At this point, can we pencil in Google as guaranteed to be the next big tech company to create a smartwatch? We’ve already seen at least one patent filed for a watch, along with a report that the Android team is leading the charge on the project. So today’s patent filing doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise, but it does offer up details on how this new wearable wriststrap could work. 

Similar to how Google Glass works with its side touchpad, this patent talks of using the bezels around the watchface for accomplishing gestures like pinch-to-zoom, scrolling, and stretching. The patent says specifically that the bezel will be used to “provide a tactile-based user input to the processor.”

There are also mentions of a display, processor, battery, and wriststrap, along with dozens of mentions of this being a “smart-watch.” If you didn’t think that Google was working on one, I hope that you do now. Here’s to hoping it looks similar to this Google Time concept.

If you could choose, would you go Google smartwatch or Glass?

Via:  USPTO | Engadget

Google Files Patent for Smartwatch With Bezels as Touchpads is a post from: Droid Life

We all know that Google Now is the epitome of your phone knowing exactly where you are and giving you information based off of that, but another patent recently secured by Google is going to extend that ability to your phone’s camera. Their new patent hopes to put GPS to work to figure out three things: where you are, if you are indoors or outside and what the local weather near you is like. All of this information is then fed into your camera to make your photos look better. 

Pictures outside can fluctuate wildly depending on the amount of light and cloud cover that you’re shooting in. This new patent lets Google configure your camera’s ISO and white balance to compensate for any kind of weather that you might be taking photos in. It’s not the biggest feature in the world, but for the legion of point-and-shooters out there who don’t tinker with phone settings too much, this should make their snapshots even better.

Via: Engadget 

Google On a Patent Roll, Secures Designs for Cameras To Check the Local Weather is a post from: Droid Life

Battery life in a mobile device is very important. All your fancy specs won’t mean anything if you can’t keep it turned on more than 15 minutes, so we’re seeing companies either putting bigger batteries in their phone like Motorola’s MAXX line or trying to innovate to make batteries last longer. Seeing as how the display in a device is usually the biggest battery drain on a device, Google has just been granted a patent that allows Android to read the battery life of a phone and change the display accordingly. 

In this listing, the fine print lays out the procedure of how this patent will work. Depending on the amount of battery left, the operating system will change the display to lessen the amount of power it draws by disabling blur and animations between screens. If the battery is extremely low the operating system can even lower the resolution of the display.

This certainly sounds like the type of tech we would expect Google to include in a Nexus device, maybe if we are lucky we will see this in the Nexus 5.

Via: Google

Google Granted Patent That Allows Android to Change Display Qualities Based on Battery Level is a post from: Droid Life

We see interesting patent filings from Google every now and then, most of them are pretty forward-thinking ideas that we won’t see for a while. The next patent to add to that list is Google’s recent acquisition of the ability to interact with your phone by touching, tapping and sliding across the back of it.

Google mentions this new tech for only “simple controls” and demonstrates swiping to a new page in a document. Skipping to a new track on a song or disabling a notification would most likely be some of the first implementations of this patent if we ever see it in an Android device.

Think we could see this in a future Nexus device?

Via: Pocketnow

Google Patents Ability to Interact With Future Phones By Tapping the Back is a post from: Droid Life

The not-so-secret of Google’s next step for Android got another leak today. Google has won a patent that allows Android to differentiate between users on a device by using Face Unlock. Using this alongside the multi-user framework, that is already in place just not working yet, would allow for one user to pick it up and use Face Unlock to access their profile and user data while another person’s face would take them to a different set of user data.

When finding patents like this we don’t even know if Google plans on using them, but this one seems to be critical to something they are already working on. We are just wondering in which version of Android are we going to see it first?

Via: Engadget

Google Grabs Patent Detailing Multiple User Face Unlock, Readying it for Primetime is a post from: Droid Life

When Google launched Honeycomb, one of the selling points was that the action bar was always at the bottom of the tablet, where you needed it, no matter how you turned the device. With smartphone and tablet designs today looking pretty similar from any direction you look at it, telling which way is up might be a little difficult, but Google’s newest patent looks to help you with that problem.

