An electronic device comprising: a housing adapted for handheld operation; a touch screen supported on the housing and configured to display information thereon, the touch screen including a touch screen surface having one or more sensors configured to detect an application of one or more unique control gestures (200, 210, 220, 230, 240, 250, 260) on the touch screen surface, the touch screen having a first touch screen region and a different second touch screen region; a floating trigger icon displayed on the first touch screen region, wherein the floating trigger icon is selectable to configure an action of the electronic device by applying a unique control gesture (200, 210) to the first touch screen region at which the floating trigger icon is displayed, a plurality of data capture engines, each associated with a set of decoding instructions, and a processing system configured to communicate with the plurality of capture engines and the one or more sensors of the touch screen surface, characterized in that: the plurality of data capture engines include a barcode reading engine and an RFID reading engine for capturing respectively barcodes or RFID data from items, wherein each of the plurality of data capture engines is associated with a unique control gesture (200, 210, 220, 230, 240) applied to the first touch screen region at which the floating trigger icon is displayed, application of a selected one of the unique control gestures (200, 210, 220, 230, 240) configures a data capturing action, so as to configure or set a data reader mode of the electronic device, and the processing system is configured to: in response to detecting application of the selected unique control gesture (200, 210, 220, 230, 240), determine a data capturing action corresponding with the selected unique control gesture; configure the electronic device with the corresponding one of the plurality of data capture engines for capturing data via the electronic device, and trigger said data capturing action. a housing adapted for handheld operation; a touch screen supported on the housing and configured to display information thereon, the touch screen including a touch screen surface having one or more sensors configured to detect an application of one or more unique control gestures (200, 210, 220, 230, 240, 250, 260) on the touch screen surface, the touch screen having a first touch screen region and a different second touch screen region; a floating trigger icon displayed on the first touch screen region, wherein the floating trigger icon is selectable to configure an action of the electronic device by applying a unique control gesture (200, 210) to the first touch screen region at which the floating trigger icon is displayed, a plurality of data capture engines, each associated with a set of decoding instructions, and a processing system configured to communicate with the plurality of capture engines and the one or more sensors of the touch screen surface, the plurality of data capture engines include a barcode reading engine and an RFID reading engine for capturing respectively barcodes or RFID data from items, wherein each of the plurality of data capture engines is associated with a unique control gesture (200, 210, 220, 230, 240) applied to the first touch screen region at which the floating trigger icon is displayed, application of a selected one of the unique control gestures (200, 210, 220, 230, 240) configures a data capturing action, so as to configure or set a data reader mode of the electronic device, and the processing system is configured to: in response to detecting application of the selected unique control gesture (200, 210, 220, 230, 240), determine a data capturing action corresponding with the selected unique control gesture; configure the electronic device with the corresponding one of the plurality of data capture engines for capturing data via the electronic device, and trigger said data capturing action.