While Patently Apple would love to see every Apple invention in a patent application prior to it coming to market so that we could broadcast it to the world first, it doesn't always work out that conveniently of course. Yes we reported on an Apple smartpen six years straight before we saw the Apple Pencil (one and two). We were miles ahead on a tablet before there was the iPad (2006 and 2008), and even had in-depth patents about Touch ID days before it actually launched (one and two). We covered Apple's first discussion of fingerprint biometrics in a patent back in 2009 or four years before Touch ID came to market. In today's case, Apple's patent application for the Apple Watch working with Maps and the iPhone in sync for turn-by-turn directions was published yesterday at the U.S. Patent Office. It's been out for a while now and so it's technically a patent fulfilled. For Apple fans that are curious to see how a so-called simple feature starts off as a detailed patent application – check out the details here.

Apple's patent FIGS. 6A/6B/6C/6G illustrate exemplary techniques and user interfaces for managing navigation alerts on an Apple Watch; FIG. 7 is an exemplary flow diagram illustrating a method for managing navigation alerts using an electronic device.

Apple patent application 20160238402 was filed in Q3 2015.

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