PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-8577971-B2
Application Number: US-96807007-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Email fetching system and method in a portable electronic device

Abstract:
In accordance with some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for fetching email from an email server to a portable electronic device is disclosed. The method includes fetching email from the email server upon occurrence of at least one of: expiration of a first period of time after activation of an email application running on the device; expiration of a second period of time after a prior email fetch while the email application is running in the foreground; expiration of a third period of time after the prior email fetch while the email application is running in background; or expiration of a fourth period of time after the portable device is unlocked.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 at a portable electronic device configured with an email application, 
 setting a first period of time to a first value and a fourth period of time to a fourth value; and 
 fetching email from an email server upon occurrence of:
 elapse of the first period of time after activation of the email application, wherein the activation of the email application occurs upon occurrence of at least one of launching or resuming of the email application; 
 or 
 elapse of the fourth period of time after unlocking of the portable device. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first or fourth periods of time is user-definable. 
     
     
       3. The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the first value is greater than 1 minute. 
     
     
       4. The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the fourth value is 1 minute. 
     
     
       5. The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 upon activation of the email application, resetting the first time period to the first value. 
 
     
     
       6. The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 anytime the device is unlocked, resetting the fourth period to the fourth value. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 after the elapse of the first period of time or the fourth period of time, repeatedly fetching email from the email server upon occurrence of a next one of:
 elapse of the first period of time after activation of the email application; 
 or 
 elapse of the fourth period of time after unlocking of the portable device. 
 
 
     
     
       8. The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 setting a second period of time to a second value and a third period of time to a third value; and 
 fetching email from an email server upon occurrence of:
 elapse of the second period of time after a prior email fetch while the email application is running in foreground on the portable electronic device; or 
 elapse of the third period of time after the prior email fetch while the email application is running in background on the portable electronic device. 
 
 
     
     
       9. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein at least one of the second or third periods of time is user-definable. 
     
     
       10. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein the second value is greater than or equal to 5 minutes. 
     
     
       11. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein the third value is greater than or equal to 15 minutes. 
     
     
       12. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein the second value is 5 minutes and the third value is at least 15 minutes. 
     
     
       13. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 upon activation of the email application, resetting the second period to the second value and the third period to the third value. 
 
     
     
       14. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 anytime email is fetched, resetting the second period to the second value and the third period to the third value. 
 
     
     
       15. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 after the elapse of the first, second, third, or fourth period of time, repeatedly fetching email from the email server upon occurrence of a next one of:
 elapse of the second period of time after the prior email fetch while the email application is running in foreground on the portable electronic device; or 
 elapse of the third period of time after the prior email fetch while the email application is running in background on the portable electronic device. 
 
 
     
     
       16. A portable computing device, comprising:
 a display; 
 one or more processors; 
 memory; and 
 one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including: 
 an email application; and 
 instructions for: 
 setting a first period of time to a first value and a fourth period of time to a fourth value; and 
 fetching email from an email server upon occurrence of:
 elapse of the first period of time after activation of the email application, wherein the activation of the email application occurs upon occurrence of at least one of launching or resuming of the email application; 
 or 
 elapse of the fourth period of time after unlocking of the portable device. 
 
 
     
     
       17. A computer readable non-transitory storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more computer programs including instructions, which when executed by a portable computing device with an email application, cause the device to:
 set a first period of time to a first value and a fourth period of time to a fourth value; and 
 fetch email to the portable device from an email server upon occurrence of:
 elapse of the first period of time after activation of the email application, wherein the activation of the email application occurs upon occurrence of at least one of launching or resuming of the email application; 
 or 
 elapse of the fourth period of time after unlocking of the portable device. 
 
 
     
     
       18. A portable computing device with a touch screen display and configured with an email application, comprising means for:
 setting a first period of time to a first value and a fourth period of time to a fourth value; and 
 fetching email to the portable device from an email server upon occurrence of:
 elapse of the first period of time after activation of the email application, wherein the activation of the email application occurs upon occurrence of at least one of launching or resuming of the email application; 
 or 
 elapse of the fourth period of time after unlocking of the portable device. 
 
 
     
     
       19. A portable computing device, comprising:
 a display; 
 one or more processors; 
 memory; and 
 one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including: 
 an email application; and 
 instructions for:
 testing for occurrence of:
 elapse of a first period of time after activation of the email application, wherein the activation of the email application occurs upon occurrence of at least one of launching or resuming of the email application; 
 elapse of a second period of time after a prior email fetch while the email application is running in foreground on the portable electronic device; 
 elapse of a third period of time after the prior email fetch while the email application is running in background on the portable electronic device; and 
 elapse of a fourth period of time after unlocking of the portable device; and 
 
