Portable terminal

Abstract

A portable terminal displays on a selection screen not only contents stored in the portable terminal but also contents stored in a contents server communicatable via a network with the portable terminal. The selection screen displays information regarding the size and location of each of the contents, as well as estimated time and cost required to obtain each of the corresponding contents based on information regarding communication speed and communication path such as communicatable areas. The portable terminal is also equipped with a function to search another communication path that becomes available when moving the portable terminal to another location, and a function to suggest to obtain the contents using such a communication path if the new communication path provides faster and / or more inexpensive connection.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a portable terminal that can obtain contents such as music, pictures and programs through a plurality of communication paths, and more particularly to a method for selecting contents that a user wishes to reproduce or execute and a method for selecting a communication path to obtain contents. [0003] 2. Related Background Art [0004] Portable terminals as represented by portable telephones and PDAs are widely used and have evolved into information terminals with numerous additional functions, such as voice communication, e-mail, Web access, photographing, reproducing music, reproducing pictures and executing programs. Keeping pace with the increase in functionality of portable terminals, the size of contents that can be used on such portable terminals is growing larger. When such large contents are downloaded to portable terminals, the following problems have been occurring: (1) it tak...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0018] Furthermore, when the user can use a communication path with shorter communication time or lower communication cost by moving to another location with the portable terminal, the portable terminal has a function to suggest such a move to the user.

Problems solved by technology

When such large contents are downloaded to portable terminals, the following problems have been occurring: (1) it takes too much time to obtain contents, (2) the cost for communications is expensive and unclear.

As new communication methods such as wireless LAN, Bluetooth and infrared are adopted for use on portable terminals, communication costs are likely to become even more incomprehensible to users.

However, since data in the home contents server cannot be obtained while the user is out according to the first method described above, there is a limit to contents that are available for use from the portable terminal.

However, the user in this instance has no way of knowing how much the communication would cost and how long the communication time would be, which makes it difficult for the user to determine if he or she should elect to obtain contents via the public telephone line or elect to obtain contents via charger upon arriving home.

Furthermore, the first and second methods described above do not take into consideration locally usable communication paths and therefore do not offer opportunities for a user to use inexpensive and / or high-speed communication paths by moving to another location with his or her portable terminal.

In addition, the user himself or herself cannot decide which communication path to use when he or she obtains contents according to these methods.

In the second method described above, the path that matches the user's preference according to individual priority registered in the subscriber database is selected, but adapting to changes in user's preference is difficult and communication costs are difficult for the user to understand when he or she uses contents with this method.

Although the user is accurately notified of communication costs according to the third method described above, this method displays the accurate communication cost only after communication has taken place and does not display estimated communication cost before communication takes place.

Consequently, this method entails the problem of the user's not being able to select the communication path before the communication actually takes place.

For users of portable terminals with a plurality of communication paths, the amount of time and costs required to obtain contents are unclear.

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