With watchOS 3, the Apple Watch will see performance improvements that finally make it feel snappy, along with numerous other interface tweaks that make it fit in more with the Apple product lineup.
In a keynote notable for the diversity of its presenters, Apple showed off what’s coming in iOS 10, watchOS 3, tvOS 10, and the renamed macOS 10.12 Sierra. Read on for a quick recap; we’ll have more detailed coverage separately.
Apple has updated all four of its operating systems with bug fixes and security updates, but no new features.
You could ascribe Apple’s development of the Apple Watch to any number of commercial or even cynical reasons, but the one cited by Apple executives is the late CEO Steve Jobs’s vision of making the company’s customers healthier through technology. According to Tim Bajarin in Time, after Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004, he grew frustrated with the byzantine American medical system and became obsessed with bringing digital order to healthcare data. Although it’s unclear if Jobs knew about the project, his desire to improve healthcare inspired Apple to create the Apple Watch, in part as a platform for health monitoring. Along the way, the company has also started to make a real difference in the healthcare field with initiatives like HealthKit, ResearchKit, and CareKit.
A small update to watchOS improves the Maps app and lets you pair more than one Apple Watch to an iPhone.
If you’ve been holding off on buying an Apple Watch because it didn’t support your preferred language, read on, since the just-released watchOS 2.1 adds system language and dictation support for eight more languages, and Siri support for Arabic. There are a variety of bug fixes and security updates for the rest of us.
Analyst Ben Bajarin, working with wearable analytics firm Wristly, surveyed users who said they were dissatisfied with their Apple Watches in an attempt to tease out the main shortcomings of Apple’s smartwatch. The complaints unhappy Apple Watch owners shared were poor performance, short battery life, the watch face not always being visible, reliance on the iPhone, and the high price. Perhaps surprisingly, the most critical and least satisfied Apple Watch owners “work in tech, evaluate tech for a living, or are fairly technical.” To be clear, this study focused on dissatisfied users, but Bajarin notes that satisfied Apple Watch owners make up a much larger group.
Google has made Android Wear watches compatible with the iPhone – but this may be of limited appeal to most iPhone users given severe restrictions, such as an inability to install third-party apps and most watch faces. Watch-model support is limited, too.
The latest update to watchOS addresses some minor bugs, including stalled software updates and poor battery life.
The operating system for the Apple Watch, watchOS 2, adds important improvements such as native apps and custom complications. Jeff Carlson reveals some of the lesser-known features and details that enhance the Apple Watch experience.
Apple has opened the iPhone 6s spigot. If you are one of those getting a new iPhone, but you have an Apple Watch paired with your old phone, there are a few steps you need to take to make your Apple Watch and your new iPhone happy together.
Paul Houle Jr., a 17-year-old football player from Massachusetts, experienced a rapid heartbeat, along with back and chest pains, after a practice. Houle took a nap, and woke up to discover that his Apple Watch was still reporting a heart rate of 145 beats per minute. Houle went to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, which had caused heart, liver, and kidney failure. Houle credits the Apple Watch with saving his life, and his father, who was skeptical of the watch, has now purchased watches for his wife and himself. Apple CEO Tim Cook has reached out to Houle to offer him a new iPhone and a summer internship.
watchOS 2 is the first major update for the Apple Watch, and it brings some massive changes that will be welcomed by users.
Unfortunate news, Apple Watch owners: watchOS 2 will not ship alongside iOS 9. “We have discovered a bug in development of watchOS 2 that is taking a bit longer to fix than we expected,” an Apple spokesperson said. Apple added that watchOS 2 will be released “shortly.”
The next version of the Apple Watch software, watchOS 2, is arriving soon, and new bands and aluminum finishes are available now.