 fetching email from an email server if at least one of the elapses is tested to have occurred.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Nos. 60/947,395, “Email Fetching System and Method in a Portable Electronic Device,” filed Jun. 29, 2007; and 60/937,993, “Portable Multifunction Device,” filed Jun. 29, 2007. Both of these applications are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. 
     This application is related to the following applications: (1) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/188,182, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,046,230, “Touch Pad For Handheld Device,” filed Jul. 1, 2002; (2) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/722,948, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,495,659, “Touch Pad For Handheld Device,” filed Nov. 25, 2003; (3) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/643,256, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,499,040, “Movable Touch Pad With Added Functionality,” filed Aug. 18, 2003; (4) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/654,108, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,808,479, “Ambidextrous Mouse,” filed Sep. 2, 2003; (5) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/840,862, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,663,607, “Multipoint Touchscreen,” filed May 6, 2004; (6) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/903,964, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,479,122, “Gestures For Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jul. 30, 2004; (7) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/038,590, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,239,784, “Mode-Based Graphical User Interfaces For Touch Sensitive Input Devices” filed Jan. 18, 2005; (8) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/057,050, now published as U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2006/0181517, “Display Actuator,” filed Feb. 11, 2005; (9) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/658,777, “Multi-Functional Hand-Held Device,” filed Mar. 4, 2005; (10) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/367,749, now published as U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2006/0197753, “Multi-Functional Hand-Held Device,” filed Mar. 3, 2006; (11) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/824,769, “Portable Multifunction Device,” filed Sep. 6, 2006; (12) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/879,253, “Portable Multifunction Device,” filed Jan. 7, 2007; (13) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/879,469, “Portable Multifunction Device,” filed Jan. 8, 2007; and (14) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/947,396, “Port Discovery and Message Delivery in a Portable Electronic Device,” filed Jun. 29, 2007. All of these applications are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The disclosed embodiments relate generally to portable electronic devices, and more particularly, to portable devices that access and display email. 
     BACKGROUND 
     As portable electronic devices become more compact, and the number of functions performed by a given device increase, it has become a significant challenge to design a user interface that allows users to easily interact with a multifunction device. This challenge is particularly significant for handheld portable devices, which have much smaller screens than desktop or laptop computers. This situation is unfortunate because the user interface is the gateway through which users receive not only content but also responses to user actions or behaviors, including user attempts to access a device&#39;s features, tools, and functions. Some portable communication devices (e.g., mobile telephones, sometimes called mobile phones, cell phones, cellular telephones, and the like) have resorted to adding more pushbuttons, increasing the density of push buttons, overloading the functions of pushbuttons, or using complex menu systems to allow a user to access, store and manipulate data. These conventional user interfaces often result in complicated key sequences and menu hierarchies that must be memorized by the user. 
     Some portable electronic devices provide email capabilities in addition to other features, such as access to and display of online videos, Internet access, media player features, and cell phone capabilities. Email can either be pushed to a portable device or fetched. Fetching email involves a portable electronic device periodically downloading incoming email from an email server. How fetching is handled can negatively impact performance and battery life of the device and the quality of the user email experience. This is because downloading email can momentarily occupy a significant amount of the communications bandwidth available to a portable electronic device, which must sometimes use a relatively slow network connection. Also, downloading email can slow operation of other applications running on a portable electronic device (such as a video player that is playing streaming video during an email fetch), and the communications required to fetch email can drain battery resources, which are at a premium for portable devices. The quality of the user&#39;s email experience can also be negatively impacted depending on when the email is fetched. For example, email that is fetched according to an inflexible schedule is not likely to be fresh when a user is ready to read it. 
     Accordingly, there is a need for a portable electronic device with email capabilities that performs email fetching in a way that is sensitive to available communication bandwidth, does not monopolize system resources at the expense of other applications that are running on the device, and is sensitive to battery usage. There is also a need for a portable electronic device that performs email fetching in way that does negatively impact the user&#39;s email experience or use of other features of the device. 
     SUMMARY 
     The above deficiencies and other problems associated with user interfaces for portable devices are reduced or eliminated by the disclosed portable multifunction device. In some embodiments, the device has a touch-sensitive display (also known as a “touch screen”) with a graphical user interface (GUI), one or more processors, memory and one or more modules, programs or sets of instructions stored in the memory for performing multiple functions. In some embodiments, the user interacts with the GUI primarily through finger contacts and gestures on the touch-sensitive display. In some embodiments, in addition to e-mailing, the functions may include telephoning, video conferencing, instant messaging, blogging, digital photographing, digital videoing, web browsing, digital music playing, and/or digital video playing. Instructions for performing these functions may be included in a computer program product configured for execution by one or more processors. 
     In accordance with some embodiments, a computer-implemented method is performed at a portable electronic device configured with an email application. The computer-implemented method includes: fetching email from an email server upon occurrence of at least one of: expiration of a first period of time after activation of the email application; expiration of a second period of time after a prior email fetch while the email application is running in the foreground on the portable electronic device; expiration of a third period of time after the prior email fetch while the email application is running in the background on the portable electronic device; or expiration of a fourth period of time after unlocking of the portable device. In accordance with some embodiments, at least one of the first, second, third or fourth periods of time is user-definable. In accordance with other embodiments, at least one of the second and third periods of time are adapted to extend battery life of the portable electronic device by setting the third period to be substantially longer than the second period. In some embodiments, the second period can be approximately 5 minutes and third period at least approximately 15 minutes. 
     In accordance with some embodiments, a computer-implemented method is performed at a portable electronic device configured with an email application. The computer-implemented method includes: repeatedly fetching email from an email server upon occurrence of a next one of: expiration of a first period of time after activation of the email application; expiration of a second period of time after a prior email fetch while the email application is running in the foreground on the portable electronic device; expiration of a third period of time after the prior email fetch while the email application is running in the background on the portable electronic device; or expiration of a fourth period of time after unlocking of the portable device. 
     In accordance with some embodiments, a portable computing device includes: a display; one or more processors; memory; and one or more programs. The one or more programs are stored in the memory and are configured to be executed by the one or more processors. The one or more programs include an email application and instructions for fetching email from an email server upon occurrence of at least one of: expiration of a first period of time after activation of the email application; expiration of a second period of time after a prior email fetch while the email application is running in the foreground on the portable electronic device; expiration of a third period of time after the prior email fetch while the email application is running in the background on the portable electronic device; or expiration of a fourth period of time after unlocking of the portable device. 
     In accordance with some embodiments, a computer readable storage medium stores one or more programs. The one or more programs include instructions, which when executed by a portable computing device with an email application, cause the device to fetch email to the portable device from an email server upon occurrence of at least one of: expiration of a first period of time after activation of the email application; expiration of a second period of time after a prior email fetch while the email application is running in the foreground on the portable electronic device; expiration of a third period of time after the prior email fetch while the email application is running in the background on the portable electronic device; or expiration of a fourth period of time after unlocking of the portable device. 
     In accordance with some embodiments, a portable computing device with a touch screen display includes means for fetching email to the portable device from an email server upon occurrence of at least one of: expiration of a first period of time after activation of the email application; expiration of a second period of time after a prior email fetch while the email application is running in the foreground on the portable electronic device; expiration of a third period of time after the prior email fetch while the email application is running in the background on the portable electronic device; or expiration of a fourth period of time after unlocking of the portable device. 
     Thus, a portable electronic device is provided that provides a more efficient and unobtrusive (to the user) system and method for fetching email from a server. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       For a better understanding of the aforementioned embodiments of the invention as well as additional embodiments thereof, reference should be made to the Description of Embodiments below, in conjunction with the following drawings in which like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout the figures. 
         FIGS. 1A and 1B  are block diagrams illustrating portable multifunction devices with touch-sensitive displays in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIGS. 1C and 1D  are block diagrams illustrating additional details of the email client module in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG. 1E  is a system diagram illustrating a network in which a portable electronic device with email capabilities is operable in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a portable multifunction device having a touch screen in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary user interface for unlocking a portable electronic device in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIGS. 4A and 4B  illustrate exemplary user interfaces for a menu of applications on a portable multifunction device in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIGS. 5A and 5B  illustrate an exemplary user interface for an email client for a portable electronic device in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIGS. 6A and 6B  are flow diagrams illustrating an exemplary port discovery method in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG. 7  is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for fetching email to a portable electronic device in accordance with some embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
     Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, circuits, and networks have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the embodiments. 
