Patent ID: 8209719

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium operating in a computing device, comprising computer instructions for: facilitating establishment of communications with a set top box receiver located remotely from the computing device; receiving from the set top box receiver information associated with one or more content management activities taking place at the set top box receiver; presenting an iconic symbol in a graphical user interface window of the computing device; adjusting the iconic symbol in the graphical user interface window according to a plurality of content management activities taking place at the set top box receiver, wherein the plurality of content management activities comprise at least a download status of media content supplied by a video-on-demand service; constructing a selectable message associated with at least one of the one or more content management activities; presenting the selectable message in a pop-up graphical user interfacewindow positioned near the iconic symbol within the graphical user interfacewindow of the computing device; constructing a plurality of messages associated with at least the download status of media content supplied by the video-on-demand service; storing an archive of the plurality of messages, each message being stored with a time stamp; and presenting the plurality of messages responsive to detecting a selection of the iconic symbol.