The patent shows a phone with a microphone and speaker installed into each end of the device, and when the time comes to actually use your phone as a phone, the device will tell which end is up, and activate the speaker and microphone accordingly. It’s an interesting patent that could lead to even more interesting phone designs. Time will only tell though if Google actually puts the IP to any use.

Via: Engadget

Google’s New Patent Lets You Talk into Any End of the Phone You Want is a post from: Droid Life

Judge Richard Posner gave us some hope that patent wars might start to receive the attention they deserve (which is being tossed out of court) when he dismissed the case between Motorola and Apple last week. He has since softened his stance slightly and allowed the two companies to prove that there are true damages to be assessed here. The judge has given them until next Monday to submit briefs proving there is a case, but there is still the chance that neither of the sides will win anything. We will have to wait and see for now how the two sides approach this.

Via: The Verge

Apple and Motorola Given One More Chance to Prove Their Arguments is a post from: Droid Life

After going through the patent war over Android, Google is now being quick on the uptake with their snatching of patents towards their next big project; Project Glass. Recently, Google has submitted for a patent that allows the glasses to know what you are looking at and then provide neat little nuggets of information about what you’re seeing. Included in the filing is the notion of a light-up frame that would point you in the direction of something interesting. Hopefully you can turn it off otherwise be blinded as you walk around throughout the day.

Google also has some interesting uses for this patent when we are looking at a digital display. The Glasses could see the page you are reading and then fish for more information deeper in the website that you haven’t yet looked at; bringing up the most useful bits of info and showing it to you. All very interesting if it can be pulled off, but Google has the security of this patent down the road if they do get there.

Via: Engadget

Google Files Additional Project Glass Patents, Visual Augmentation Can See What You Miss is a post from: Droid Life

This whole battle of tech intellectual property is getting, or has gotten, out of hand. It seems that every company that you know the name of is suing or is being sued for something that they have done. Most notably for readers of this site though, is the attack on Android from all sides. Visual.ly has massed together some of the numbers and has put their infographic spin on it, and the whole thing looks just as confusing as you would expect.

Laying it all out helps, but not much. Each company has different suits spiraling outwards in different directions and with different number of cases. The graph even accounts for how many patents are involved and which companies are suing each other. One side of the circle with some of the most traffic is Apple’s corner whose lines can be traced to Samsung, HTC and Motorola. Don’t forget, Microsoft is right in the thick of it as well.

The most recent effect we have seen of this patent battle was the stalling of HTC devices arriving from coming through customs due to an ITC investigation thanks to Apple. With Samsung and Apple agreeing to talk things over, if we see some agreement between them could we see a disarmament of patent wars?

Via: Phone Arena | Visual.ly

Infographic Shows Us How Confusing and Convoluted This Whole Patent War Is is a post from: Droid Life

Even though the court-recommended talks between Samsung and Apple were supposed to start later this month, it seems the two companies have started pulling back a bit from their thermonuclear patent war. Monday, Apple filed to narrow their patent claims against Samsung to nearly half of what they originally were. Samsung responded hours later by shaving five claims off of their suit against Apple as well.

While this is a far cry from things being resolved, this might make it easier for the two to come to a complete settlement. If something is not agreed upon, the trial is set to go to court in July.

Via: BGR

Apple and Samsung Slowly Start to Disarm Their Patent Nukes, Drop Numerous Claims Against Each Other is a post from: Droid Life

According to “people familiar with the matter,” Google’s acquisition of Motorola could clear through the U.S. Justice Department as early as next week. Proposed back in August to the tune of $12.5 billion, we can’t wait this deal to be completed. As fans of Motorola’s hardware and haters of their bootloader policies, one can hope that Google will step int to help preserve the integrity of Android. They have said time and time again that Moto will act as its own entity, but that doesn’t mean policies can’t change to better match those of Google’s.

And aside from the software side of Android, this obviously allows Google to use Motorola’s patent portfolio at will going forward. Tech patent battles are not going to end any time soon.

Will your impressions of Motorola change once this deal finalized? Or will you need to see immediate action from Google in order to accept Moto back into your life?

