WO2006030368A2

WO2006030368A2 - Updating prioritizing related to data retention using volatile memories

Info

Publication number: WO2006030368A2
Application number: PCT/IB2005/052972
Authority: WO
Inventors: Artur Burchard; Steven Broeils Luitjens; Ozcan Mesut; Jozef Pieter Van Gassel; Siarhei Yermalayeu; Hendrikus Bernardus Van Den Brink
Original assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
Priority date: 2004-09-17
Filing date: 2005-09-12
Publication date: 2006-03-23
Also published as: WO2006030368A3

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method, a power prioritizing unit (110), and a portable electronic device (118) for updating prioritizing of a first power consuming state to a second power consuming state, said method comprising the steps: obtaining a battery level value (step 204), obtaining information related to the power consumption of said first and second power consuming states (step 206), determining a time duration for the first and the second power consuming states (step 208), in relation to the obtained battery level and the obtained information related to the power consumption, obtaining user input data related to at least the first or the second power consuming state (step 210), updating the prioritizing in dependence of the obtained user input data (step 212), and presenting the first and second time durations to the user (step 214).

Description

Updating prioritizing related to data retention using volatile memories

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates in general to updating prioritizing of a first power consuming state to a second power consuming state, and in particular to enabling prioritizing of a data retention state to an activity-related state of a portable electronic device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Varieties of battery-powered portable electronic devices are available on the market. These often include a local storage of the type of a memory capable to contain multimedia content. Such content can be loaded to the devices' storage and subsequently consumed, for instance by playing back the content.

Until now for the reason of non- volatility, flash-based memories were used. The flash-based memories however have a rather high price, as compared to for example dynamic random access memories (DRAM)-based memories. On the other hand, these DRAM-based memories are volatile, that is the data content is lost when shutting down the electricity supply for the refreshing of the data contents of the DRAM-based memory.

In the European patent application, EP 1367480 Al a portable computer is presented in the form of a web pad comprising a DRAM-based memory unit for storing data of the web pad. The web pad further comprises a user interface for inputting a data keeping time, which represents a period of time for keeping the data in the memory unit. In a first embodiment the data keeping time can be inserted by the user, from which the web pad determines two power ratios, of which one is a ratio of the reserved power, for the data keeping, to the whole power stored in the battery and the other is a residual power ratio. In another embodiment, the reserved power ratio can be inserted by the user, from which the web pad may determine the residual power ratio and the data keeping time. ^'

Although the web pad allows the user to enter a data keeping time or a reserved power ratio, the web pad has the disadvantage of not being able to present the user with data that can be easily understood and directly interpreted in terms remaining battery lifetime in a specific state of operation of the web pad. Presenting a power ratio of the reserved power to the total power and the residual power ratio, has the drawback of not being easily understandable and not being directly applicable in terms of battery lifetime in the specific states of the web pad. Since a web pad is likely to have a number of different states, each probably having different power consumption, construing the presented information as presented in embodiments above, seems to be a difficult task.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide exchanging of at least part of a first time duration related to a first power consumption state of a portable electronic device to at least part of a second time duration related to a second power consumption state of the portable electronic device.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, this object is achieved by a method for updating prioritizing of a first power consuming state to a second power consuming state, within a portable electronic device, said method comprising the steps of obtaining a battery level value, obtaining information related to the power consumption of said first and second power consuming states, determining a time duration for the first and the second power consuming states, in relation to the obtained battery level and the obtained information related to the power consumption, obtaining user input data related to at least the first or the second power consuming state, and updating the prioritizing in dependence of the obtained user input data.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, this object is achieved by a power prioritizing unit for updating prioritizing of a first power consuming state to a second power consuming state, comprising of a power level value monitoring unit, arranged to monitor the power level value of a battery, a power consumption obtaining unit arranged to obtain the power consumption of the portable electronic device in a first state and in a second state of the portable electronic device, a user input interface, arranged to receive user input related to the first or the second power consuming state, and a power control unit, arranged to receive the monitored power level of the battery, to receive the power consumption of the first and the second power consuming states, and to obtain user input related to the first or the second power consuming states, said power control unit further being arranged to determine a time duration for the prioritized first power consuming state and a time duration for the second power consuming state, in relation to the received monitored power level, the received power consumption and the obtained user input. According to a third aspect of the present invention, this object is achieved by a portable electronic device comprising a power prioritizing unit for updating prioritizing of a first power consuming state to a second power consuming state, said power prioritizing unit comprising of a power level value monitoring unit, arranged to monitor the power level value of a battery, a power consumption obtaining unit arranged to obtain the power consumption of the portable electronic device in a first state and in a second state of the portable electronic device, a user input interface, arranged to receive user input related to the first or the second power consuming state, and a power control unit, arranged to receive the monitored power level of the battery, to receive the power consumption of the first and the second power consuming states, and to obtain user input related to the first or the second power consuming states, said power control unit further being arranged to determine a time duration for the prioritized first power consuming state and a time duration for the second power consuming state, in relation to the received monitored power level, the received power consumption and the obtained user input. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, this object is achieved by a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium, having thereon: computer program code means, to make a portable electronic device execute, when said computer program code means is loaded in the portable electronic device: obtaining a battery level value, obtaining information related to the power consumption of said first and second power consuming states of the portable electronic device, determining a time duration for the first and the second power consuming states, in relation to the obtained battery level and the obtained information related to the power consumption, obtaining user input data related to at least a first or a second power consuming state of the portable electronic device, and updating the prioritizing in dependence of the obtained user input data. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, this object is achieved by a computer element comprising computer program code means to make a portable electronic device execute: obtaining a battery level value, obtaining information related to the power consumption of said first and second power consuming states of the portable electronic device, determining a time duration for the first and the second power consuming states, in relation to the obtained battery level and the obtained information related to the power consumption, obtaining user input data related to at least a first or a second power consuming state of the portable electronic device, and updating the prioritizing in dependence of the obtained user input data.