     It will also be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first gesture could be termed a second gesture, and, similarly, a second gesture could be termed a first gesture, without departing from the scope of the present invention. 
     The terminology used in the description of the invention herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used in the description of the invention and the appended claims, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will also be understood that the term “and/or” as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. 
     Embodiments of a portable multifunction device, user interfaces for such devices, and associated processes for using such devices are described. In some embodiments, the device is a portable communications device such as a mobile telephone that also contains other functions, such as PDA and/or music player functions. 
     The user interface may include a physical click wheel in addition to a touch screen or a virtual click wheel displayed on the touch screen. A click wheel is a user-interface device that may provide navigation commands based on an angular displacement of the wheel or a point of contact with the wheel by a user of the device. A click wheel may also be used to provide a user command corresponding to selection of one or more items, for example, when the user of the device presses down on at least a portion of the wheel or the center of the wheel. Alternatively, breaking contact with a click wheel image on a touch screen surface may indicate a user command corresponding to selection. For simplicity, in the discussion that follows, a portable multifunction device that includes a touch screen is used as an exemplary embodiment. It should be understood, however, that some of the user interfaces and associated processes may be applied to other devices, such as personal computers and laptop computers, that may include one or more other physical user-interface devices, such as a physical click wheel, a physical keyboard, a mouse and/or a joystick. 
     The device supports a variety of applications, such as a telephone application, a video conferencing application, an e-mail application, an instant messaging application, a blogging application, a digital camera application, a digital video camera application, a web browsing application, a digital music player application, and/or a digital video player application. 
     The various applications that may be executed on the device may use at least one common physical user-interface device, such as the touch screen. One or more functions of the touch screen as well as corresponding information displayed on the device may be adjusted and/or varied from one application to the next and/or within a respective application. In this way, a common physical architecture (such as the touch screen) of the device may support the variety of applications with user interfaces that are intuitive and transparent. 
     The user interfaces may include one or more soft keyboard embodiments. The soft keyboard embodiments may include standard (QWERTY) and/or non-standard configurations of symbols on the displayed icons of the keyboard, such as those described in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/459,606, “Keyboards For Portable Electronic Devices,” filed Jul. 24, 2006, and 11/459,615, “Touch Screen Keyboards For Portable Electronic Devices,” filed Jul. 24, 2006, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. The keyboard embodiments may include a reduced number of icons (or soft keys) relative to the number of keys in existing physical keyboards, such as that for a typewriter. This may make it easier for users to select one or more icons in the keyboard, and thus, one or more corresponding symbols. The keyboard embodiments may be adaptive. For example, displayed icons may be modified in accordance with user actions, such as selecting one or more icons and/or one or more corresponding symbols. One or more applications on the portable device may utilize common and/or different keyboard embodiments. Thus, the keyboard embodiment used may be tailored to at least some of the applications. In some embodiments, one or more keyboard embodiments may be tailored to a respective user. For example, one or more keyboard embodiments may be tailored to a respective user based on a word usage history (lexicography, slang, individual usage) of the respective user. Some of the keyboard embodiments may be adjusted to reduce a probability of a user error when selecting one or more icons, and thus one or more symbols, when using the soft keyboard embodiments. 
     Attention is now directed towards embodiments of the device.  FIGS. 1A and 1B  are block diagrams illustrating portable multifunction devices  100  with touch-sensitive displays  112  in accordance with some embodiments. The touch-sensitive display  112  is sometimes called a “touch screen” for convenience, and may also be known as or called a touch-sensitive display system. The device  100  may include a memory  102  (which may include one or more computer readable storage mediums), a memory controller  122 , one or more processing units (CPU&#39;s)  120 , a peripherals interface  118 , RF circuitry  108 , audio circuitry  110 , a speaker  111 , a microphone  113 , an input/output (I/O) subsystem  106 , other input or control devices  116 , and an external port  124 . The device  100  may include one or more optical sensors  164 . These components may communicate over one or more communication buses or signal lines  103 . 
     It should be appreciated that the device  100  is only one example of a portable multifunction device  100 , and that the device  100  may have more or fewer components than shown, may combine two or more components, or a may have a different configuration or arrangement of the components. The various components shown in  FIGS. 1A and 1B  may be implemented in hardware, software or a combination of both hardware and software, including one or more signal processing and/or application specific integrated circuits. 
     Memory  102  may include high-speed random access memory and may also include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-state memory devices. Access to memory  102  by other components of the device  100 , such as the CPU  120  and the peripherals interface  118 , may be controlled by the memory controller  122 . 
     The peripherals interface  118  couples the input and output peripherals of the device to the CPU  120  and memory  102 . The one or more processors  120  run or execute various software programs and/or sets of instructions stored in memory  102  to perform various functions for the device  100  and to process data. 
     In some embodiments, the peripherals interface  118 , the CPU  120 , and the memory controller  122  may be implemented on a single chip, such as a chip  104 . In some other embodiments, they may be implemented on separate chips. 
     The RF (radio frequency) circuitry  108  receives and sends RF signals, also called electromagnetic signals. The RF circuitry  108  converts electrical signals to/from electromagnetic signals and communicates with communications networks and other communications devices via the electromagnetic signals. The RF circuitry  108  may include well-known circuitry for performing these functions, including but not limited to an antenna system, an RF transceiver, one or more amplifiers, a tuner, one or more oscillators, a digital signal processor, a CODEC chipset, a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, memory, and so forth. The RF circuitry  108  may communicate with networks, such as the Internet, also referred to as the World Wide Web (WWW), an intranet and/or a wireless network, such as a cellular telephone network, a wireless local area network (LAN) and/or a metropolitan area network (MAN), and other devices by wireless communication. The wireless communication may use any of a plurality of communications standards, protocols and technologies, including but not limited to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Bluetooth, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) (e.g., IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g and/or IEEE 802.11n), voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Wi-MAX, a protocol for email (e.g., Internet message access protocol (IMAP) and/or post office protocol (POP)), instant messaging (e.g., extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP), Session Initiation Protocol for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE), and/or Instant Messaging and Presence Service (IMPS)), and/or Short Message Service (SMS)), or any other suitable communication protocol, including communication protocols not yet developed as of the filing date of this document. 
     The audio circuitry  110 , the speaker  111 , and the microphone  113  provide an audio interface between a user and the device  100 . The audio circuitry  110  receives audio data from the peripherals interface  118 , converts the audio data to an electrical signal, and transmits the electrical signal to the speaker  111 . The speaker  111  converts the electrical signal to human-audible sound waves. The audio circuitry  110  also receives electrical signals converted by the microphone  113  from sound waves. The audio circuitry  110  converts the electrical signal to audio data and transmits the audio data to the peripherals interface  118  for processing. Audio data may be retrieved from and/or transmitted to memory  102  and/or the RF circuitry  108  by the peripherals interface  118 . In some embodiments, the audio circuitry  110  also includes a headset jack (e.g.  212 ,  FIG. 2 ). The headset jack provides an interface between the audio circuitry  110  and removable audio input/output peripherals, such as output-only headphones or a headset with both output (e.g., a headphone for one or both ears) and input (e.g., a microphone). 
     The I/O subsystem  106  couples input/output peripherals on the device  100 , such as the touch screen  112  and other input/control devices  116 , to the peripherals interface  118 . The I/O subsystem  106  may include a display controller  156  and one or more input controllers  160  for other input or control devices. The one or more input controllers  160  receive/send electrical signals from/to other input or control devices  116 . The other input/control devices  116  may include physical buttons (e.g., push buttons, rocker buttons, etc.), dials, slider switches, joysticks, click wheels, and so forth. In some alternate embodiments, input controller(s)  160  may be coupled to any (or none) of the following: a keyboard, infrared port, USB port, and a pointer device such as a mouse. The one or more buttons (e.g.,  208 ,  FIG. 2 ) may include an up/down button for volume control of the speaker  111  and/or the microphone  113 . The one or more buttons may include a push button (e.g.,  206 ,  FIG. 2 ). A quick press of the push button may disengage a lock of the touch screen  112  or begin a process that uses gestures on the touch screen to unlock the device, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/322,549, “Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image,” filed Dec. 23, 2005, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. A longer press of the push button (e.g.,  206 ) may turn power to the device  100  on or off. The user may be able to customize a functionality of one or more of the buttons. The touch screen  112  is used to implement virtual or soft buttons and one or more soft keyboards. 
     The touch-sensitive touch screen  112  provides an input interface and an output interface between the device and a user. The display controller  156  receives and/or sends electrical signals from/to the touch screen  112 . The touch screen  112  displays visual output to the user. The visual output may include graphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof (collectively termed “graphics”). In some embodiments, some or all of the visual output may correspond to user-interface objects, further details of which are described below. 
     A touch screen  112  has a touch-sensitive surface, sensor or set of sensors that accepts input from the user based on haptic and/or tactile contact. The touch screen  112  and the display controller  156  (along with any associated modules and/or sets of instructions in memory  102 ) detect contact (and any movement or breaking of the contact) on the touch screen  112  and converts the detected contact into interaction with user-interface objects (e.g., one or more soft keys, icons, web pages or images) that are displayed on the touch screen. In an exemplary embodiment, a point of contact between a touch screen  112  and the user corresponds to a finger of the user. 
     The touch screen  112  may use LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, or LPD (light emitting polymer display) technology, although other display technologies may be used in other embodiments. The touch screen  112  and the display controller  156  may detect contact and any movement or breaking thereof using any of a plurality of touch sensing technologies now known or later developed, including but not limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensor arrays or other elements for determining one or more points of contact with a touch screen  112 . 
