Google toys with major Android redesign as patent wars heat up

The always-eagle-eyed PatentBolt has spotted a new patent application from Google (GOOG) that indicates the company is designing a way to bring radial menus to its Android and Chrome devices. From the initial designs, it looks as though the radial menus will not be visible on the screen until a user makes a swipe gesture from the edge of a device. Once the swipe is made, a semicircle menu pops up in the section of the screen where the swipe was made. The logic behind the semicircle menu is to save screen real estate and give users a simpler way to access different features of their applications. If Google is looking to dodge bullets with its new design, however, it may be out of luck: As PatentBolt notes that Apple (AAPL) has filed two patents for similar technology over the past couple of years.

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