The present invention has the following overall advantages: One advantage of this invention as compared to prior art is that it enables exchanging of at least part of a first time duration related to a first power consumption state of a portable electronic device to at least part of a second tme duration related to a second power consumption state of the portable electronic device. Another advantage is that this invention provides updating prioritizing based on determined time durations for the first and the second power consumption states, which time durations are easy to relate to for a potential user.

Direction of the dependent claims and the advantages thereof: Claims 2 and 11 are directed towards obtaining user input related to prioritizing of the first power consuming state.

Claims 4 and 12 are directed towards hindering the performance of a predetermined action. These claims therefore have the advantage that a predetermined action may be hindered.

Claims 5,6,7 and 13 are directed towards prioritizing of the first power consumption state to the second power consumption state, the first power consumption state being a data retention state of the portable electronic device and the second power consumption state being an activity state. These claims offer the advantage that content can be protected by prioritizing the data retention state to the activity state. It is also advantageous that the user of the portable electronic device is presented the time durations for the data retention state and the activity state, respectively, making him conscious and aware of the remaining time before content may be lost.

The gist of the present invention is to obtain the battery power consumption of each relevant state, and to provide exchanging of at least part of a first time duration related to a first power consumption state to at least part of a second time duration related to a second power consumption state.

These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will now be described in more detail in relation to the enclosed drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a schematic representation of a portable electronic device according to one embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 presents a flow-chart of a method for updating prioritizing of a first power consuming state to a second power consuming state, in relation to one embodiment of the present invention, and

Fig. 3 schematically shows a computer program product according to one embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Portable electronic devices equipped with a memory of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) type, need to continuously supply the DRAM-type memory with electrical power in order not to lose the content of the memory since the content of this type of memory is volatile in the sense that switching off the power supply to the memory deletes the memory content.

Since the DRAM-type memories are considerably cheaper than non- volatile flash-based memories, the DRAM-type memories have a potential to find applications in a vast number of small size portable devices. These small size portable devices generally contain a battery to provide the device with electrical power. Due to the power consumption of the device, the battery power level decreases upon using the device. The power consumption of the device is dependent of the state of the portable electronic device. In an activity-related state, such as a state of playing an mp3 -audio file for example, the device has certain power consumption. Further, in a passivity-related state, such as a state in which the data content of the device is retained but the number of applications is minimized, that is no activity application is running, the device also consumes an electric power. The power consumption of the device is typically higher in the activity-related state than in the passivity-related state. It should however be noted that retaining a data content of a DRAM-type of memory in a portable device requires a certain electrical power.

This means that retaining the data content of a device a certain period of time, for instance, three hours, requires one certain minimum battery power level. Playing mp3- playing, as one example of an activity-related state, for the same amount of time, requires another certain minimum battery power level of the battery, which is higher than the battery power level required for retaining data only.

Portable electronic devices containing a memory of the DRAM-type, are generally set to reserve a certain battery power level for data content retention, which level corresponds to the battery power level required to maintain the portable electronic device in a state during a certain time, during which time duration the data content is retained in the DRAM-type of memory.