     A touch-sensitive display in some embodiments of the touch screen  112  may be analogous to the multi-touch sensitive tablets described in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,323,846 (Westerman et al.), 6,570,557 (Westerman et al.), and/or 6,677,932 (Westerman), and/or U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0015024A1, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. However, a touch screen  112  displays visual output from the portable device  100 , whereas touch sensitive tablets do not provide visual output. 
     A touch-sensitive display in some embodiments of the touch screen  112  may be as described in the following applications: (1) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/381,313, “Multipoint Touch Surface Controller,” filed May 2, 2006; (2) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/840,862, “Multipoint Touchscreen,” filed May 6, 2004; (3) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/903,964, “Gestures For Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jul. 30, 2004; (4) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/048,264, “Gestures For Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jan. 31, 2005; (5) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/038,590, “Mode-Based Graphical User Interfaces For Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jan. 18, 2005; (6) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/228,758, “Virtual Input Device Placement On A Touch Screen User Interface,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; (7) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/228,700, “Operation Of A Computer With A Touch Screen Interface,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; (8) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/228,737, “Activating Virtual Keys Of A Touch-Screen Virtual Keyboard,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; and (9) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/367,749, “Multi-Functional Hand-Held Device,” filed Mar. 3, 2006. All of these applications are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. 
     The touch screen  112  may have a resolution in excess of 100 dpi. In an exemplary embodiment, the touch screen has a resolution of approximately 160 dpi. The user may make contact with the touch screen  112  using any suitable object or appendage, such as a stylus, a finger, and so forth. In some embodiments, the user interface is designed to work primarily with finger-based contacts and gestures, which are much less precise than stylus-based input due to the larger area of contact of a finger on the touch screen. In some embodiments, the device translates the rough finger-based input into a precise pointer/cursor position or command for performing the actions desired by the user. 
     In some embodiments, in addition to the touch screen, the device  100  may include a touchpad (not shown) for activating or deactivating particular functions. In some embodiments, the touchpad is a touch-sensitive area of the device that, unlike the touch screen, does not display visual output. The touchpad may be a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the touch screen  112  or an extension of the touch-sensitive surface formed by the touch screen. 
     In some embodiments, the device  100  may include a physical or virtual click wheel as an input control device  116 . A user may navigate among and interact with one or more graphical objects (henceforth referred to as icons) displayed in the touch screen  112  by rotating the click wheel or by moving a point of contact with the click wheel (e.g., where the amount of movement of the point of contact is measured by its angular displacement with respect to a center point of the click wheel). The click wheel may also be used to select one or more of the displayed icons. For example, the user may press down on at least a portion of the click wheel or an associated button. User commands and navigation commands provided by the user via the click wheel may be processed by an input controller  160  as well as one or more of the modules and/or sets of instructions in memory  102 . For a virtual click wheel, the click wheel and click wheel controller may be part of the touch screen  112  and the display controller  156 , respectively. For a virtual click wheel, the click wheel may be either an opaque or semitransparent object that appears and disappears on the touch screen display in response to user interaction with the device. In some embodiments, a virtual click wheel is displayed on the touch screen of a portable multifunction device and operated by user contact with the touch screen. 
     The device  100  also includes a power system  162  for powering the various components. The power system  162  may include a power management system, one or more power sources (e.g., battery, alternating current (AC)), a recharging system, a power failure detection circuit, a power converter or inverter, a power status indicator (e.g., a light-emitting diode (LED)) and any other components associated with the generation, management and distribution of power in portable devices. 
     The device  100  may also include one or more optical sensors  164 .  FIGS. 1A and 1B  show an optical sensor coupled to an optical sensor controller  158  in I/O subsystem  106 . The optical sensor  164  may include charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) phototransistors. The optical sensor  164  receives light from the environment, projected through one or more lens, and converts the light to data representing an image. In conjunction with an imaging module  143  (also called a camera module), the optical sensor  164  may capture still images or video. In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the back of the device  100 , opposite the touch screen display  112  on the front of the device, so that the touch screen display may be used as a viewfinder for either still and/or video image acquisition. In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device so that the user&#39;s image may be obtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other video conference participants on the touch screen display. In some embodiments, the position of the optical sensor  164  can be changed by the user (e.g., by rotating the lens and the sensor in the device housing) so that a single optical sensor  164  may be used along with the touch screen display for both video conferencing and still and/or video image acquisition. 
     The device  100  may also include one or more proximity sensors  166 .  FIGS. 1A and 1B  show a proximity sensor  166  coupled to the peripherals interface  118 . Alternately, the proximity sensor  166  may be coupled to an input controller  160  in the I/O subsystem  106 . The proximity sensor  166  may perform as described in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/241,839, “Proximity Detector In Handheld Device,” filed Sep. 30, 2005; 11/240,788, “Proximity Detector In Handheld Device,” filed Sep. 30, 2005; No. 11/620,702, “Using Ambient Light Sensor To Augment Proximity Sensor Output”; No. 11/586,862, “Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices,” filed Oct. 24, 2006; and No. 11/638,251, “Methods And Systems For Automatic Configuration Of Peripherals,” which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. In some embodiments, the proximity sensor turns off and disables the touch screen  112  when the multifunction device is placed near the user&#39;s ear (e.g., when the user is making a phone call). In some embodiments, the proximity sensor keeps the screen off when the device is in the user&#39;s pocket, purse, or other dark area to prevent unnecessary battery drainage when the device is a locked state. 
     The device  100  may also include one or more accelerometers  168 .  FIGS. 1A and 1B  show an accelerometer  168  coupled to the peripherals interface  118 . Alternately, the accelerometer  168  may be coupled to an input controller  160  in the I/O subsystem  106 . The accelerometer  168  may perform as described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 20050190059, “Acceleration-based Theft Detection System for Portable Electronic Devices,” and U.S. Patent Publication No. 20060017692, “Methods And Apparatuses For Operating A Portable Device Based On An Accelerometer,” both of which are which are incorporated by reference in their entirety. In some embodiments, information is displayed on the touch screen display in a portrait view or a landscape view based on an analysis of data received from the one or more accelerometers. 
     In some embodiments, the software components stored in memory  102  may include an operating system  126 , a communication module (or set of instructions)  128 , a contact/motion module (or set of instructions)  130 , a graphics module (or set of instructions)  132 , a text input module (or set of instructions)  134 , a Global Positioning System (GPS) module (or set of instructions)  135 , and applications (or set of instructions)  136 . 
     The operating system  126  (e.g., Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, OS X, WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) includes various software components and/or drivers for controlling and managing general system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control, power management, etc.) and facilitates communication between various hardware and software components. 
     The communication module  128  facilitates communication with other devices over one or more external ports  124  and also includes various software components for handling data received by the RF circuitry  108  and/or the external port  124 . The external port  124  (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, etc.) is adapted for coupling directly to other devices or indirectly over a network (e.g., the Internet, wireless LAN, etc.). In some embodiments, the external port is a multi-pin (e.g., 30-pin) connector that is the same as, or similar to and/or compatible with the 30-pin connector used on iPod (trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.) devices. 
     The contact/motion module  130  may detect contact with the touch screen  112  (in conjunction with the display controller  156 ) and other touch sensitive devices (e.g., a touchpad or physical click wheel). The contact/motion module  130  includes various software components for performing various operations related to detection of contact, such as determining if contact has occurred, determining if there is movement of the contact and tracking the movement across the touch screen  112 , and determining if the contact has been broken (i.e., if the contact has ceased). Determining movement of the point of contact may include determining speed (magnitude), velocity (magnitude and direction), and/or an acceleration (a change in magnitude and/or direction) of the point of contact. These operations may be applied to single contacts (e.g., one finger contacts) or to multiple simultaneous contacts (e.g., “multitouch”/multiple finger contacts). In some embodiments, the contact/motion module  130  and the display controller  156  also detects contact on a touchpad. In some embodiments, the contact/motion module  130  and the controller  160  detects contact on a click wheel. 
     The graphics module  132  includes various known software components for rendering and displaying graphics on the touch screen  112 , including components for changing the intensity of graphics that are displayed. As used herein, the term “graphics” includes any object that can be displayed to a user, including without limitation text, web pages, icons (such as user-interface objects including soft keys), digital images, videos, animations and the like. 
     The text input module  134 , which may be a component of graphics module  132 , provides soft keyboards for entering text in various applications (e.g., contacts  137 , e-mail  140 , IM  141 , blogging  142 , browser  147 , and any other application that needs text input). 
     The GPS module  135  determines the location of the device and provides this information for use in various applications (e.g., to telephone  138  for use in location-based dialing, to camera  143  and/or blogger  142  as picture/video metadata, and to applications that provide location-based services such as weather widgets, local yellow page widgets, and map/navigation widgets). 
     The applications  136  may include the following modules (or sets of instructions), or a subset or superset thereof:
         a contacts module  137  (sometimes called an address book or contact list);   a telephone module  138 ;   a video conferencing module  139 ;   an e-mail client module  140 ;   an instant messaging (IM) module  141 ;   a blogging module  142 ;   a camera module  143  for still and/or video images;   an image management module  144 ;   a video player module  145 ;   a music player module  146 ;   a browser module  147 ;   a calendar module  148 ;   widget modules  149 , which may include weather widget  149 - 1 , stocks widget  149 - 2 , calculator widget  149 - 3 , alarm clock widget  149 - 4 , dictionary widget  149 - 5 , and other widgets obtained by the user, as well as user-created widgets  149 - 6 ;   widget creator module  150  for making user-created widgets  149 - 6 ;   search module  151 ;   video and music player module  152 , which merges video player module  145  and music player module  146 ;   notes module  153 ;   map module  154 ; and/or   online video module  155 .       

