Google is getting into the virtual-Swiss-watch business.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant has quietly acquired Bitspin, the Zurich-based maker of the Timely clock app. The app, which is available on Google’s Play store, provides an array of stylish chronological functions including an alarm clock, stopwatch and timer—for mobile devices running the Android operating system.
Google and Bitspin haven’t said what plans the pair might be cooking up. But the tech giant likely will value the small company’s design chops for apps and features in Android, which is roping in users around the world but doesn’t have the reputation for aesthetic appeal that Apple iOS mobile operating system commands.
Bitspin said it couldn’t comment on the acquisition. Google didn’t return an email seeking comment.
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Like Switzerland’s famous timepieces, Bitspin’s Timely app is over-the-top elegant.
Numbers on the clock face gracefully morph into each other, part of an aesthetic the company says is intended to demonstrate the continuous nature of time. Timely requires users to solve a simple puzzle to dismiss an alarm, a measure designed to prevent accidental cancellation. (The company calls it an “active gesture.”)
Timely also lowers the volume of the alarm, which features “hand-crafted, high-quality sounds composed by aspiring artist Sunyo,” when the phone is lifted.
One element of Timely that Google is sure to value is synchronization, a service the search giant encourages users of its email, calendar and contact list to employ. Timely lets users set an alarm on one device and have it ring on others that a user owns.
The app also sports integration with Google Now, the search giant’s personal-digital-assistant technology, according to Bitspin’s website.
Date: Jan 7, 2014