By using such a portable electronic device in an activity-related state, that is by running an activity, the battery power level decreases and eventually reaches the battery power level that corresponds to the level that is reserved to retain the data content of the portable electronic device a predetermined amount of time. Upon reaching this level, the battery power supply for the chosen activity is shut down, and the remaining battery power is supplied for retaining the data content. The activity-related state is thus changed into a passivity- state, in which the data content is being retained. Now, as mentioned above, the present invention relates to updating prioritizing of a first power consuming state to a second power consuming state in general, and to enabling prioritizing of a data retention state to an activity-related state of a portable electronic device, in particular.

By gaining information on the power consumption in the activity-related state, it can be calculated what battery power is required to maintain the portable electronic device in said activity-related state a certain time duration or alternatively the time duration of the portable electronic device being in the activity-related state, during which the device consumes a certain battery power, can be calculated.

Similarly, having access to the power consumption of the portable electronic device in the passivity-related state, the required power level can be calculated to keep the device in such a passivity-related state a certain time duration, or alternatively the time duration can be calculated during which the device consumes a certain battery power in the passivity-related state.

Since the power capacity of a battery is limited, the more power is used in one state, the less power remains to be used in the another state. The time durations for the respective states are thus inter related.

By enabling changing the respective time durations for a given battery power level a possibility to adjust the time usage of the portable electronic device arises. Considering enabling changing these time durations and referring to the data retention state as mentioned above, the present invention is now described in more detail.

Reference is made to fig. 1, showing a schematic representation of a portable electronic device according to one embodiment of the present invention, and to fig. 2, presenting a flow-chart of a method for updating prioritizing of a first power consuming state to a second power consuming state, in relation to one embodiment of the present invention.

The portable electronic device 118 in fig. 1 comprises a power prioritizing unit 100, a battery 112, a DRAM-type memory 114, and a data content processing unit 116. The power prioritizing unit comprises a battery power level value monitoring unit 102 that is arranged to monitor the power level value of the battery 112 that is connected to the data content processing unit 116. In this example, the data content processing unit 116 is a dedicated content processing unit arranged to decode media content files such as mp3-files. Other types of media content files may also be decode such as mp2, ogg, wav, mod, xm, it, s3m and MS Windows Media audio files. In this example the portable electronic device 118 is hence a dedicated mp3-audio player, but it may be any portable electronic device, such as a portable video player, a portable computer, etc. The only requirement for the portable electronic device is that it is equipped with at least one DRAM-type memory.

Examples of different types of DRAM memories for which the present invention can be applied are Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR-SDRAM) and Double Data Rate 2-SDRAM (DDR2-SDRAM) memories.

The power prioritizing unit 100 further comprises a power consumption obtaining unit 104, as one form of a power consumption obtaining unit. This unit is arranged to obtain the power consumption of the data content processing unit 116 in the mp3-audio playing state, as one example of an activity-related state of the portable electronic device 118 and the power consumption of the data content processing unit 116 in a data retention state, as the example of an passivity-related state, in which state the data content is retained in the DRAM-type memory 114 that is equipped in the portable electronic device 118.

Moreover, a user input interface 108 and a power providing unit 110 are comprised in the power prioritizing unit 100 and connected to the control unit 106. The user input interface is arranged to receive user input from the mp3-player 118 in this example and the power providing unit 110 is arranged to provide electric power to the data content processing unit 116 and/or to the DRAM-type of memory 114.

The control unit 106 is arranged to control the function of the power prioritizing unit 100, which function is explained in more detail below in connection with the detailed description of the method for updating prioritizing a first consuming state to a second power consuming state according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to fig. 2, according to one embodiment of the present invention the method starts by the step of obtaining prioritizing setting, step 202. In this step, the control unit receives a predetermined setting of the battery power level that is reserved to supply the volatile DRAM-type memory in a passivity-related state of the portable electronic device. In an alternative, the control unit instead receives a predetermined setting of the time duration during which the DRAM-type of memory is supplied with electric power in a passivity- related state of the data content processing unit 116 of the portable electronic device 118. After having obtained the prioritizing setting in step 202, the battery power level value of the battery that is connected to the mp3-p layer, is obtained in step of obtaining the battery power level, step 204. In the power prioritizing unit 100, it is the battery power level value monitoring unit 102 that is arranged to obtain the battery power level value.