     Examples of other applications  136  that may be stored in memory  102  include other word processing applications, JAVA-enabled applications, encryption, digital rights management, voice recognition, and voice replication. 
     In conjunction with touch screen  112 , display controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , and text input module  134 , the contacts module  137  may be used to manage an address book or contact list, including: adding name(s) to the address book; deleting name(s) from the address book; associating telephone number(s), e-mail address(es), physical address(es) or other information with a name; associating an image with a name; categorizing and sorting names; providing telephone numbers or e-mail addresses to initiate and/or facilitate communications by telephone  138 , video conference  139 , e-mail  140 , or IM  141 ; and so forth. 
     In conjunction with RF circuitry  108 , audio circuitry  110 , speaker  111 , microphone  113 , touch screen  112 , display controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , and text input module  134 , the telephone module  138  may be used to enter a sequence of characters corresponding to a telephone number, access one or more telephone numbers in the address book  137 , modify a telephone number that has been entered, dial a respective telephone number, conduct a conversation and disconnect or hang up when the conversation is completed. As noted above, the wireless communication may use any of a plurality of communications standards, protocols and technologies. 
     In conjunction with RF circuitry  108 , audio circuitry  110 , speaker  111 , microphone  113 , touch screen  112 , display controller  156 , optical sensor  164 , optical sensor controller  158 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , text input module  134 , contact list  137 , and telephone module  138 , the videoconferencing module  139  may be used to initiate, conduct, and terminate a video conference between a user and one or more other participants. 
     In conjunction with RF circuitry  108 , touch screen  112 , display controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , and text input module  134 , the e-mail client module  140  may be used to create, send, receive, and manage e-mail. In conjunction with image management module  144 , the e-mail module  140  makes it very easy to create and send e-mails with still or video images taken with camera module  143 . 
     In conjunction with RF circuitry  108 , touch screen  112 , display controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , and text input module  134 , the instant messaging module  141  may be used to enter a sequence of characters corresponding to an instant message, to modify previously entered characters, to transmit a respective instant message (for example, using a Short Message Service (SMS) or Multimedia Message Service (MMS) protocol for telephony-based instant messages or using XMPP, SIMPLE, or IMPS for Internet-based instant messages), to receive instant messages and to view received instant messages. In some embodiments, transmitted and/or received instant messages may include graphics, photos, audio files, video files and/or other attachments as are supported in a MMS and/or an Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS). As used herein, “instant messaging” refers to both telephony-based messages (e.g., messages sent using SMS or MMS) and Internet-based messages (e.g., messages sent using XMPP, SIMPLE, or IMPS). 
     In conjunction with RF circuitry  108 , touch screen  112 , display controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , text input module  134 , image management module  144 , and browsing module  147 , the blogging module  142  may be used to send text, still images, video, and/or other graphics to a blog (e.g., the user&#39;s blog). 
     In conjunction with touch screen  112 , display controller  156 , optical sensor(s)  164 , optical sensor controller  158 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , and image management module  144 , the camera module  143  may be used to capture still images or video (including a video stream) and store them into memory  102 , modify characteristics of a still image or video, or delete a still image or video from memory  102 . 
     In conjunction with touch screen  112 , display controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , text input module  134 , and camera module  143 , the image management module  144  may be used to arrange, modify or otherwise manipulate, label, delete, present (e.g., in a digital slide show or album), and store still and/or video images. 
     In conjunction with touch screen  112 , display controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , audio circuitry  110 , and speaker  111 , the video player module  145  may be used to display, present or otherwise play back videos (e.g., on the touch screen or on an external, connected display via external port  124 ). 
     In conjunction with touch screen  112 , display system controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , audio circuitry  110 , speaker  111 , RF circuitry  108 , and browser module  147 , the music player module  146  allows the user to download and play back recorded music and other sound files stored in one or more file formats, such as MP3 or AAC files. In some embodiments, the device  100  may include the functionality of an MP3 player, such as an iPod (trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.). 
     In conjunction with RF circuitry  108 , touch screen  112 , display system controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , and text input module  134 , the browser module  147  may be used to browse the Internet, including searching, linking to, receiving, and displaying web pages or portions thereof, as well as attachments and other files linked to web pages. 
     In conjunction with RF circuitry  108 , touch screen  112 , display system controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , text input module  134 , e-mail module  140 , and browser module  147 , the calendar module  148  may be used to create, display, modify, and store calendars and data associated with calendars (e.g., calendar entries, to do lists, etc.). 
     In conjunction with RF circuitry  108 , touch screen  112 , display system controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , text input module  134 , and browser module  147 , the widget modules  149  are mini-applications that may be downloaded and used by a user (e.g., weather widget  149 - 1 , stocks widget  149 - 2 , calculator widget  149 - 3 , alarm clock widget  149 - 4 , and dictionary widget  149 - 5 ) or created by the user (e.g., user-created widget  149 - 6 ). In some embodiments, a widget includes an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) file, a CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) file, and a JavaScript file. In some embodiments, a widget includes an XML (Extensible Markup Language) file and a JavaScript file (e.g., Yahoo! Widgets). 
     In conjunction with RF circuitry  108 , touch screen  112 , display system controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , text input module  134 , and browser module  147 , the widget creator module  150  may be used by a user to create widgets (e.g., turning a user-specified portion of a web page into a widget). 
     In conjunction with touch screen  112 , display system controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , and text input module  134 , the search module  151  may be used to search for text, music, sound, image, video, and/or other files in memory  102  that match one or more search criteria (e.g., one or more user-specified search terms). 
     In conjunction with touch screen  112 , display controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , and text input module  134 , the notes module  153  may be used to create and manage notes, to do lists, and the like. 
     In conjunction with RF circuitry  108 , touch screen  112 , display system controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , text input module  134 , GPS module  135 , and browser module  147 , the map module  154  may be used to receive, display, modify, and store maps and data associated with maps (e.g., driving directions; data on stores and other points of interest at or near a particular location; and other location-based data). 
     In conjunction with touch screen  112 , display system controller  156 , contact module  130 , graphics module  132 , audio circuitry  110 , speaker  111 , RF circuitry  108 , text input module  134 , e-mail client module  140 , and browser module  147 , the online video module  155  allows the user to access, browse, receive (e.g., by streaming and/or download), play back (e.g., on the touch screen or on an external, connected display via external port  124 ), send an e-mail with a link to a particular online video, and otherwise manage online videos in one or more file formats, such as H.264. In some embodiments, instant messaging module  141 , rather than e-mail client module  140 , is used to send a link to a particular online video. Embodiments of user interfaces and associated processes using online video module  155  are described further below. 
     Each of the above identified modules and applications correspond to a set of instructions for performing one or more functions described above. These modules (i.e., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise re-arranged in various embodiments. For example, video player module  145  may be combined with music player module  146  into a single module (e.g., video and music player module  152 ,  FIG. 1B ). In some embodiments, memory  102  may store a subset of the modules and data structures identified above. Furthermore, memory  102  may store additional modules and data structures not described above. 
     In some embodiments, the device  100  is a device where operation of a predefined set of functions on the device is performed exclusively through a touch screen  112  and/or a touchpad. By using a touch screen and/or a touchpad as the primary input/control device for operation of the device  100 , the number of physical input/control devices (such as push buttons, dials, and the like) on the device  100  may be reduced. 
     The predefined set of functions that may be performed exclusively through a touch screen and/or a touchpad include navigation between user interfaces. In some embodiments, the touchpad, when touched by the user, navigates the device  100  to a main, home, or root menu from any user interface that may be displayed on the device  100 . In such embodiments, the touchpad may be referred to as a “menu button.” In some other embodiments, the menu button may be a physical push button or other physical input/control device instead of a touchpad. 
       FIGS. 1C and 1D  are block diagrams illustrating additional details of the email client module  140  in accordance with some embodiments. The email client module  140  includes email client code  172  and email client data  180 . The email client code  172  includes an email front end  173  that provides user-level email functionality, manages the user interface of the email module  140  and enables a user to interact with an email inbox  3504 , among other functions ( FIG. 5A ). The email client code  140  also includes autofetch functionality  174 , which, when enabled, manages the fetching of email from an email server to the portable device  100 . In some embodiments, the autofetch functionality  174  is configured to fetch email such that: (1) fresh email is available to the user when he/she expects it, and (2) battery power consumption due to communications with an email server and usage of CPU resources for email fetching is optimized (i.e., reduced to the extent possible given user expectations). In some embodiments, the autofetch functionality  174  is operable regardless of whether the email module  140  is active (running in the foreground, in an open window) or inactive (running in the background, or in a minimized window). The autofetch functionality  174  can also be configured to be operable only when the email module  140  is active, it can be disabled completely such that email is only fetched in response to user requests, or it can operate in other modes. While the autofetch functionality  174  is described herein with reference to a single user account, it can easily be extended to multiple user accounts on a single portable device  100 . This can be enabled, for example, by providing independent autofetch settings  181  for each user account. 
     The email client code  172  also includes port discovery functionality  175  that implements a process by which connections to an email server  199  ( FIG. 1E ) are discovered for the portable device  100  for a user email account  191 . Email server  199  is sometimes herein called an “outbound email server,” which forwards email messages received from clients to the email accounts or addresses specified in those email messages. In one embodiment, the port discovery functionality  175  automatically discovers for a particular configuration of portable device  100 , network  198  ( FIG. 1E ) and email server  199  ( FIG. 1E ) the most secure connection configuration (port and security setting) available for email communications. In one possible use, this information is determined for a new user email account and then stored as a preferred network configuration for the device  100 . The port discovery functionality  175  also manages email connections during subsequent email communications. For example, if the portable device  100  cannot connect to the outbound email server  199  using the stored configuration  185 , the port discovery functionality  175  is configured to determine a fallback network configuration. In some embodiments, the fallback configuration is selected to be the most secure connection configuration available at the time. While the port discovery functionality  175  is described herein with reference to a single user account, email server and associated network configuration, it can easily be extended to multiple user accounts, servers and network configurations accessible from a single portable device  100 . This can be enabled, for example, by providing independent port/security settings  184  for each user account, email server and network configuration. 
     The email client data  180  includes autofetch settings  181  used by the autofetch functionality  174 , port/security settings used by port discovery functionality  175 , and email account information  191  managed by the email front end  173 . In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 1C , the autofetch settings  181  include stored values for first, second, third and fourth time periods  182 - 1 ,  182 - 2 ,  182 - 3 ,  182 - 4 . These time periods determine when the autofetch functionality  174  should fetch email in response to respective events and/or the current state of the email module  140 . In one example, the periods  182 - i  are defined as follows: 
     
