Patent ID: 7231199

Claim:
A mobile electronic device, comprising: a microprocessor; a plurality of software applications operable on the microprocessor; a heap memory for storing objects used by the software applications; a garbage collector module operable on the microprocessor for cleaning unreferenced objects in the heap memory; and a memory cleaner module operable on the microprocessor for maintaining a list of registered applications selected from the software applications, and for notifying at least some of the registered applications upon the occurrence of a trigger event; the registered applications being responsive to the memory cleaner module for unreferencing at least some of the objects in the heap memory used thereby upon receiving the notification from the memory cleaner module; and the registered applications are each configured for advising the memory cleaner module if any objects have been unreferenced thereby based on the notification, and the memory cleaner module is configured for causing the garbage collector module to clean unreferenced objects in the heap memory upon being advised by one or more of the registered applications that objects have been unreferenced thereby based on the notification.