In the method for updating prioritizing according to one embodiment of the present invention the power consumption of a passivity-related state, that is the data retention state, and an activity-related state, that is the playing mp3-audio file state, in the dedicated mp3-player 118 in the example, respectively, is determined. The two power consumption values are determined in the step of determining the power consumption of first and second state, step 206. As mentioned above it is the power consumption obtaining unit 104 that is arranged to obtain the power consumption of the respective states.

From the obtained battery power level, from step 204, the predetermined setting from step 202 and the power consumptions of the first and second states, it is determined the time durations in the playing mp3-audio file state and the data retention state, respectively. The is performed in step 208, determining the time durations in the first and second state.

The battery power level equals the power consumption of the playing state times the time duration for this playing state + the power consumption of the data retention state times the time duration for this data retention state. For example, if the power consumption of the mp3-audio playing state is 200 mW and the power consumption of the data retention state is 40 mW, the following battery lifetime durations can be calculated for a battery power of 6400 mWh, equaling the power two unused AA-sized batteries.

Table 1. Total battery lifetime in the play state and the data retention state.

For instance, if no battery power is reserved for data retention of the DRAM- type memory, the available battery power level can be consumed in the state playing mp3- files. Since the battery capacity is 6400 mWh, and the power consumption for playing a mp3- file is 200 mW, the time duration during which the portable electronic device can be playing mp3-files is 6400 mWh/200 mW = 32 h.

In another example, when all battery power is reserved for data retention of the volatile DRAM-type memory, the lifetime of the battery in the data retention state is 6400 mWh/40 mW = 160 h.

The battery power that is reserved for data retention in dependent on the prioritizing setting as obtained in step 202, as described above. By deciding the battery power reservation for data retention, or alternatively the time duration during which data is retained in the DRAM-type memory, the battery power that is provided for playing mp3-files is implicitly set, since the difference between the total battery power and the battery power reserved for data retention, is the battery power that the can be consumed in the state of playing mp3 -files.

However, the method according to one embodiment of the present invention provides a possibility to update the prioritizing related to the data retention state and the mp3- fϊle playing state. The step 210 comprises obtaining prioritizing input data from a user of the mp3-player.

After the step of obtaining prioritizing input data in step 210, is followed the step of updating prioritizing in dependence of input data, step 212. After having obtained prioritizing input data, the prioritizing setting is thus updated in dependence of the input data by the user via the user input interface 108. The next step of the method according to one embodiment of the present invention is step 214, presenting the time durations to the user. These time durations are the two lifetime durations of the two states, which together correspond to the battery power available in the connected battery of the mp3 -player. For instance, if the user wishes to update the current prioritizing setting of the mp3-player, the user gives input to the mp3-player, for example by pressing a button to prolongue the data retention time or to shorten the data retention time. The button may be designed in various ways, for instance by providing two buttons to the user, where one button is enhancing the data retention state and the other button is enhancing the activity-related state, which state is the state of playing mp3-fϊles. The two buttons, which may be soft keys, may be positioned with one button being provided at one end of the display and the other button being provided at the other end of the display. A graphical indication such as a bar indicating the prioritizing setting may be provided. If the bar, for instance, is at one end of the display on, the battery power may be provided entirely for the power consumption of one state, and if the bar is positioned at the other end of the display, the battery power may be provided entirely for data retention in the data retention state. Moreover, on each button may be presented an arrow, pointing in the direction of may be provided Another design may be that one button is positionable in two different directions, where one is increasing the importance of the data retention state and the other is decreasing the importance of the same data retention state. Increasing the importance may be synonymous with increasing the data retention time duration, but may alternatively be synonymous increasing the battery power level that is reserved for data retention. Other forms or type of buttons are also envisaged.

In one example when a user starts using the mp3 -player, he or she reads that the retention time for instance is 10 hours from the presented data in the display of the mp3- player. With reference to the Table 1, as presented above, the lifetime of the state of playing is then 30 hours, for a fully charged battery. After several hours of playing, and a few days of the mp3 -player kept in the data retention state, the display may be showing that 5 hours of playing remains, still with an unchanged data retention time of 10 hours. However, at this stage the user realizes that 10 hours of retention time may probably not be enough to be sure that data will not be at risk, because the expected time until new batteries can be mounted is more like 20 hours, than the reserved 10 hours. This problematic situation is easily handled by the user of the mp3 -player is the mp3 -player is equipped with a power prioritizing unit according to the present invention. To avoid the problematic situation the user simply updates the prioritizing setting such that the lifetime of the data retention state is increased at the expense of the lifetime of the activity-related state, in this example the lifetime of the mp3- file playing state.

