Patent ID: 8763081

Claim:
An apparatus that is removably attachable to a computer system, the apparatus comprising: an authentication module including a module compatible with authentication in a mobile telephone network, the module including at least one of a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM), a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), a 3GPP IP Multimedia Subsystem Services Identity Module (ISIM), and a module compatible with a CDMA or 3GPP2 networks; a memory with application software stored therein, the application software, including instructions for execution of a communication application on the computer system, the communication application including a configurable user interface for emulating one of a plurality of mobile telephone devices; and an interface for communicating with a remote server over a data communication network; wherein the application software includes instructions, which, when loaded and executed on the computer system cause the computer system to: establish by a first application executing as a stand-alone application in an operating environment of an operating system of the computer system an application layer connection between the first application and the remote server without requiring a service of another application on the computer system to establish the application layer connection; and use by the first application executing on the computer system the authentication module to automatically authorize an application layer interaction between the first application and the remote server on the application layer connection.