Apple Inc. has had its fair share of legal battles in the past and going on in the present, and don’t show any signs of abating anytime soon. It probably won’t please them one bit that the recently launched Nexus 7 tablet has the hidden (and hitherto, unpublicized) ability to work with magnetic covers. In short, a Google Nexus 7 can work with covers in practically the same way as Smart Covers work in iPads.
Android Police reports that the new Jelly Bean tablet from the Mountain View giant have a magnetic sensor for smart covers. Google doesn’t sell anything akin to a magnetic Smart Cover (not yet, at least), which begs the question: what exactly does Google have in mind regarding the tablet’s sensor?
The folks at Google may have a few sleepless nights regarding the fact that Apple has patented its Smart Cover tech, but Android Police claims it “isn’t a very broad one”. They elaborate by saying that Apple’s patent on the magnetic sensor system is not as generalized as its other patients (especially related to design). In most cases, the Smart Cover system has more to do with how Apple products work and interact with it, rather than being a definitive way of how magnetic sensors should work in general. All that it does do is mention adding “useful functionality”, something that shouldn’t be sufficient grounds for the typically protracted legal sagas that Apple regularly finds itself in.