The lifetimes after the usage as mentioned above may be as indicated in Table. 2. Since the user estimates the data retention time that is required in order not to lose any data is more like 20 hours, the user gives input data to the mp3-player by for instance pressing a button increasing the data retention time. Via the user input interface 108 of the power prioritizing unit 100 according to the invention and the obtained power consumptions of the playing state and the data retention state, the control unit 106 now determines the updated lifetime durations in the respective state after which the time durations are presented by the mp3-player 116. In order to safely be able to keep the data content in the volatile memory another 20 hours the user may choose 24 hours of data retention time. By making this choice by pressing the button increasing the lifetime of the data retention time, the lifetime of the playing state is automatically decreased from 5 hours to 2,2 hours, following Table 2. The battery of the mp3-player still has power to supply the mp3-fϊle in the playing state another 2,2 hours, keeping a lifetime of the data retention state to 24 hours.

Table 2. Example of battery lifetimes in the play state and the data retention, respectively, for a battery in a first non-fully charged state of the example.

If the user uses the mp3 -player in the playing state and the usage time approaches 2,2 hours, the user will be noticed that the power supplied for the activity-related state will soon be switched off in order to maintain a data retention time of 24 hours. At the same time as the time duration may be indicated on the display of the mp3-player a sound signal may be activated to make the user aware of that the current application soon will be shut down since the battery power will be reserved for data retention, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

If the user now realizes that the currently reserved data retention time will not be fully needed, rather 20 hours of retention time will be enough, the user can update the prioritizing setting to as to gain another 0,8 hours of mp3 -playing at the expense of a 4-hour reduction of the data retention time, as indicated in Table 3.

Table 3. Example of battery lifetimes in the play state and the data retention, respectively, for a battery in a second non-fully charged state of the example.

The power prioritizing unit according to the present invention thus offers a possibility to prioritize one state power consuming state to another power consuming state, by exchanging lifetime in one state for lifetime in another state. This is advantageous since the user of a device easily relates to the battery power available via the lifetime left in a particular state.

If the user continues playing mp3-files, in the example as described above, without paying attention to the lifetime of the playing state running out, this application will be shut down by the power providing unit 110, as controlled by the control unit 106 of the power prioritizing unit 100, according to the present invention. The control unit is thus controlling a predetermined action performed by the power providing unit 110.

Fig. 3 schematically shows a computer program product according to one embodiment of the present invention, having thereon computer program code means.

When the computer program code means, comprised on the computer program product, is loaded in the computer or possibly the portable electronic device itself, said computer or possibly the portable electronic device itself, executes obtaining a battery level value, obtaining information related to the power consumption of said first and second power consuming states of the portable electronic device, determining a time duration for the first and the second power consuming states, in relation to the obtained battery level and the obtained information related to the power consumption, obtaining user input data related to at least a first or a second power consuming state of the portable electronic device, and updating the prioritizing in dependence of the obtained user input data. One example of such a computer program product is a CD-ROM, but it can however be any kind of readable disc that can be inserted in a computer, such as a DVD-disc, an MD-disc or any other kind of computer program product. Also the computer program product may be a portable memory, such as a flash-based memory.

The computer typically comprises a control unit, a memory unit and an input/output unit.

In addition, the computer program element may be downloaded from a server via for instance the Internet or any other wired or wireless network. As mentioned earlier and below, information on the battery power consumption in the relevant states of usage, is required in order to provide a portable electronic device with the present invention. The power prioritizing unit may be implemented in the system power manager, as already available in various battery power supplied portable electronic devices. However, the power prioritizing unit may be implemented as a unit on its own or even be incorporated in the control unit of portable electronic devices. One prerequisite is that information on the power consumption of the different states is obtained in order to calculate the lifetime durations for the respective states.

It is emphasized that this invention can be varied in many more ways than the ones mentioned and/or described above. These different embodiments and alternatives are non- limiting examples. The scope of the present invention, however, is only limited by the subsequently following claims.

It shall be paid attention to that:

"Comprising" or "comprises" does not exclude other elements, steps, units, etc.

"A" or "an" does not exclude a plurality of the respective items. A single processor or other processing unit may fulfill the functions of several units recited in the claims.

The reference signs in the claims shall not be construed as limiting the scope. The method for updating prioritizing a first power consumption state to a second power consumption state according to the present invention, and the power prioritizing unit according to the present invention have the following advantages:

It is advantageous that time durations for the data retention state and the activity state, respectively, are presented to the user of the portable electronic device, making him conscious and aware of the remaining playing time before a predetermined action is performed, that is before data content is retained. Another advantage is that the present invention allows a power-conscious usage of the portable electronic device.

