Methods and apparatuses for programming user-defined information into electronic devices

1. A method of customizing a wireless telephone by programming a digital audio file into the wireless telephone for use as an indicia of an incoming communication, the method comprising:

connecting substantially directly to a remote database that includes a plurality of lists of digital audio files, the remote database being substantially independent of a network operator that provides wireless telephone service to the wireless telephone;

allowing a user of the wireless telephone to browse at least one of the lists of digital audio files;

allowing the user of the wireless telephone to select at least one of the digital audio files from the browsed list;

optionally reviewing the selected digital audio file before downloading the selected digital audio file into the wireless telephone; and

allowing the user to optionally download the selected digital audio file for use as an indicia of an incoming communication.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the format of the selected digital audio file is from the group comprising: MIDI, MPEG, MP3, WAV, PCM, Windows Media Audio code (WMA), or Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC).

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising allowing the user to search the remote database for a certain desired digital audio file using title or description information to aid in locating the desired digital audio file.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the searching further comprises searching the Internet or other remote databases for the desired digital audio file.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the browsing of digital audio files is accomplished at least in part using a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) compliant system.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a visual indication on a display screen of the wireless telephone to confirm the selected digital audio file has been successfully downloaded.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

downloading a selected digital audio file into the wireless telephone; and

associating the downloaded digital audio file with a characteristic indicative of a caller such that the associated digital audio file plays when the indicative characteristic is received by the wireless telephone.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the characteristic indicative of the caller is the caller's telephone number.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising preventing the unauthorized distribution of a downloaded digital audio file.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising playing the selected digital audio file through an enhanced performance speaker capable of providing a substantially full range of audio sounds from MIDI, MP3, MPEG, WAV, PCM, Windows Media Audio Code (WMA), or Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) files.

11. The method of claim 1 characterized by the use of a personal computer to perform the browsing step.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing the user with an option to modify the selected digital audio file.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing an indication that a memory capacity of the wireless telephone has been exceeded if the size of the digital audio file to be downloaded is larger than available memory space in the wireless telephone.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising providing the user of the wireless telephone with the opportunity to cancel or modify a download request associated with an audio file download operation if the size of the digital audio file to be downloaded is larger than available memory space in the wireless telephone.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing copyright protection for the selected digital audio file.

16. A method of customizing a wireless telephone by programming a digital audio file into the wireless telephone for use as an indicia of an incoming communication, the method comprising:

connecting substantially directly to a remote database that includes a plurality of digital audio files;

the remote database operating substantially independently of a network operator that provides wireless telephone service to the wireless telephone;

allowing the user of the wireless telephone to browse and select at least one of the digital audio files;

allowing the user to optionally download the selected digital audio file into a programmable memory for use as an indicia of an incoming communication; and

allowing the user to optionally review the selected digital audio file before downloading the selected audio file into the wireless telephone.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the format of the selected digital audio file is from the group comprising: MIDI, MPEG, MP3, WAV, PCM, Windows Media Audio code (WMA), or Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC).

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising allowing the user to search the remote database for a certain desired digital audio file using title or description information to aid in locating the desired digital audio file.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the searching further comprises searching the Internet or other remote databases for the desired digital audio file.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein the browsing of digital audio files is accomplished at least in part using a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) compliant system.

21. The method of claim 16 further comprising providing a visual indication on a display screen of the wireless telephone to confirm the selected digital audio file has been successfully downloaded.

22. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

downloading a selected digital audio file into the wireless telephone; and

associating the downloaded digital audio file with a characteristic indicative of a caller such that the associated digital audio file plays when the indicative characteristic is received by the wireless telephone.

23. The method of claim 16 wherein the characteristic indicative of the caller is the caller's telephone number.

24. A wireless telephone that may be customized by programming a digital audio file, into the wireless telephone for use as an indicia of an incoming communication, the telephone comprising:

means for connecting substantially directly to a remote database that includes a plurality of lists of digital audio files; the remote database being substantially independent of a network operator that provides wireless telephone service to the wireless telephone;

means for browsing at least one of the lists of digital audio files;

means for selecting at least one of the digital audio files from the browsed list;

means for optionally reviewing the selected digital audio file before downloading the digital selected audio into the wireless telephone; and

means for downloading the selected digital audio file for use as an indicia of an incoming communication.

25. The wireless telephone of claim 24 further comprising means for searching the remote database for a certain desired digital audio file using title or description information to aid in locating the desired audio file.

26. The wireless telephone of claim 25 wherein the searching further comprises means for searching the Internet or other remote databases for the desired digital audio file.

27. The wireless telephone of claim 24 further comprising means for providing a visual indication on a display screen of the wireless telephone to confirm the selected digital audio file has been successfully downloaded.

28. The wireless telephone of claim 24 further comprising means for associating a downloaded audio file with a characteristic indicative of a caller such that the associated digital audio file plays when the indicative characteristic is received by the wireless telephone.

29. A wireless telephone that may be customized by programming an audio file into the wireless telephone for use as an indicia of an incoming communication, the telephone comprising:

means for connecting substantially directly to a remote database that includes a plurality of digital audio files;

the remote database operating substantially independently of a network operator that provides wireless telephone service to the wireless telephone;

means for browsing and selecting at least one of the digital audio files;

means for optionally downloading the selected digital audio file into a programmable memory for use as an indicia of an incoming communication; and

means for optionally reviewing the selected digital audio file before downloading the selected digital audio file into the wireless telephone.

30. The wireless telephone of claim 29 further comprising

means for searching the remote database for a certain desired digital audio file using title or description information to aid in locating the desired digital audio file.

31. The wireless telephone of claim 29 wherein the searching further comprises means for searching the Internet or other remote databases for the desired digital audio file.

32. The wireless telephone of claim 29 wherein the browsing of digital audio files is accomplished at least in part using a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) compliant system.

33. The wireless telephone of claim 29 further comprising providing a visual indication on a display screen of the wireless telephone to confirm the selected digital audio file has been successfully downloaded.

34. The wireless telephone of claim 29 further comprising

means for associating a downloaded digital audio file with a characteristic indicative of a caller such that the associated digital audio file plays when the indicative characteristic is received by the wireless telephone.