Via:  WSJ

WSJ: Google Acquisition of Motorola to Clear as Early as Next Week is a post from: Droid Life

Motorola took its battle with Apple to a Florida court today, claiming that a couple of the Cupertino giant’s products including the iPhone 4S infringe upon six of of their patents. The patents involve technologies that utilize wireless antennae, software, data filtering and messaging. This suit follows up Moto’s win in German courts last month, a case that could force a ban on iPhones and iPads in the country.

Ugh.

Via:  Reuters

Motorola Sues Apple in Florida Court for Patent Infringement, iPhone 4S One of the Targets is a post from: Droid Life

According to an unnamed Samsung official that spoke with the Korea Herald, the Galaxy Nexus lock screen is not actually the target in Apple’s latest patent lawsuit against the company in Germany. To recap, FOSS Patents had originally reported that the Nexus may violate Apple’s slide-to-unlock patent, and that it was their newest target to try and rid the world of Android. The Samsung official had this to say:

“We’re aware that there was a hearing involving Apple’s slide-to-unlock feature after our patent infringement case last Friday and a series of products in the Galaxy lineup were accused there, but what we’ve discovered is that the Galaxy Nexus wasn’t one of them,” the company official said.

Well, cross that off the list? Should we assume that they are attacking some other Samsung product for using some sort of slide-to-unlock screen? Seems odd, especially knowing the careful measures that Sammie has taken to make their lock screens not slide-to-unlock. In fact, in the newest versions of TouchWiz, you have to touch the screen to activate it, and can then move your finger to either side to trigger the lock to unlock. On older phones, you slide the entire screen off to unlock rather than use a sliding bar mechanism.

And the patent war rolls on…

Via:  Korea Herald, Android Central

Galaxy Nexus Not Involved in Slide-to-Unlock Apple Patent Case? is a post from: Droid Life

Newsweek’s technology editor Dan Lyons took to his personal blog yesterday to report on a spicy rumor that had cruised into his inbox concerning Apple and their patent war with HTC. According to his source, Apple spent upwards of $100 million in their first patent suit with HTC, a case that provided them with what most would consider a minimal win. In fact, that $100 million (which is unconfirmed by the way) awarded them justice over a single feature (the original suit was 10 patents) that HTC already claims to have a work-around for. Yikes. No licensing deal was struck – HTC simply plans to manipulate their products to avoid any further issues.

I think we all know that Steve Jobs hated Android with a passion. He claimed that it was a “stolen” product and that he was willing to go “thermonuclear war” and spend every last billion that Apple had in the bank to try and right what he considered a wrong. At this point though, hasn’t this whole Apple vs. Android battle started to look like a company acting not as a business, but as someone with a personal vendetta? OK, that may be stating the obvious. That’s exactly what it appears like. I would just worry that they are basing major business decisions off of emotion, which can be one heck of a scary thing- and I don’t mean for their competitors.

Via:  Dan Lyons

Apple Reportedly Spent $100 Million in First Patent Case With HTC, We Laugh a Little is a post from: Droid Life

In another non-surprising patent trolling move, Apple has made the Galaxy Nexus from Samsung their next target in German courts. In this latest trolling journey, the folks from Cupertino have decided that the unlock mechanism in the G-Nex infringes on their slide-to-unlock patent. [insert eye roll]

Without having any clue as to how a court would react to this, I’ll just offer my opinion on the differences between the two lock screens. First, Android’s is not a “slide-to-unlock” lock screen. I would argue that Google expected a move like this from Apple, which is why starting with Honeycomb, we saw the introduction of the globe that can be moved to unlock the device. It is no longer a slide.

Apple’s lock screen is true a “slide-to-unlock” gesture, as it is a bar that moves from left to right to unlock. Android’s – at least in 3.0+ – no longer acts this way. Upon touching the lock globe, you can move it in a complete 360 (up, down, left, right or at angles) before deciding whether or not you want to unlock or jump into the camera. While some may gawk at that as being a difference maker, just remember that these are patents and the broken system they make up we are talking about. The tiny details like this are what can make the difference in winning or losing one of these cases.

Just some thoughts.

Via:  AllThingsD, Foss Patents

And the Apple Patent Trolling Continues – Galaxy Nexus Lock Screen the New Target is a post from: Droid Life