Apple Watch

The first round of Apple Watch stands were just that, accessories designed to keep your Apple Watch from rubbing against your nightstand or desk. This month, we officially moved into the second wave — powered Apple Watch docks — with the release of Boostcase’s Bloc and Nomad’s Pod ($60). Boxy, flat, and long, Bloc was a clean design with questionable practicality, but Pod makes a lot more sense: like the Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Cable it holds inside, it’s a partially metal and partially plastic puck you can easily take anywhere and use to charge any Apple Watch. Having previously designed the beautiful Stand for Apple Watch, Nomad promises that the rechargeable 1800mAh battery inside Pod “keeps your watch powered all weekend.”

From my perspective, the Apple Watch’s single biggest issue is its one-day battery life, which has meant risking a dead watch while traveling or otherwise away from a power outlet. Although you could just carry around a device-agnostic USB battery, Pod solves the power problem at a more aggressive price point than Bloc, and in a convenient form factor that will appeal to a lot of people. You can choose from a silver and black version, as shown in the photos here, or a space gray and black version made to match darker Apple Watches. Read on for the details…

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It looks like the Apple Watch is launching in a certain big box retailer soon. Also, big changes may be coming to third-party Apple Watch accessories. Along with that, Zac and Benjamin discuss some issues with iTunes and Apple Music. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed.

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I asked back in May whether you thought the Apple Watch Activity app would lead to a leaner, fitter you. At that point, more than 80% of you said that it either would or already had.

A Wristly survey yesterday suggested that the reality perhaps hadn’t quite lived up to this promise, but still contained some pretty impressive numbers. More than 50% of Watch owners said that they were exercising more and were making better health choices, with around 40% reporting weight loss.

For those of us who were lucky enough to take delivery of our Apple Watches on day one, we’re now three months in. Plenty of time for the novelty to wear off – and to see whether the anticipated benefits really have shown up on the bathroom scale, in our waistlines or in the gym … 
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Earlier in my reviewing career, I always tried to estimate the likely audience for products I tested: was an accessory likely to be universally appealing, somewhat popular, niche, or poorly received by virtually everyone? Many reviews (and reader comments) later, I learned there was at least a small audience for virtually anything, and conversely, that some people found reasons to dislike even the best-designed and best-reviewed products. I eventually concluded that there is no such thing as “universally appealing” or “universally bad” — just products for different audiences of different sizes.

SwitchEasy’s Blocks ($20) and Colors ($15) are as close to a test of my conclusion as anything I’ve covered so far for Apple’s $350-$17,000 Watches. Blocks lets you build your own Apple Watch dock from 92 plastic pieces that just so happen to be “compatible with Leading Manufacturer building blocks,” code for “works with Legos.” Colors is an inexpensive Apple Watch case designed to match three Apple Watch Sport bands. Toy-like in appearance, the designs are clearly not “universally appealing,” particularly for owners of expensive Apple Watches and Editions. But it’s possible that one or both of them may appeal to you, anyway…

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Following the launch of Apple Pay in the UK two weeks ago, Apple is continuing the rollout with the addition of two major banks, HSBC and First Direct. Customers who have credit cards or debit cards with those banks can start using Apple Pay now. As with other UK Apple Pay transactions, there is a £20 transaction limit at most retailers apart from those with upgraded payment terminals that support higher-value contactless purchases. The £20 limit is getting raised to £30 in September.

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Pad and Quill, one of our favorite Apple accessory makers, today introduced a set of Apple Watch bands with their trademark quality leather and stitching combined with two options of metal: Stainless Steel and Polished Black. At $86 (save 5% w/code 5forSUMMER), this turns an Apple Watch Sport into something you can wear with business casual to formal attire. Paired with a standard Apple Watch, it adds more color options to your Stainless Steel arsenal.

Not just any leather, but the luxury full grain leather used to craft all of Pad & Quill’s handmade goods. So we turned to Victorio, a 4th generation italian leather tannery artisan. His tannery uses  legendary soft-tumbled method to transform full grain American steer hides into a luxury leather watch band that will hug your wrist with pliable comfort, while being as rugged and durable as your active life demands.

