Presenting status data received from multiple devices

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for presenting status data received from multiple computing devices in a single central interface. A computing device can be configured to gather and transmit status data. Status data can include any type of data known or discoverable by a computing device. The computing device can also be configured to receive status data from other computing devices and display the status data in a central interface. This functionality can be implemented as part of the operating system running on the computing device. The computing device can also utilize the received status data to select performance options regarding the performance of the computing device. For example, a computing device can select to disable functionality that requires the availability of a target computing device upon a determination that the target computing device is unavailable.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 receiving by a receiving computing device, status data from a broadcasting computing device, wherein the status data describes the broadcasting computing device; and   displaying, by the receiving computing device, the received status data in a central interface, wherein the central interface can present status data received from a plurality of broadcasting devices.