In an information appliance system 100, a user device 108 comprises a client platform (200, FIG. 5) that includes a service framework (235, FIG. 5) to discover and connect with a variety of services, both remote and local, transient and persistent, and to disconnect from them when they are no longer of interest or become unavailable. The service framework 235 provides a standard, consistent, simplified way for services to make themselves available and for service-using entities to locate and connect with the services of interest to them. When a service is requested from a remote server, a service frontend (281, FIG. 9) on the client platform attempts to find its corresponding service backend (282, FIG. 9) on a server providing the requested service and, if it finds it, the frontend and backend coalesce in a fully formed service that is made available to a requesting service-using entity. As a result, platform resources and security are maintained. Various methods of operating a service framework are also described.
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