Apple has filed for a patent (number 10,620,590) for “clock faces for an electronic device.” The goal is to make it easier to use current clock apps on Apple Watches and iPhones — and implement new clock interfaces.
Apple says that some techniques for presenting and interacting with clock faces using electronic devices, however, are “generally cumbersome and inefficient.” For example, some existing techniques use a complex and time-consuming user interface, which may include multiple key presses or keystrokes. Apple says that existing techniques require more time than necessary, wasting user time and device energy.
The tech giant’s idea is for a technique provides electronic devices with faster, more efficient methods and interfaces for presenting and interacting with clock faces. Apple says that such methods and interfaces optionally complement or replace other methods for presenting and interacting with clock faces. The company says that one advantage is for battery-operated computing devices, such methods and interfaces conserve power and increase the time between battery charges.
Here’s Apple’s summary of the invention: “A device displays a clock face in response to receiving a request to display a clock face. In accordance with a determination that a respective graphical element is to be displayed at a respective location on the clock face, the clock face includes a plurality of analog-dial graphical elements corresponding to respective units of time, where the plurality of analog-dial graphical elements includes a first analog-dial graphical element that occupies a first position and has a first size.
“In accordance with a determination that the respective graphical element is not to be displayed at a respective location on the clock face, the clock face includes the plurality of analog-dial graphical elements corresponding to the respective units of time, and the first analog-dial graphical element of the plurality of analog-dial graphical elements occupies a second position and/or has a second size. In some embodiments, clock faces are reordered.”