       
         
           
               
               
             
               
                   
               
             
            
               
                 First 
                 After the email module is launched or resumed - the time period 
               
               
                 Period 
                 since such launch event after which an autofetch is to be 
               
               
                 182-1 
                 performed. 
               
               
                 Second 
                 While the email module is running in the foreground - the time 
               
               
                 Period 
                 period since the prior fetch after which an autofetch is to be 
               
               
                 182-2 
                 performed. 
               
               
                 Third 
                 While the email module is running in the background - the time 
               
               
                 Period 
                 period since the prior fetch after which an autofetch is to be 
               
               
                 182-3 
                 performed. 
               
               
                 Fourth 
                 After the portable device 100 is unlocked, the time period since 
               
               
                 Period 
                 such unlock event after when an autofetch is to be performed. 
               
               
                 182-4 
               
               
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     The values stored for each period  182  can be predefined or user-definable, depending on the embodiment. For example, in an embodiment described below, the first, second and fourth periods are predefined with a single respective value (one minute, five minutes and one minute, respectively) and the third period is user selectable from a collection of predefined values. When there are predefined values, they are stored in the predefined values data item  182 - 5 .  FIG. 1C  shows an example of a collection of predefined values  182 - 5  from which a user can select a value for the third period  182 - 3 . These values  182 - 5  include 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes and “never” (meaning that the user does not want email to be fetched while the email module is running in the background.). Different embodiments can also employ different numbers of time periods  182 - i  depending on the email module states and/or user events that are to be accommodated by the autofetch functionality  174 . 
     The autofetch settings  181  also include an autofetch flag  183  that can be set to YES (autofetch enabled) or NO (autofetch disabled). Email can be fetched when autofetch is disabled, but in many configurations this would only be done upon user request or, alternatively, upon the occurrence of predefined events, such as launching the email module  140  or sending an outbound email message. 
     The port/security settings  184  include information that is used by the port discovery functionality  175  to identify a preferred default communication configuration and to determine a fallback setting when the preferred setting is not operable. The stored configuration  185  contains the port number  186  and security level  187  of the preferred network configuration discovered by the port discovery functionality  175 . Consistent with standard practice, for an outbound SMTP email server the range of possible port numbers, from most to least preferred, include: “587,” “25” and “465.” Also consistent with standard practice, the security levels that can be supported by an SMTP email server include, from strongest to weakest: “SSL” (secured socket layer), “STARTTLS,” and unsecured (“no SSL or STARTTLS”). The combination of a port number and a security level/protocol is referred to herein as a “configuration.” The sequences  188 ,  190  used to determine a preferred and a fallback configuration are now described. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1C , the validation sequence  188  is a stored sequence of port/security combinations for an SMTP email server arranged, in one embodiment, from strongest (i.e., most secure) to least secure. For example, the port/security combination designated “587/SSL” is the strongest combination and, therefore, the preferred channel configuration for SMTP email in the illustrated embodiment. As described with reference to  FIGS. 6A and 6B , in one method the port discovery functionality  175  steps through the validation sequence to determine the strongest network configuration that can be used for email communications with the outbound email server  199 . One possible validation sequence  188  is shown in  FIG. 1C . The sequence in this example reflects one possible order of preferred connections for an SMTP email server. For example, given this validation sequence, the port discovery functionality  175  would try to connect to the email server  199  using different network configurations in the following sequence (stopping when successful): 
     1. 587/SSL, 
     2. 587/STARTTLS, 
     3. 25/SSL, 
     4. 25/STARTTLS, 
     5. 465/SSL, 
     6. 465/STARTTLS, 
     7. 587/no SSL or STARTTLS, 
     8. 25/no SSL or STARTTLS, 
     9. 465/no SSL or STARTTLS. 
     The fallback sequence  190  is a stored sequence of port/security combinations for an SMTP server arranged, in some situations, differently from the validation sequence  188 . In one embodiment, this is because the fallback sequence  190  is configured such that, starting from the entry that matches the stored configuration  185 , the available fallback configurations represent a lesser but still acceptable level of email security. An example of a fallback sequence  190  is shown in  FIG. 1C . In this example, note that the top three entries are unsecured configurations (indicated by their security level being defined as “NO SSL OR STARTTLS”). Because these are at the top of the fallback sequence  190 , the port discovery functionality  175  will not “fall back” to these values when the stored configuration  185  has any of the higher levels of security. For example, even if the stored configuration  185  had the lowest level with some level of security (e.g., “465/STARTTLS”), the port discovery functionality  175  would not “fall back” to an unsecured channel configuration since those configurations are at the top of the fallback sequence and thus not available as fallbacks in this instance. As another example, if the stored configuration  185  is “25/STARTTLS”, the port discovery functionality  175  would test entries in the fallback sequence  190  in the following order (stopping when successful): 
     1. 465/SSL, 
     2. 465/STARTTLS. 
     The fallback sequence  190  described with respect to  FIG. 1C  is configured so it can be used with any of the port/security combinations shown in the exemplary validation sequence  188  shown in  FIG. 1C . In a different embodiment described with reference to  FIG. 1D , an alternative fallback collection  192  can be defined that includes multiple fallback sequences  194 - i  each corresponding to a respective one (or more) of the possible stored configurations  185 . Thus, given the possible channel configurations shown in  FIG. 1C , there can be as many as nine different fallback sequences  194 - 1  to  194 - 9 , each associated with one or more of the port/security combinations in the validation sequence  188 . For example, in  FIG. 1D , a fallback sequence  194 - 7  is shown that corresponds to the seventh entry in the validation sequence  188  (“25/STARTTLS”). The shaded entries of the fallback sequence  194 - 7  show which settings would be tried by the port discovery functionality  175  if connection cannot be made with the “25/STARTTLS” configuration. In this alternative arrangement, the fallback sequences  194 - i  can be tuned for the different types of network configurations. An overview of operation of the port discovery functionality  175  in the context of a network environment is now described with reference to  FIG. 1E . 
       FIG. 1E  is a system diagram that illustrates a network environment in which a portable electronic device with email capabilities is operable in accordance with some embodiments. The network environment includes a portable electronic device  100  configured in accordance with the present invention, a web server  197 , a network  198 , and an outbound email server  199 . As described with reference to  FIG. 1C , the portable device includes an email module  140  with an email front end  173  and autofetch and port discovery functionality  174 ,  175 . The email module  140  also includes a stored network configuration  185  and validation and fallback sequences  188 ,  190  as described above. The portable device  100  is configured in some embodiments to communicate with the outbound email server  199  directly, using an SMTP connection, or indirectly, via the web server  197 . When the device  100  uses its web connection to send email, it sends email messages  215  to the web server  197  using an HTTP connection and the web server exchanges email traffic  217  with the outbound email server  199  using an SMTP connection. The portable device  100  tests possible network connections to the outbound SMTP server  199  using connection messages  211 , wherein it attempts to connect to a particular port  222  and confirm the availability at the server  199  of a particular level of security  226 . The manner of testing a respective connection to an SMTP server using such messages is well known. 
     In some embodiments, the outbound email server  199  is an SMTP email server that is responsible for delivering email transferred to it. As shown, the portable device  100  can request email delivery from the server  199  directly (via email traffic  213 ) or indirectly, via the web server  197  (via email traffic  217 ). The SMTP server  199  can support one or more security capabilities  226 , such as SSL  228  (the strongest) and STARTTLS  230 . If a particular SMTP server does not provide any security, this is represented by a security capability  226  of None  240 . The outbound email server provides a range of ports  222  (sometimes called standard ports) to which an email client (such as the portable device  100 ) connects for email services. The ports  222  include port  25 , port  587  and port  465 . 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a portable multifunction device  100  having a touch screen  112  in accordance with some embodiments. The touch screen may display one or more graphics within user interface (UI)  200 . In this embodiment, as well as others described below, a user may select one or more of the graphics by making contact or touching the graphics, for example, with one or more fingers  202  (not drawn to scale in the figure). In some embodiments, selection of one or more graphics occurs when the user breaks contact with the one or more graphics. In some embodiments, the contact may include a gesture, such as one or more taps, one or more swipes (from left to right, right to left, upward and/or downward) and/or a rolling of a finger (from right to left, left to right, upward and/or downward) that has made contact with the device  100 . In some embodiments, inadvertent contact with a graphic may not select the graphic. For example, a swipe gesture that sweeps over an application icon may not select the corresponding application when the gesture corresponding to selection is a tap. 
     The device  100  may also include one or more physical buttons, such as “home” or menu button  204 . As described previously, the menu button  204  may be used to navigate to any application  136  in a set of applications that may be executed on the device  100 . Alternatively, in some embodiments, the menu button is implemented as a soft key in a GUI in touch screen  112 . 
     In one embodiment, the device  100  includes a touch screen  112 , a menu button  204 , a push button  206  for powering the device on/off and locking the device, volume adjustment button(s)  208 , a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card slot  210 , a head set jack  212 , and a docking/charging external port  124 . The push button  206  may be used to turn the power on/off on the device by depressing the button and holding the button in the depressed state for a predefined time interval; to lock the device by depressing the button and releasing the button before the predefined time interval has elapsed; and/or to unlock the device or initiate an unlock process. In an alternative embodiment, the device  100  also may accept verbal input for activation or deactivation of some functions through the microphone  113 . 
     Attention is now directed towards embodiments of user interfaces (“UI”) and associated processes that may be implemented on a portable multifunction device  100 . 
       FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary user interface for unlocking a portable electronic device in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, user interface  300  includes the following elements, or a subset or superset thereof:
         Unlock image  302  that is moved with a finger gesture to unlock the device;   Arrow  304  that provides a visual cue to the unlock gesture;   Channel  306  that provides additional cues to the unlock gesture;   Time  308 ;   Day  310 ;   Date  312 ; and   Wallpaper image  314 .       

