A BlackBerry Patent Application just published this morning would allow for "date separators" to be strategically positioned in BlackBerry email and other message lists presented on Blackberry devices.

While date separator technology already is in use on these devices, the rendered drawings appear to represent a more robust way of making these distinctions.

Specifically U.S. Patent app 20060277504, Displaying Messages on Handheld Devices, contains an Abstract that defines the scop of this invention in the following manner:

"A method of displaying messages on handheld devices. The device displays messages in a scrollable viewport of vertically arranged fields," the Abstract explains. "Date separators inserted into the vertically arranged list of messages to enable the user to associate the messages with a date."

Now, readers, here's the difference between what's being described and what's available now.

"The date separators have 'sticky' operation, meaning that the device ensures a date separator always appears within the viewport, even when the viewport has been scrolled to the middle of a long list of messages all associated with the same dat," the Abstract points out.."The device may ensure that the top field of the viewport always contains a date separator associated with the message immediately below.

When you see some pictures and read the accompanying background data from the Patent app, you may get a clearer picture of what is being proposed here.

Here's what's going on, according to the app:

In FIG. 5(a), the topmost field 76a contains the first date separator item 80a. The first date separator item 80a shows an absolute date reference of "Feb. 10, 2005" and a message count of three (3). It will be appreciated that the date reference and message count may be implemented in alternative ways, as described above, such as to show unread messages or relative date indicators. Following the first date separator item 80a in the list are three messages (A1-A3). The next item shown in the fields 76 of the viewport 74 is the second date separator item 80b, which displays a date reference of "Feb. 9, 2005" and a message count of twelve (12).

In FIG. 5(b), the user has scrolled downwards to the point where the topmost field 76a now contains the second date separator item 80b, which is then followed by messages B1-B10, which are associated with the second date separator item by virtue of a date.(for example, date of receipt).

An embodiment of the "sticky" operation of the date separator items 80 is illustrated in FIG. 5(c1), which shows that as the user continues to scroll downwards the second date separator item 80b remains in the topmost field 76a, despite the fact that messages B1-B6 have scrolled up out of the viewport 74. As shown in FIG. 5(d), the second date separator item 80b remains in the topmost field 76a of the viewport 74 until the next, i.e., third date separator item 80c "pushes" it up out of the viewport 74, as shown in FIG. 5(e). Through this "sticky" operation of the date separator items 80, the user is always aware of the date (and message count, etc.) associated with the messages listed in the viewport 74, even when the number of messages for a particular date exceeds the display capacity of the viewport 74. In this embodiment, as downwards scrolling occurs each date separator item 80 is held in the topmost field 76a until it is "pushed" out, i.e. replaced, by the next date separator item 80 in the sequence. Accordingly, the topmost field 76a always contains a date separator item 80.

In another embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 5(c2), the "sticky" operation of the date separator item 80 is dependent upon whether another date separator item is visible in the viewport 74. As shown in FIG. 5(c2), the third date separator item 80c has scrolled upwards into the viewport 74, so the second date separator item 80b need not be held in the topmost field 76. The rationale is that a user will be able to deduce the date associated with the messages above the third date separator item 80c. In this embodiment, the date separator item 80 is held in the topmost field 76a of the viewport 74 if another date separator item 80 has not yet scrolled into the viewport 74. In other words, there must always be at least one date separator item 80 visible in the viewport 74.