Yet another advantage is that content can be protected by prioritizing the data retention state to the activity state.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method for updating prioritizing of a first power consuming state to a second power consuming state, within a portable electronic device (118), said method comprising the steps: obtaining a battery level value (step 204), - obtaining information related to the power consumption of said first and second power consuming states (step 206), determining a time duration for the first and the second power consuming states, in relation to the obtained battery level and the obtained information related to the power consumption (step 208), - obtaining user input data related to at least the first or the second power consuming state (step 210), and updating the prioritizing in dependence of the obtained user input data (step 212).

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining user input data

(step 210) comprises obtaining user input data related to prioritizing of the first power consuming state.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining information related to the power consumption (step 206) comprises obtaining the power consumption value of the first power consuming state and the power consuming value of the second power consuming state.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of presenting the determined time durations to the user (step 214), such that the portable electronic device

(118) can receive hindering user input preventing performing a predetermined action.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of prioritizing of a first power consuming state to a second power consuming state.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first power consuming state is a data retention state of the portable electronic device.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the second power consuming state is an activity state of the portable electronic device.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least the first or the second time duration is set by default.

9. The method according to claim 1, in which the time durations for the first and second power consuming states refer to the time durations during which these first and second power consuming states exist, and that these time durations are inter related.

10. A power prioritizing unit ( 100) for updating prioritizing of a first power consuming state to a second power consuming state, comprising: a power level value monitoring unit (102), arranged to monitor the power level value of a battery (112), a power consumption obtaining unit (104) arranged to obtain the power consumption of the portable electronic device (118) in a first state and in a second state of the portable electronic device (118), a user input interface (108), arranged to receive user input related to the first or the second power consuming state, and a power control unit (106), arranged to receive the monitored power level of the battery (112), to receive the power consumption of the first and the second power consuming states, and to obtain user input related to the first or the second power consuming states, said power control unit (106) further being arranged to determine a time duration for the prioritized first power consuming state and a time duration for the second power consuming state, in relation to the received monitored power level, the received power consumption and the obtained user input.

11. A power prioritizing unit (100), according to claim 10, wherein the user input interface (108) is arranged to receive user input related to prioritizing of the first power consuming state.

12. A power prioritizing unit (100), according to claim 10, wherein the power control unit (106) further is arranged to perform a predetermined action in absence of hindering user input.

13. A power prioritizing unit, according to claim 10, wherein the power control unit (106) further is arranged to prioritize the first power consuming state to the second power consuming state.

14. A portable electronic device (118) comprising a prioritizing unit (100) for updating prioritizing of a first power consuming state to a second power consuming state, said prioritizing unit (100) comprising: a power level value monitoring unit (102), arranged to monitor the power level value of a battery (112), - a power consumption obtaining unit (104) arranged to obtain the power consumption of the portable electronic device (118) in a first state and in a second state of the portable electronic device (118), a user input interface (108), arranged to receive user input related to the first or the second power consuming state, and - a power control unit (106), arranged to receive the monitored power level of the battery (112), to receive the power consumption of the first and the second power consuming states, and to obtain user input related to the first or the second power consuming states, said power control unit (106) further being arranged to determine a time duration for the prioritized first power consuming state and a time duration for the second power consuming state, in relation to the received monitored power level, the received power consumption and the obtained user input.

15. A computer program product (30) comprising a computer readable medium, having thereon: computer program code means, to make a portable electronic device (118) execute, when said computer program code means is loaded in the portable electronic device (118): obtaining a battery level value (step 204), obtaining information related to the power consumption of said first and second power consuming states of the portable electronic device (118, step 206), determining a time duration for the first and the second power consuming states, in relation to the obtained battery level and the obtained information related to the power consumption (step 208), obtaining user input data related to at least a first or a second power consuming state of the portable electronic device (118, step 210), and updating the prioritizing in dependence of the obtained user input data (step 212).

16. A computer program element comprising computer program code means to make a portable electronic device (118) execute: obtaining a battery level value (step 204), obtaining information related to the power consumption of said first and second power consuming states of the portable electronic device (118, step 206), determining a time duration for the first and the second power consuming states, in relation to the obtained battery level and the obtained information related to the power consumption (step 208), obtaining user input data related to at least a first or a second power consuming state of the portable electronic device (118, step 210), and updating the prioritizing in dependence of the obtained user input data (step 212).