they’re willing to share and with who, and letting the automated system do the rest
- Publication Number: US20130177141 A1
- Application Number: US 13/785,294
- Assignee: Apple
- Prior Art Date: Seeking prior Art predating 6/13/2007
- Open for Challenge at USPTO: Open through 1/7/2014
Claim 1 requires each and every step below:
A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving a command at an operating system of a first mobile phone for displaying contact information of a remote user having a mobile phone number of a second mobile phone;
in response to the command, transmitting a request to a remote server from the first mobile phone over a cellular network requesting an operating status of the second mobile phone;
receiving the operating status of the second mobile phone from the remote server over the cellular network; and
displaying the operating status of the second mobile phone on a display of the first mobile phone as a part of contact information of the remote user associated with the second mobile phone, the operating status including current locality of the second mobile phone.
In English this means:
A method of displaying contact information of a remote user, comprising:
User of first phone asks for contact information of user of second phone
First phone asks remote server for contact information of user of second phone
First phone receives contact information over a cellular network
First phone displays status of second phone (e.g. Away/Available/Busy) and location of second user as part of contact information for the second user
Good prior art would be evidence of a system that did each and every one of these steps prior to 6/13/2007
You're probably aware of ten pieces of art that meet this criteria already... separately, the applicant is claiming using user preferences and privacy settings to show Away/Available/Busy selectively
"Away/Available/Busy status on a mobile phone from the Applicant"
What is good prior art? Please see our FAQ.
Want to help? Please vote or comment on submissions below. We welcome you to post your own request for prior art on other questionable US Patent Applications.