We’ll have a review in the next week or so but if you can’t wait, you can order yours in 38mm or 42mm today for delivery starting in mid August. Check out our hands-on impressions with each of Pad and Quill’s full lineup of Apple Watch accessories in the meantime.
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Most of the accessories I’ve reviewed for 9to5Mac require little explanation — they’re the second, third, or tenth iteration of a concept we’ve seen many times before. Marked with “Carte Blanche” branding, Boostcase’s new Bloc ($60-$100) is something new… and as such, it mightn’t completely make sense at first blush. It’s not just an Apple Watch stand like the many others I’ve covered: it’s actually a standalone charging dock. With its own built-in power source. Made from your choice of wood ($60 preorder/$80 regular), aluminum ($80), steel or gold-colored aluminum (each $80 preorder/$100 regular).

It’s as minimalist of a design as docks can get: a big, solid-feeling box hiding your Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Cable and a 2000mAh battery inside. And it’s available in colors matching nearly every Apple Watch, even including gold and rose gold. You’ll have to decide whether or not it makes sense for your personal needs, but one thing’s for sure — there’s nothing else quite like it on the market, or likely to appear any time soon…

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Best Buy announced today in a press release that it will become the first national retailer, aside from Apple, to sell Apple Watch in stores. The company says that the device will hit more than 100 of its stores on August 7th and will be available online from that date, as well. Best Buy will expand Apple Watch availability to another 200 locations in time for the holiday shopping season.

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Apple’s June announcement of watchOS 2.0 created a new challenge for top Apple Watch stand and dock makers: an upcoming software feature called Nightstand Mode turns the Watch into a small-screened alarm clock when it’s taken off for charging, but only if the Watch is laying on its long edge. If the Watch is in any other position, Nightstand Mode won’t work, a limitation that many people won’t care about, but some people might accessorize to accommodate.

Like most other Apple Watch stand makers, Portland-based SchuttenWorks designed its earlier Wave Apple Watch Charging Stand before anyone had heard about Nightstand Mode, and Wave’s mounting position doesn’t support the new software feature. So SchuttenWorks has developed a smaller and more affordable option called Ripple ($50) that’s built specifically for Nightstand Mode (and any future watchOS features that may require the same charging orientation). Offered in mahogany, walnut, and cherry, it preserves Wave’s genuine wood construction and novel magnetic assembly, but requires a little less space and lets you see the Apple Watch’s screen…

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An example of current Apple Watch stands that must utilize Apple’s official Watch charging cable.

Apple will soon let manufacturers in its Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod (MFi) licensing program include charging pads for the Apple Watch directly in their accessories, according to sources. Currently, dock makers can only offer charging by making unsightly openings in their docks for Apple’s official charger to sit, forcing users to bring their own cable and install it, and compromising an ideal design and user experience in the process. By making charging modules available to manufacturers to use, however, customers will be able to buy docks and stands with integrated chargers without needing to use their own.

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Apple has refreshed its entire iPod lineup and we’re discussing all of the details along with what to expect later this year. New hardware is expected, but aside from an iPhone what will Apple launch? Along with that, developers now have access to a new iOS 9 beta plus watchOS 2 beta and we discuss Apple’s latest earnings call. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed.

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New data from research firm Strategy Analytics shows that Apple’s introduction into the smartwatch market made a dramatic shift in both the overall size of the market and which companies are on top.

According to the firm’s data, Apple claimed a massive 75.5% of the global smartwatch marketshare in Q2 2015 with the launch of the Apple Watch in late April. It also shows that Apple’s entrance stole a huge portion of Samsung’s marketshare as the previous smartwatch market leader dropped 66 points from 73.6% marketshare to a single digit 7.5% … 
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Apple isn’t breaking out Apple Watch sales or revenue during today’s fiscal third quarter earnings report (the three month period that ended in June). While that’s not a surprise— Apple said previously it wouldn’t disclose Apple Watch numbers for competitive reasons— today we did get our first official glimpse at how the Apple Watch sold during its launch. The math plus some hints from Tim Cook himself hints that Apple Watch sold over $1.4 billion in revenue:
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Apple earnings day is here at last. Catch up on the company’s latest results here while we await the quarterly conference call between Tim Cook, Luca Maestri and analysts. In summary, Apple reporting earnings $10.7 billion in profit from $49 billion in revenue after 47 million iPhone sales, 10.9 million iPad sales, and 4.7 million Mac sales during the company’s Q3 period. Analysts will likely push Tim Cook and company on sharing more information around Apple Watch sales during the call. The quarter covers the April to June period which includes Apple Watch sales in a number of countries from April 24th and on. Apple’s conference call kicks off at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET so stay tuned for our live coverage below:
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Right on schedule, Apple has shared its Q3 2015 earnings results reporting revenue of $49 billion and $10.7 billion in profit during the April to June period. Notably, the company’s Q3 period is the first that includes initial Apple Watch sales as the device first launched on April 24th.

Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 third quarter ended June 27, 2015. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $49.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $10.7 billion, or $1.85 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $37.4 billion and net profit of $7.7 billion, or $1.28 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.7 percent compared to 39.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

While Apple isn’t specifically breaking out Apple Watch sales (or iPod sales for that matter), the company does disclose iPhone, iPad, and Mac sales by unit:

• iPhone: 47 million units
• iPad: 10.9 million units
• Mac: 4.7 million units

While Apple isn’t breaking out Apple Watch or Beats numbers, the ‘other services’ which includes those categories as well as iPods and Apple TV reports $2.6 billion in revenue.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said this about the company’s Q3 results:

“We had an amazing quarter, with iPhone revenue up 59 percent over last year, strong sales of Mac, all-time record revenue from services, driven by the App Store, and a great start for Apple Watch,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The excitement for Apple Music has been incredible, and we’re looking forward to releasing iOS 9, OS X El Capitan and watchOS 2 to customers in the fall.”

Luca Maestri, Apple’s chief financial officer, added this:

“In the third quarter our year-over-year growth rate accelerated from the first half of fiscal 2015, with revenue up 33 percent and earnings per share up 45 percent,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We generated very strong operating cash flow of $15 billion, and we returned over $13 billion to shareholders through our capital return program.”

Today’s Q3 results follow last quarter’s $58 billion in revenue and 61.1 million iPhones sold, 12.6 million iPads sold, and 4.5 million Macs sold globally. During the same quarter a year ago with the iPhone 5s at the top of the lineup, Apple reported $37.4 billion in revenue and 35.2 million iPhones sold, 13.2 million iPads sold, and 4.4 million Mac sales. Apple reported $13.6 billion in profit last quarter and $7.7 billion during the same quarter a year ago.

The company’s quarterly conference call is scheduled for 2 PM Pacific/5 PM Eastern to discuss today’s results. Stay tuned for our live coverage of the call. Both Cook and Maestri usually review the quarterly results before fielding questions from analysts. With the first Apple Watch sales included in today’s report, the new device is sure to be a major topic of the call.

Apple’s complete Q3 earnings report is below:
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As Apple continues to develop watchOS 2.0 for Apple Watch ahead of its release this fall, the company has released watchOS 2 beta 4 to registered developers today for testing the operating system update on Apple Watch.

The upcoming OS update includes a ton of improvements to the platform including support for native apps, third-party complications, new watch faces including using your own photos, a clever Night Stand mode for using the watch as a miniature alarm clock, and several refinements to apps and features like Digital Touch and Siri.

The previous beta included improvements to battery life and Notification Center bugs that plagued earlier betas plus Apple Music support, but Apple ID setup and Apple Pay were disabled for the pre-release software betas. We’ll dig in to the latest beta version and update with notable changes discovered.
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Apple and IBM today unveiled 10 new enterprise apps across several industries including tools for government inspectors, business travelers and managers, and field service professionals for the first time. The latest apps bring the number of iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch apps built for the enterprise under Apple’s IBM MobileFirst for iOS partnership to 32 in total. Here are the new apps joining the list today:
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Since its launch, Apple Watch sales estimates have either shown it as doing incredibly well, or that it’s doomed to failure. Tim Cook hasn’t announced any figures yet, and may not even report them during tomorrow’s quarterly earnings call. But that won’t stop analysts guessing. If recent “estimates” are anything to go by, the financial wizards in charge of looking in to these numbers have no idea what’s going on. Estimates are all over the place…
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