System and method for using a mark-up language page to command an appliance

Abstract

A hand-held device having a display and a browser application which supports functionality particularly suited for the hand-held device. For example, the browser application supports a full screen tag which allows information to be displayed as a full screen within the display. The browser application may also support a tag for use in displaying a link the activation of which will cause the hand-held device to transmit command codes to a consumer appliance. Still further, the browser application can support a tag which the hand-held device can use to issue reminders.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-readable media having computer executable instructions for displaying information in a display, the instructions performing steps comprising:
 retrieving a mark-up language formatted page having an embedded mark-up language formatted page tag comprised of a data field containing information indicative of a command code to be transmitted upon activation of a hyperlink displayed on the display;   displaying the mark-up language formatted page including the hyperlink in the display; and   in response to the hyperlink being activated, using the information in the data field to transmit the command code to a consumer appliance;   wherein the transmitted command code is a command to tune the consumer appliance to a television channel.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-readable media as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the information comprises data for use in generating the command code. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-readable media as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the information comprises a pointer to data for generating the command code. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-readable media as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the mark-up language page depicts a representation of a user interface of a remote control. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-readable media as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the mark-up language formatted page is representative of a media guide. 
     
     
         6 . The computer-readable media as recited in  claim 1 , where the information is used to transmit an infrared command code to the consumer appliance. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-readable media as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the first information comprises data for use in generating the infrared code. 
     
     
         8 . The computer-readable media as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the information comprises a pointer to data for generating the infrared code. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-readable media as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the mark-up language page depicts a representation of a user interface of a remote control. 
     
     
         10 . The computer-readable media as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the mark-up language formatted page is representative of a media guide.