Method and system for single-step enablement of telephony functionality for a portable computer system

Abstract

A method and apparatus for automatic delivery of a phone call on an electronic device regardless of whether other tasks are running on the operating system. A separate background task (“thread”), independent of the operating system, enables telephony functionality without regard to the mode of a graphical user interface. The background task is always active and functions to respond to an incoming call even if the user is in a graphical user interface window that requires some input from the user (e.g. the graphical user interface is blocked).

1 . An integrated portable electronic device, the method comprising the steps of:
 a first chipset coupled to a bus providing telephony functionality to the portable electronic device, wherein the first chipset receives incoming phone calls;   a second chipset coupled to the bus providing a graphical user interface to the portable electronic device;   a third chipset coupled to the bus providing an operating system to the portable electronic device and interfacing with the first chipset, wherein a background task of the operating system monitors for the incoming phone calls, wherein upon detecting an incoming phone call, notifying a user of the device through the graphical user interface of the incoming phone call by the background task irrespective of the user's activity on the device and without terminating any currently executing application.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface displays information about the incoming phone call on a display screen coupled to the bus. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the information is caller identification information. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the information includes an image. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface displays digitized telephone buttons. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface displays an option to answer the incoming phone call. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a listening device wirelessly coupled to the integrated portable electronic device. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the incoming phone call is answered by a button on the listening device. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a listening device wired to the integrated portable electronic device. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the incoming phone call is answered by a button on the listening device. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface displays an option to transfer the incoming phone call to a different electronic device. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the information includes video information. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the integrated portable electronic device is a cellular phone. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a touch screen coupled to the bus. 
     
     
         15 . An integrated portable electronic device comprising:
 a plurality of chipsets coupled to a bus providing telephony functionality, graphical user interface functionality, and operating system functionality to the portable electronic device,   wherein a background task of the operating system functionality monitors for the incoming phone calls, wherein upon detecting an incoming phone call, notifying a user of the device through the graphical user interface functionality of the incoming phone call by the background task irrespective of the user's activity on the device and without terminating any currently executing application on the plurality of chipsets.   
     
     
         16 . An integrated portable electronic device comprising:
 a chipset coupled to a bus, the chipset providing telephony functionality to the portable electronic device, wherein the telephony receives incoming phone calls;   the chipset providing a graphical user interface to the portable electronic device; and   the chipset providing an operating system to the portable electronic device, wherein a background task of the operating system monitors for the incoming phone calls, wherein upon detecting an incoming phone call, notifying a user of the device of the incoming phone call by the background task irrespective of the user's activity on the device and without terminating any currently executing application.