Patent ID: 8159469

Claim:
A method for initiating activities in an electronic device, comprising: displaying, on a touch-sensitive display screen, a user interface for a first activity; detecting a user-entered gesture on the touch-sensitive display screen, the user-entered gesture comprising a command for invoking a launcher interface, the gesture further comprising a point of contact indicating a position along a first axis and a position along a second axis; responsive to the detected gesture: displaying a launcher interface at a location on the screen corresponding to the indicated position along the first axis, the launcher interface comprising a plurality of user-activatable items, each user-activatable item corresponding to an activity; and highlighting a user-activatable item corresponding to the indicated position along the second axis; detecting additional user input on the touch-sensitive display screen; responsive to the additional user input comprising movement of the point of contact to change the position along the first axis, moving the launcher interface to a location on the screen corresponding to the changed position along the first axis; responsive to the additional user input comprising movement of the point of contact to change the position along the second axis, highlighting a user-activatable item corresponding to the changed position along the second axis; and responsive to the additional user input indicating activation of the highlighted user-activatable item: initiating an activity corresponding to the highlighted user-activatable item; and dismissing the launcher interface.