Patent ID: 8059570

Claim:
A battery conservation method for a wireless network-capable device, comprising: establishing, on a mobile device, a communication association with an available wireless network; initiating, on the mobile device, a timer in response to a specified application event; deactivating the timer when a first foreground network-capable application is activated on the mobile device before the timer expires; pausing the timer to permit a background application executing on the mobile device to use the established communication association and, substantially immediately thereafter, resuming the timer; terminating the communication association with the available wireless network when the timer expires before a second foreground network-capable application is activated on the mobile device; establishing a temporary communication association with the available wireless network after the act of terminating in response to a background application executing on the mobile device; permitting the background application to use the temporary communication association; and terminating the temporary communication association substantially immediately after the background application completes use of the temporary communication association, wherein the act of establishing the temporary communication association is performed without restarting the timer.