Skip to footer

New patent reveals Apple's plans for iTime smart watch

The Apple iWatch (or is it iTime) could come loaded with sensors, according to a newly awarded patent.

|
Tom's Guide
This diagram from Apple's newly awarded patent shows a theoretical iTime smart watch.
  • By Jill Scharr Tom's Guide

The long-rumored iWatch may not be called the iWatch after all. The US Patent and Trademark Office just granted Apple a patent for a smart watch Tuesday, revealing some interesting features. What's more, an image in the patent filing calls the watch the iTime.

Filed on January 31, 2011, the patent outlines a square-faced wristwatch with a touchscreen, onboard sensors that include accelerometer and/or gyroscope, Bluetooth, GPS, and a "haptic device" for sending vibration alerts. Via Bluetooth, this smart watch can connect to a mobile device and allow the user to control basic smart phone functions, such as viewing notifications and answering or declining phone calls.

The smart watch can also serve as a sort of remote control for other apps on users' smart phones. For example, if you're playing music from a smart phone connected via Bluetooth to the iTime, the smart watch could be used to pause or play the music, skip songs, and perform other actions.

Unlike most other smart watches already on the market, Apple's device has more functions that can be used independent of a connection with a smart phone. Apple's smart watch can store music and video directly on the device, and it also has a headphone jack. 

The patent doesn't specify the material of the smart watch band, saying it may be rubber, silicone, plastic, mylar, vinyl, or another material entirely. Most recent reports point to Apple using a curved glass display.

As Popular Mechanics points out, the iTime patent says that the face of the device would be removable. The band itself would house circuitry for the GPS, heart rate monitor and motion tracking. We'll have to wait to see whether Apple opts for a modular or integrated design for the final product.

Apple has never confirmed that it is working on a smart watch, or anything called iWatch or iTime, but Re/code reported in June that Apple plans a wearable launch event in October. This would come once month after the iPhone 6 is expected to go on sale. It's going to be a busy fall for Apple.

Apple already filed for a trademark for iWatch in Japan.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to New patent reveals Apple's plans for iTime smart watch
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0722/New-patent-reveals-Apple-s-plans-for-iTime-smart-watch
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe