DISPLAYING HOTSPOTS IN RESPONSE TO MOVEMENT OF ICONS

1 . A method comprising:

in response to selection of an content icon on a user I/O device, determining a plurality of candidate recipients of content;

in response to movement of the content icon on the user I/O device, displaying a plurality of hotspots on the user I/O device that represent the plurality of candidate recipients; and

in response to movement of the content icon over a first hotspot of the plurality of hotspots, sending content and an identifier of an application that created the content to a target device used by a first candidate recipient represented by the first hotspot.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the content icon represents the content.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the content icon and the content are identical.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the content icon is a subset of the content.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein if the application identified by the identifier exists at the target device, the target device invokes the application to display the content, wherein if the application identified by the identifier does not exist at the target device, the target device stores the content to shared memory accessed by a plurality of applications at the target device, and wherein the first candidate recipient at the target device selects one of the plurality of applications to read the content from the shared memory.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the plurality of candidate recipients further comprises:

receiving a selection of a group that comprises members; and

filtering the members of the group to find a subset of the members that best meets a selected criteria, wherein the plurality of hotspots represent the group and a subset of the members that best meets the selected criteria;

displaying a plurality of criteria in response to the selection of the content icon on the user I/O device; and

receiving the selected criteria from among the plurality of criteria.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

in response to movement of the content icon over one of the plurality of hotspots that represents the group, sending the content to all of the members of the group.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

removing the plurality of hotspots in response to the sending the content and the identifier of the application; and

in response to movement of the content icon over the first hotspot of the plurality of hotspots, determining a capability of the target device, wherein the sending the content to the target device uses the capability.

9 . A processor-readable storage medium encoded with instructions, wherein the instructions when executed comprise:

in response to selection of an content icon on a user I/O device, determining a plurality of candidate recipients of content, wherein the determining the plurality of candidate recipients further comprises receiving a selection of a group that comprises members and filtering the members of the group to find a subset of the members that best meets a selected criteria, wherein a plurality of hotspots represent the group and a subset of the members that best meets the selected criteria, displaying a plurality of criteria in response to the selection of the content icon on the user I/O device, and receiving the selected criteria from among the plurality of criteria;

in response to movement of the content icon on the user I/O device, displaying the plurality of hotspots on the user I/O device that represent the plurality of candidate recipients; and

in response to movement of the content icon over a first hotspot of the plurality of hotspots, sending content and an identifier of an application that created the content to a target device used by a first candidate recipient represented by the first hotspot.

10 . The processor-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the content icon represents the content.

11 . The processor-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the content icon and the content are identical.

12 . The processor-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the content icon is a subset of the content.

13 . The processor-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein if the application identified by the identifier exists at the target device, the target device invokes the application to display the content, wherein if the application identified by the identifier does not exist at the target device, the target device stores the content to shared memory accessed by a plurality of applications at the target device, and wherein the first candidate recipient at the target device selects one of the plurality of applications to read the content from the shared memory.

14 . The processor-readable storage medium of claim 9 , further comprising:

in response to movement of the content icon over one of the plurality of hotspots that represents the group, sending the content to all of the members of the group.

15 . The processor-readable storage medium of claim 9 , further comprising:

removing the plurality of hotspots in response to the sending the content and the identifier of the application; and

in response to movement of the content icon over the first hotspot of the plurality of hotspots, determining a capability of the target device, wherein the sending the content to the target device uses the capability.

16 . A source electronic device comprising:

a user I/O device;

a processor communicatively coupled to the user I/O device; and

memory communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein the memory is encoded with instructions, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor comprise

in response to selection of an content icon on a user I/O device, determining a plurality of candidate recipients of content, wherein the determining the plurality of candidate recipients further comprises receiving a selection of a group that comprises members and filtering the members of the group to find a subset of the members that best meets a selected criteria, wherein a plurality of hotspots represent the group and a subset of the members that best meets the selected criteria, displaying a plurality of criteria in response to the selection of the content icon on the user I/O device, and receiving the selected criteria from among the plurality of criteria,

in response to movement of the content icon on the user I/O device, displaying the plurality of hotspots on the user I/O device that represent the plurality of candidate recipients,

in response to movement of the content icon over a first hotspot of the plurality of hotspots, sending the content and an identifier of an application that created the content to a target device used by a first candidate recipient represented by the first hotspot,

in response to movement of the content icon over one of the plurality of hotspots that represents the group, sending content to all of the members of the group and removing the plurality of hotspots from the user I/O device, and

in response to movement of the content icon over a first hotspot of the plurality of hotspots, determining a capability of the target device, wherein the sending the content to the target device uses the capability.

17 . The source electronic device of claim 16 , wherein the content icon represents the content.

18 . The source electronic device of claim 16 , wherein the content icon and the content are identical.

19 . The source electronic device of claim 16 , wherein the content icon is a subset of the content.

20 . The source electronic device of claim 16 , wherein if the application identified by the identifier exists at the target device, the target device invokes the application to display the content, wherein if the application identified by the identifier does not exist at the target device, the target device stores the content to shared memory accessed by a plurality of applications at the target device, and wherein the first candidate recipient at the target device selects one of the plurality of applications to read the content from the shared memory.