SELECTIVE HIBERNATION OF ACTIVITIES IN AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE

摘要

In an electronic device capable of running multiple software applications concurrently, applications, documents, cards, or other activities can be selected for hibernation so as to free up system resources for other activities that are in active use. A determination is made as to which activities should hibernate, for example based on a determination as to which activities have not been used recently or based on relative resource usage. When an activity is to hibernate, its state is preserved on a storage medium such as a disk, so that the activity can later be revived in the same state and the user can continue with the same task that was being performed before the activity entered hibernation.

主权项

1. A method of operating a mobile device, the method comprising:
concurrently running a multitude of activities on the mobile device, each of the multitude of activities being distinct and representable on a display screen of the mobile device by a corresponding live interactive user interface; placing a plurality of the activities that have not been used for a time period into hibernation; taking, for each of the plurality of hibernating activities, a snapshot of the corresponding live interactive user interface; replacing, for each of the plurality of hibernating activities, the corresponding live interactive user interface with a non-interactive user interface displaying a representation of the snapshot; displaying, on the display screen, a first number of the non-interactive user interfaces in a linear arrangement; and scrolling, in response to a user input, the first number of the non-interactive user interfaces and a second number of the non-interactive user interfaces towards an edge of the display screen by displaying, on the display screen, the first and second numbers of non-interactive user interfaces in a plurality of display positions that change based on a direction of the scrolling;
wherein the plurality of display positions includes a final display position corresponding to an ending of the scrolling; andwherein hibernation of each of the hibernating activities is unaffected by the scrolling or a particular display position of the corresponding non-interactive user interface.