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 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 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 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 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 , 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 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 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 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 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 , 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. <EOS>