     In some embodiments, the device detects contact with the touch-sensitive display (e.g., a user&#39;s finger making contact on or near the unlock image  302 ) while the device is in a user-interface lock state. The device moves the unlock image  302  in accordance with the contact. The device transitions to a user-interface unlock state if the detected contact corresponds to a predefined gesture, such as moving the unlock image across channel  306 . Conversely, the device maintains the user-interface lock state if the detected contact does not correspond to the predefined gesture. As noted above, processes that use gestures on the touch screen to unlock the device are described in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/322,549, “Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image,” filed Dec. 23, 2005, and No. 11/322,550, “Indication Of Progress Towards Satisfaction Of A User Input Condition,” filed Dec. 23, 2005, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
       FIGS. 4A and 4B  illustrate exemplary user interfaces for a menu of applications on a portable multifunction device in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, user interface  400 A includes the following elements, or a subset or superset thereof:
         Signal strength indicator(s)  402  for wireless communication(s), such as cellular and Wi-Fi signals;   Time  404 ;   Battery status indicator  406 ;   Tray  408  with icons for frequently used applications, such as one or more of the following:
           Phone  138 , which may include an indicator  414  ( FIG. 4B ) of the number of missed calls or voicemail messages;   E-mail client  140 , which may include an indicator  410  of the number of unread e-mails;   Browser  147 ; and   Music player  146 ; and   
           Icons for other applications, such as one or more of the following:
           IM  141 ;   Image management  144 ;   Camera  143 ;   Video player  145 ;   Weather  149 - 1 ;   Stocks  149 - 2 ;   Blog  142 ;   Calendar  148 ;   Calculator  149 - 3 ;   Alarm clock  149 - 4 ;   Dictionary  149 - 5 ; and   User-created widget  149 - 6 .   
               

     In some embodiments, user interface  400 B includes the following elements, or a subset or superset thereof:
           402 ,  404 ,  406 ,  141 ,  148 ,  144 ,  143 ,  149 - 3 ,  149 - 2 ,  149 - 1 ,  149 - 4 ,  410 ,  414 ,  138 ,  140 , and  147 , as described above;   Map  154 ;   Notes  153 ;   Settings  412 , which provides access to settings for the device  100  and its various applications  136 , as described further below;   Video and music player module  152 , also referred to as iPod  152  (trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.); and   Online video module  155 , also referred to as YouTube (trademark of Google, Inc.).       

