Variables utilized in device firmware that provides various boot and runtime services are repaved in a fault-tolerant manner within a secure store in a durable, non-volatile device memory during an FOTA update process. A spare region in the secure store is utilized to temporarily hold a back-up of a primary region in which the firmware variables are written. Using a transaction-based fault-tolerant write (FTW) process, the variables in the primary region can be repaved with variables contained in a firmware update payload that is delivered from a remote service. In the event of a fault in the variable region repaving process, either the primary or spare region will remain valid so that firmware in a known good state can be utilized to enable the device to boot successfully and the variable region repaving in the FOTA update process may be restarted.

Various communication systems may benefit from an improved signaling protocol. For example, communication systems may benefit from an improved network support for a single frequency network transmission using an Ethernet switch. A method includes receiving a message at an access point in a single frequency network from a network entity through a data switch. The message comprises an indication of at least one of a downlink physical channel or an uplink physical channel. The method also includes transmitting a request for a signal characteristic through the at least one downlink physical channel to a user equipment. In addition, the method includes receiving the signal characteristic through the at least one uplink physical channel from the user equipment. Further, the method includes transmitting a response message through the data switch from the access point to the network entity indicating the signal characteristic.

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for providing grouped data of interest. In some configurations, a computing device can include a user interface with one or more groups configured to receive messages. The groups can be computer-defined groups, such as by the computing device or other system, or user-defined groups. Techniques and technologies described herein receive a message in the one or more groups, and determine a message relevance (e.g., utility) based on the content and/or context (e.g., time of day, sender, geo-location of recipient, message urgency, etc.) of the message. In some configurations, the message relevance can be based, at least in part, on the particular group or a cluster of groups to which the message is associated.

Aspects of the technology described herein allocate limited computing resources, such as available bandwidth and battery power, to transferring the most urgent and important data from a client device to an online service. Client devices have enormous amounts of information about the user's activities that could be communicated to the service at any given time. However, the wireless transfer of information uses available battery power and can consume a user's data plan. The technology described herein uses a model to determine how often information should be sent to a service. The model can also determine what information to send. Different models can be implemented in different scenarios. The different models can include different weighting that will produce different decisions given the same inputs.

Technology for interoperability is disclosed by enabling the sharing of user context or preferences for a computing experience across computing devices, operating systems, applications, or locations. A platform and application programming interface (API) are provided for computer applications and services to store and retrieve context data associated with a computing experience. Access to the context data for sharing may be managed by an access controller, which enables a user to manage access permissions for the sharing of the context data. The context data may be defined according to a common schema, which specifies the information for sharing and may be communicated using common communication channels or protocols. Thus context data may be shared across nearly any application or service including those developed in different computer programming languages or operating on different types of computing devices or devices running different operating systems or by different software developers.

Task information is exposed to providers of online services. A dataset that includes one or more electronic messages is received. Then, one or more task intents in the dataset are identified, where each of the identified task intents is a specific task that is to be completed. Then, for each of the identified task intents, one or more service providers each of whom offers one or more online services that are capable of assisting in the fulfillment of the identified task intent are identified, and information associated with the identified task intent is exposed to each of the identified service providers.

Methods and systems are described for a media guidance application that limits the incentive for authorized users to share content with unauthorized users, while still allowing users to access content virtually anywhere. Specifically, the media guidance application allows an authorized user to receive only a portion of a media asset that he or she is authorized to access on a different device, after a designated time period, and/or when the remaining portion of the media asset is inaccessible.

In one example, a catalog service may use a peer-to-peer network to distribute a data content item across multiple associated user devices. The catalog service may maintain a device group list describing a device group and a content catalog for the device group listing a data content set stored in the device group. The catalog service may identify a content change to the data content set listed in the content catalog at a seed device of the device group. The catalog service may send an update alert to a leeching device of the device group of the content change to trigger the leeching device to receive the content change over a peer-to-peer network between the seed device and the leaching device.

Systems and methods for stitching advertisements in streaming content are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method comprises receiving one or more advertisements. An unmarked content item may be received, the unmarked content item comprising a stream-enabled video including a set of sequential black frames. An insertion point may be identified based on a location of at least one black frame of the set of sequential black frames without requiring user input, the insertion point identified during streaming of the unmarked content item to a consumer system, the insertion point being ahead of a current playback point of the unmarked content item streaming to the consumer system. The one or more advertisements may be stitched in the unmarked content item at the insertion point. The unmarked content item may be streamed to a consumer system until the insertion point is reached, and the one or more advertisements may be streamed to the consumer system when the insertion point is reached.

A method of displaying secondary content is disclosed. The method receives historical behavior data and a search query for a user. The method extracts behavior features from the user's historical behavior and scores the user based on the behavioral features to create a user score specific to secondary content. The method uses the user score to display user specific secondary content to the user.