A network of collection, charging and distribution machines collect, charge and distribute portable electrical energy storage devices (e.g., batteries, supercapacitors or ultracapacitors). To allow easy and convenient access to empty portable electrical energy storage device compartments within the vehicles, if the vehicle comes within the vicinity of a collection, charging and distribution machine or other authorized external device such as a key fob or other wireless device of a user, an empty portable electrical energy storage device compartment that is closed or locked, is unlocked, unlatched or opened automatically. Also, if the portable electrical energy storage device compartment is in another desired state to have the compartment unlocked, such as having a portable electrical energy storage device in the compartment that has a charge level below a particular threshold, the compartment will likewise be unlocked, unlatched or opened automatically.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, for defining and monitoring an event for a physical entity and the performance of an action in response to the occurrence of the event. A method includes receiving data indicating an event for a physical entity, the event specified in part by a physical environment feature for which the occurrence of the event is to be monitored by the data processing apparatus; receiving data indicating an action associated with the event and to be taken in response to the occurrence of the event; monitoring for the occurrence of the event for the physical entity; and in response to the occurrence of the event, causing the action associated with the event to be performed.

A server communicates with a mobile device to deliver a mobile application to the mobile device. Software instructions of the mobile application are executed on the mobile device. Then, responsive to operations of the software instructions on the mobile device, the mobile device sends messages comprising location data such as GPS data or other location point attributes. The server receives the location data describing the location of the mobile device and performs logic and computations to determine predicted location points, which are in turn used to determine predicted regions or areas surrounding the predicted location points. The server selects geo-specific notifications (e.g., advertisements, coupons, etc.) based at least in part on the predicted region, and transmits the geo-specific notifications electronically through the network to the mobile device. The notifications are determined based on geo-specific predictions, geo-specific rules, geo-specific triggers, geo-specific user data, geo-specific promotional data, and/or geo-specific context data.

Methods and systems providing digital signage and interactive gaming services in compliance with federal and state laws and regulations are described. A service fee is collected from a retailer, and a service fee may or may not be collected from a retailer (e.g., a bar). An advertising fee is collected from a first advertising provider. The first advertising provider is involved in alcohol distribution/wholesaling or manufacturing. A second advertising fee from a second advertising provider is collected. The second advertising provider is involved in a non-alcohol related industry. A portion of a subscription fee is collected based on a separate source of fees (e.g., text message or jukebox fee) received from a patron. The message may contain information indicating that the patron wishes to pay a service fee. Revenue sharing is implemented by distributing a portion of the service fee to the retailer and distributing a portion of the advertising fee from the second advertising provider to the retailer in compliance with federal and state laws.

Methods, systems and applications for updating, enhancing, organizing, and utilizing geographic maps, for locating points of interest and places of businesses, or POI's. Embodiments provide a method for collecting geo-coordinate data on POIs by eliciting participation of the business owners or designated employees to identify the specific locations of POI's on a map; a map program which synchronizes to a centralized database where POI and other more frequently changing and time-dependent map information is downloaded to individual users; a map program, where in addition to the standard contact information, “qualitative” information and website links are included in an POI information box to aid in pre-qualifying a POI before selection and in booking a reservation; a method for locating markers on an Internet-based search engine map; and an improved contact management system that allows locations of contacts to be viewed on a map while minimizing address geocoding.

In one embodiment, a method of sharing locations of users participating in a social networking service at a geographic location and communicating app related information of users participating in the social networking service, the method executed by a computer system and comprises: receiving location information and text descriptive information from a mobile device of a first user of the social networking service, the location information representing a geographic location of the first user, the text descriptive information manually provided by the first user on an input module of the mobile device; associating the location information with the text descriptive information of the first user in a database; sending the text descriptive information and the location information of the first user to a second user for display.

In one embodiment, an apparatus accesses a memory to obtain information regarding sharing history (as pertains, for example, to a particular user and/or device) and uses that sharing history to display at least one recommended sharing action (from amongst a plurality of available candidate sharing actions) as regards to a particular content item (such as, for example, a particular digital photograph, a video, a presentation, and so forth). This sharing history can comprise previously-selected sharing actions as correlated to content item types including shared-content recipients, corresponding temporal data, shared-content size, corresponding location data, and so forth. By one approach the apparatus itself serves to automatically track user-based content-sharing selections over time, which information is stored as the aforementioned sharing history. By one approach the user is presented with an opportunity to assert a non-specific share command that triggers the aforementioned display of one or more recommended sharing actions.

Systems and methods for using wireless beacons in point of purchase (“POP”) displays to facilitate the delivery of consumer oriented content to mobile devices is disclosed herein. Wireless beacons may be used to broadcast wireless signals from POP displays, where the wireless signals include data packets with unique identifiers for the wireless beacons. A wireless signal from a POP display may be received by a mobile device. The mobile device may provide the unique identifier in the wireless signal and a retail location of the mobile device to a remote server. The retail location of the mobile device may be provided by a mobile application (e.g., a retailer app) on the mobile device. The remote server may determine the retail location of the POP display by associating the retail location of the mobile device with the wireless beacon.

Systems and methods for using wireless beacons in point of purchase (“POP”) displays to facilitate the delivery of consumer oriented content to mobile devices is disclosed herein. Wireless beacons may be used to broadcast wireless signals from POP displays, where the wireless signals include data packets with unique identifiers for the wireless beacons. The wireless signals may be received by mobile devices. A wireless network gateway may also receive the wireless signals. A remote server may communicate with the mobile device and/or the wireless network gateway where the remote server includes a database with up-to-date content associated with the POP displays.

Provided are a computer-implemented method and system for providing and accessing electronic messages, where message distribution is based on geo-coordinates, device proximity, time of day, and user interaction.