Patent ID: 7346370

Claim:
An information transfer apparatus, comprising: a central system for managing service related information related to services available for use including a first service, the central system including a connection framework process that provides a services table; at least a first application that processes application related information; at least a first service engine having said first service associated therewith and being in communication with said central system for providing at least a first function to be used by said first application; at least a first information source in communication with said first service engine from which said application related information can be obtained and provided via said first service engine to said first application for processing using said first application, wherein at least said first service is listed in said services table, wherein said at least a first service is advertised by a services list including at least a portion of said services table, and wherein said first service is discovered by said first application from said services list; and at least a first communication interface in communication with at least each of said central system and said first service engine, said first communication interface for providing compatibility of communications between said central system and communications link technology communicable with said first communication interface; wherein said central system is used to establish a first communications path for said first communication interface to said first service engine by providing said first communication interface with information for connecting to said first service and the communication interface storing the information for connecting to said first service in a services map and, after a communication channel between said first communication interface and said first service being established, said first communication interface is used in obtaining said application related information from said information source and providing said application related information to said first application using said communication channel, wherein said communication channel does not include said connection framework process.