     In some embodiments, UI  400 A or  400 B displays all of the available applications  136  on one screen so that there is no need to scroll through a list of applications (e.g., via a scroll bar). In some embodiments, as the number of applications increase, the icons corresponding to the applications may decrease in size so that all applications may be displayed on a single screen without scrolling. In some embodiments, having all applications on one screen and a menu button enables a user to access any desired application with at most two inputs, such as activating the menu button  204  and then activating the desired application (e.g., by a tap or other finger gesture on the icon corresponding to the application). 
     In some embodiments, UI  400 A or  400 B provides integrated access to both widget-based applications and non-widget-based applications. In some embodiments, all of the widgets, whether user-created or not, are displayed in UI  400 A or  400 B. In other embodiments, activating the icon for user-created widget  149 - 6  may lead to another UI that contains the user-created widgets or icons corresponding to the user-created widgets. 
     In some embodiments, a user may rearrange the icons in UI  400 A or  400 B, e.g., using processes described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/459,602, “Portable Electronic Device With Interface Reconfiguration Mode,” filed Jul. 24, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. For example, a user may move application icons in and out of tray  408  using finger gestures. 
     In some embodiments, UI  400 A or  400 B includes a gauge (not shown) that displays an updated account usage metric for an account associated with usage of the device (e.g., a cellular phone account), as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/322,552, “Account Information Display For Portable Communication Device,” filed Dec. 23, 2005, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
       FIGS. 5A-5B  illustrate exemplary interfaces of an email application for a portable multifunction device  100  with a touch screen display  112  in accordance with some embodiments. In particular,  FIG. 5A  illustrates an exemplary user interface  3500 G of a portable multi-function device  100 . The user interface  3500 G displays contents of an email inbox  3504  by listing for each displayed email: the identity of the sender, a timestamp, a subject and a brief snippet from the email. The user interface  3500 G can be employed with a portable multifunction device that, in some embodiments, includes a speaker  111 , optical sensor  164 , proximity sensor  166 , touch screen  112 , microphone  113 , and accelerometer(s)  168 , as described above, or a subset or superset of these features. Features of the user interface  3500 G also include sensitivity to a deletion selection gesture  5102  and a deletion confirmation icon  5104 . 
     The user interface  3500 G is responsive to user contact with the touch screen  112 , including gestures, such as touches, taps and swipes made with a finger, stylus, or other input device. The user interface  3500 G is configured to detect a particular gesture by which a user selects for deletion a particular item from a list of items. In one embodiment, one possible selection gesture is a swipe (e.g., with a finger) over the individual item to be selected for deletion. Different embodiments can impose a range of conditions on the orientation and length of a swipe required to select a particular item. For example, in some embodiments a selection swipe can be in any direction or orientation with respect to the item to be selected—as long as the swipe travels over the item. In other embodiments, a selection swipe can only be along a row in which the item to be selected is displayed. Other gestures (individual or in combination) can also be employed to select an individual item consistent with the capabilities of a multifunction device  100  to identify for selection a particular item in response to a particular gesture. 
     In  FIG. 5A , the user interface  3500 G is illustrated as a user is in the process of viewing emails in the inbox  3504  and deleting an email  3506  from “Bob Adams” related to “Project Orion.” In one embodiment, shown in  FIG. 5A , the user deletes the email by first selecting it with a finger swipe  5102  and then confirming deletion of the email by activating/touching a Delete icon  5104  displayed for that purpose. 
     The displayed emails are fetched to the device  100  either manually, in response to user demand, or under control of the autofetch functionality  174  ( FIG. 1C ). If the autofetch functionality is enabled, emails are fetched by the device  100  in such a manner that: (1) the user is presented with fresh email when they expect it, and (2) battery power consumption due to communications with the email server and usage of CPU resources for email fetching, are reduced. This is accomplished in some embodiments by configuring the autofetch functionality  174  to fetch mail after different time periods and/or at different intervals depending on user interaction with the device  100  and the status/state of the email application. For example, as described with reference to  FIGS. 1C and 1D , in some embodiments the autofetch functionality  174  can be programmed to fetch email at different intervals depending upon the occurrence of key events (e.g., email launch or device unlock), or the status of the email application (e.g., active or inactive). 
     By fetching email relatively quickly (e.g., in a minute or two) upon the occurrence of key email events, the user will have fresh email available in their inbox  3504  when they are likely to want to read it (such as when they have just launched the email application  140 ). Similarly, by fetching email at a longer interval (e.g., 5, 15, 30 or even 60 minutes) after a prior fetch, power consumption, communications bandwidth and microprocessor utilization are all comparatively reduced without frustrating user expectations. Further savings in all of these areas (power, bandwidth, CPU use) are obtained in some embodiments by autofetching email at a longer interval (e.g., 30 minute intervals) when the email application  140  is running in the background than when the email application  140  is running in the foreground (e.g., a shorter interval, such as 5 minutes, may be used when the email application is running in the foreground). 
     The events and states described herein are exemplary and can be modified as appropriate depending on the type of electronic device  100  in which autofetch is implemented, power consumption and network connectivity characteristics of the device  100 , and user expectations of their email experience. 
       FIG. 5B  illustrates an exemplary user interface  3500 G of a portable multi-function device  100  configured to display and permit user modification of email settings  3506  in accordance with some embodiments. Specifically,  FIG. 5B  displays email settings  3506  that are related to the autofetch feature  174  described above. As shown, the autofetch settings  3508  include an “Autofetch Enabled” setting  3510  and an “Autofetch Interval” setting  3512 , both of which can be set by a user (e.g., by the user selecting from among predefined options using radio buttons). 
     In some embodiments, the Autofetch Enabled setting  3510  can be set to “YES” (which enables autofetch functionality) or “NO” (which disables autofetch functionality meaning). When autofetch is enabled, the device  100  performs the operations described herein for automatically fetching email at different intervals according to specific email states and user events. In some embodiments, disabling autofetch functionality turns off all autofetch operations except in response to specific user fetch requests (e.g., manual fetching in response to a user gesture on fetch icon  3560 ,  FIG. 5A ). In other embodiments, disabling autofetch functionality turns off autofetching except for a few predefined situations, such as when the device  100  is unlocked or the email application  140  is launched. 
     In some embodiments, the user can set the Autofetch Interval  3512  to one of a set of predefined values. In the illustrated embodiment, the value of the Autofetch Interval  3512  is associated only with the third period  182 - 3 , which is the period between fetches while the email application  140  is running in the background. This reflects the fact that users are likely to have differing views as to how often email should be fetched when the email module  140  is running in the background. In some embodiments, the Autofetch Interval can be set to 15, 30 or 60 minutes, or “never” (selected by the user to ensure that portable device  100  never fetches mails when the email application  140  is in the background). In different embodiments, any of the autofetch settings  181 , including the time periods  182  and/or the predefined values  183 , could be set in the same manner. These different embodiments would include user definable options in the Autofetch Settings window  3508  corresponding to autofetch settings  181  that are user definable. As described above for other GUIs, the GUI for autofetch settings  3508  can be implemented using a range of user interface elements, including text boxes, pulldown menus and touch sensitive dials and sliders. Methods of operation of the port discovery and autofetch functionality are now described. 
       FIGS. 6A and 6B  are flow diagrams illustrating exemplary port discovery and message delivery methods in accordance with some embodiments. The methods illustrated in these figures are, in one embodiment, implemented by the port discovery feature  175  of the email module  140  (see  FIGS. 1C and 1D ). 
     Referring to  FIG. 6A , the port discovery method  600  is used when creating an email account on the portable device  100  ( 602 ). When creating an email account an attempt is first made to connect to a designated email server  199  using a first port/security combination from a preferred validation sequence  188  ( 604 ). For example, as illustrated in  FIG. 1C , the first port/security combination tried would be port “587” with “SSL” security, which is the first, and most secure, setting in the validation sequence  188 . If the portable device  100  is able to connect to the server  199  at the specified port with the specified security setting ( 606 -Y), the successful port/security combination is stored as the stored configuration  185  ( 614 ). The stored configuration  185  is then used by the email module  140  as the port/security setting for subsequent email communications between the portable device  100  and the email server  199  ( 612 ). Given the validation sequence  188  of  FIG. 1C , this would be the port and security combination with the strongest security for SMTP email. 
     If the connection with the first port/security combination is not successful ( 606 -N), the portable device attempts to connect to the email server  199  with successively less secure port and security combinations ( 608 ). These other successive port and security combinations are selected from the validation sequence  188  ( 608 ) from positions following the first port/security combination. For example, the first combination tried after the “587/SSL”) option would be the “587/STARTTLS” combination. If the portable device  100  is able to connect to the server  199  at the specified port with the specified security setting associated with any of these secondary/alternative port security combinations ( 610 -Y), the successful port/security combination is stored as the stored configuration  185  ( 616 ). As described above, the stored configuration  185  is used by the email module  140  as the default port/security setting for subsequent email communications between the portable device  100  and the email server  199  ( 612 ). 
     If a successful connection cannot be made with any of the secondary/alternative port/security combinations ( 610 -N), the attempt to make an email connection is terminated ( 618 ). At this point, the process of port discovery can be repeated ( 604 ) —either automatically, after a predefined interval, or upon user request. Using this method, a default port and security setting for an email account is established automatically for a portable device  100 . In some embodiments, depending on the arrangement of port/security combinations associated with the validation sequence, the port/security setting so determined is the strongest combination possible in view of capabilities of the portable device  100 , the network  198 , and the email server  199 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 6B , the fallback method  650  is used to establish a fallback connection to an email server when the stored network configuration does not work. Preferably, the stored configuration  185  is used by the email module  140  as the port/security setting for all email communications between the portable device  100  and the email server  199  ( 612 ). Thus an attempt is always made to connect to the email server using the stored configuration ( 652 ) and it is used when available ( 656 -Y). However, it is possible that, from time to time, attempts to connect to the server with the stored configuration are not successful ( 656 -N). 
     In this case, an attempt is first made to connect to a designated email server  199  using a first fallback port/security combination from the fallback sequence  190  ( 658 ). As described above, in some embodiments the first fallback combination tried is the entry in the fallback sequence  190  immediately following the entry in the fallback sequence  190  that matches the stored configuration  185 . If the portable device  100  is able to connect to the server  199  using the port number and security setting specified by the first fallback combination ( 660 -Y), that fallback combination is used for that email session ( 668 ). In some embodiments, the successful fallback combination is not stored for future use—this reflects a preference of the port discovery functionality  175  to default to the most secure configuration that is known to work (i.e., the stored configuration). 
     In different embodiments, a successful fallback combination could be stored for future use if the device  100  repeatedly fails to connect using the stored configuration  185  (perhaps reflecting degraded network capabilities). Note that a failure to connect with the stored configuration  185  could also reflect increased network security requirements—for example, a network that starts requiring SSL security. The device  100  could be adapted to this network change by re-executing the port discovery method  600 , which would discover the availability of the more secure network configuration. 
     If the connection with the first fallback combination is not successful ( 660 -N), the portable device  100  attempts to connect to the email server  199  with successively less secure port and security combinations ( 662 ). As already described, these other port and security combinations are selected from the fallback sequence  188  ( 662 ) from positions following the first fallback combination. If the portable device  100  is able to connect to the server  199  at the specified port with the specified security setting associated with any of these secondary/alternative fallback combinations ( 664 -Y) that fallback combination is used for that email session ( 668 ) and, as noted above, is not stored. 
     If a successful connection cannot be made with any of the secondary/alternative fallback combinations ( 664 -N), the attempt to make an email connection is stopped ( 670 ). 
       FIG. 7  is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method  700  for fetching email to a portable electronic device in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, the method involves fetching email from an email server ( 710 ) upon the occurrence of any one of the following conditions: 
     expiration of a first period of time after activation of the email application ( 702 ); 
     expiration of a second period of time after a prior email fetch while the email application is running in the foreground on the portable electronic device ( 704 ); 
     expiration of a third period of time after the prior email fetch while the email application is running in the background on the portable electronic device ( 706 ); or 
     expiration of a fourth period of time after unlocking of the portable device ( 708 ). 
     As shown in  FIG. 7 , a fetch is performed when any of tests described above are true ( 702 -Y,  704 -Y,  706 -Y,  708 -Y). When one test fails ( 702 -N,  704 -N,  706 -N,  708 -N), the next test is attempted, including, in some embodiments, the first test ( 702 ) when the last test ( 708 ) fails ( 708 -N). In some embodiments, the method  700  can be run repeatedly, until a fetch occurs, or it can be run periodically. Though the condition tests  702 - 708  are shown in a particular order, there is no requirement that these tests are performed in any preset order (though they can be). 
     In some embodiments, the first time period is reset (and optionally, the second and third periods) anytime email is launched or resumed; the fourth period is reset (and optionally, the second and third periods) anytime the device  100  is unlocked; and the second and third periods are reset anytime email is fetched. 
     In some embodiments, power consumption of the device  100  is optimized/reduced by setting the third period to be substantially longer than the second period, which ensures that mail is fetched less frequently when the email module  140  is running in the background than in the foreground. Additional power savings are achieved, consistent with satisfying user expectations that email is fresh when he/she is ready to read it, by setting the refresh periods (i.e., the second and third periods) to values that are relatively longer than the first and fourth periods. Consistent with user expectations, the first and fourth periods are set such that new email is fetched near the time when the email module  140  is launched or resumed, or the device  100  is unlocked. These considerations are reflected in one embodiment, where the first, second, third and fourth periods are set, respectively, to 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, and 1 minute. 
     In some embodiments, the method  700  is performed continually so that email is repeatedly fetched upon occurrence of the next one of the conditions set out at operations  702 - 708 . 
     In some embodiments, any one of the first, second, third or fourth periods of time is user-definable. 
     In some embodiments, the first, second, third, and fourth periods of time are adapted to reduce network bandwidth employed by the portable electronic device due to the fetching of the email. The principles of making adjustments to reduce bandwidth are similar to those described for reducing power consumption of the device  100 , and also must be consistent with user expectations as to the availability of fresh email. 
     The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. In addition, operations shown in flow charts used to illustrate embodiments of various methods do not necessary need to be performed in the order shown, and subsets or supersets of those operations may be implemented in accordance with the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20071231
Publication Date: 20131105
Grant Date: 20131105
Priority Date: 20070629
Inventors: FORSTALL SCOTT
GANATRA NITIN K.
KEEN DAN
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "H04L51/58", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04M1/72436", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L51/224", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L51/58", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L51/224", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04M1/72436", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 40161992