Apple’s iTime patent, Dropbox’s “goof-around” week, Google’s Wi-Fi pay phones

Apple iTime Patent

Apple was granted a patent this week for technologies likely related to its hotly anticipated wearable product, expected by many pundits to be released later this year. The patent specifies designs for a squarish device with circuitry extending into the watch band, and one image includes the label “iTime” on the device’s face. Late night host Jimmy Kimmel parodied the fever pitch of public excitement for the unannounced product by showing passersby a Casio watch with an Apple logo glued to the back and gauging their reactions.

The theoretical device would enter an increasingly crowded wearables market, competing with newcomers like Android Wear devices from Motorola, LG, and Samsung, as well as established players like Pebble. So far, these products have served less as devices unto themselves but instead as notification managers for paired smartphones, leading market analysts to speculate what disruptive features Apple can bring to its offering. As public and media demand for Apple’s “new product categories” mounts, these patent drawings are the closest we’ve come to a peek at the rumored wearable.

Dropbox employees “goof around” for Hack Week

In an effort to encourage new ideas and let its talented engineers explore passion projects, cloud giant Dropbox held its annual Hack Week, where employees can build anything and everything that interests them. The initiative helps cement Dropbox’s image as a great place for engineers to play, and has become an integral part of the company’s culture.

Previous Hack Week success stories have included a Dropbox for Business feature allowing two Dropbox accounts on the same system and the company’s two-step authentication account security, but not all of the projects are so market-ready. This year? Dropbox employees started work on office collaboration features and a giant, hand-stitched panda whose glowing red eyes chastise employees for coding errors.

Amazon Wallet beta launches

Google Wallet and PayPal can acknowledge Amazon as a new contender in the digital wallet space. Still in beta, the Amazon Wallet app can currently only let users store select gift cards and loyalty cards for third-party retailers. The app doesn’t support mobile payments or store credit or debit cards yet, though the accompanying site lets users manage other payment methods—including credit cards, debit cards, and checking accounts. Amazon Wallet is intended to simplify shopping, compiling and safekeeping gift cards, loyalty cards, and membership cards all in one place “to reduce the clutter in your leather wallet or purse.”

Amazon Wallet’s roster of retail partners is impressive so far. The company has set its sights on establishing itself as a player in peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, as well as an alternative to Square, PayPal, Venmo, and others. A spokesperson at Amazon confirmed that “Amazon Wallet will be pre-installed on Fire Phone,” so it will be interesting to see how Amazon’s software efforts will begin to reclaim the company’s projected losses after the launch of its smartphone.

Target testing image recognition app

Target has introduced a new mobile app for quick purchases on the go, challenging Amazon’s new Firefly feature on its just-released Fire Phone. The app, called In A Snap, allows customers to use their smartphone cameras to identify products featured in Target print ads and quickly purchase them from within the app.

Established retail brands are moving fast to take advantage of recent trends in mobile shopping, which is expected to grow to 25% of all ecommerce sales by 2016. Other apps from retail giants like Macy’s take advantage of Apple’s location-sensitive iBeacon specification, and allow shoppers to get more information about products in store. As smartphones gain sensors and become increasingly aware of their owners’ surroundings, retail apps can continue to explore new ways to engage with and sell to consumers on mobile.

Google may turn NYC payphones into Wi-Fi hotspots

Google has shown interest in a New York Department of Information Technology proposal to transform some of the city’s more than 7,300 payphones into free wireless access points. The project is in line with Google’s recent efforts to grant Wi-Fi access to cities across the United States, including the search giant’s hometown of Mountain View, CA and the neighborhood of its current New York office, Chelsea. More people getting online for free means more eyeballs on Google search ads, so we can expect Google’s altruism to continue.