System and method for initiating a call using a phone hard-button and a screen dialer of a personal digital assistant

Abstract

A system and method is described for managing phone calls initiated from a phone device of a personal digital assistant. In one example, a system for managing a phone call is described. The system comprises, among other things, a personal digital assistant. The personal digital assistant includes the following: a display device; a phone device; a call device configured to control the phone device and to display a selectable interface on the display device; a hard button configured to initiate the call device; and a selection mechanism configured to receive user selections from the selectable interface.

1 . A method of managing phone calls initiated from a portable computing device incorporating, telephone capability and a call initiation button, the method comprising the steps of:
 receiving a dial signal initiated by a user touching the call initiation button of the portable computing device to initiate a phone call;   determining the presence of digits received prior to receiving the dial signal;   selectively initiating the phone call to a last called phone number if digits were not received from the computing device before the dial signal was received and, placing a call to a phone number corresponding to received digits when digits were received from the computing device before the dial signal was received.