Apple Watch

We noted yesterday that the abandonment of Apple Watch apps continues.

We can officially add Uber to the long list of major brands that have abandoned their Apple Watch apps. The ride-sharing company has quietly discontinued its watchOS app, displaying a brief message to users who try to launch it. Uber joins Twitter, Instagram, Target, Trello, Slack, Hulu, Evernote, and many other companies that have sunset their Apple Watch apps.

It’s a trend that doesn’t surprise me, because I think too many companies based their apps on an unrealistic idea of how most people use their Watch …

There was huge anticipation for the Apple Watch Series 7 last year. Rumors suggested that Apple was working on a new flat design and features like blood pressure monitoring. While none of that happened (and probably won’t for the next Apple Watch), Apple should work on something that matters to all users: improving the battery life.

We can officially add Uber to the long list of major brands that have abandoned their Apple Watch apps. The ride-sharing company has quietly discontinued its watchOS app, displaying a brief message to users who try to launch it. Uber joins Twitter, Instagram, Target, Trello, Slack, Hulu, Evernote, and many other companies that have sunset their Apple Watch apps.

Apple has quietly stopped selling its Beddit Sleep Monitor in the United States and other countries, nearly five years after it first announced its acquisition of the Beddit sleep tracking company.

Since that acquisition, Apple launched a new Beddit Sleep Monitor 3.5 towards the end of 2018, making a handful of minor changes to the product. Other than that, however, Apple hasn’t given much attention at all to the Beddit brand — both in terms of hardware and software.

If the Apple Watch Series 7 disappointed many for its lack of new sensors, don’t expect things to improve anytime soon. A new report indicates that Apple is still several years away from bringing major new health sensors to the Apple Watch.

Remember the big Apple Watch redesign rumors leading up to the Series 7? Multiple sources with solid track records for hardware rumors expected a flat-sided Apple Watch. Instead, the Series 7 looked more like a Series 6 than an iPhone 12 or 13. So were those reports a year too early or should we expect no design changes for Apple Watch Series 8? We have thoughts…

As people around the world continue their New Year’s resolutions, Apple has announced a notable update for its Apple Fitness+ subscription service. The company is introducing a new Collections feature as well as a Time to Run feature in January.

LINE, the company behind the MacBook Pro battery/storage/I/O companion LINEDOCK (full review) is revealing some unique new products at CES today. LINESTAND is a fresh take on a multidevice MagSafe charger that offers a floating experience via VESA mount and LINECLOUD is looking to shake up the NAS market.

The “new year, new you” adage might be a cliche at this point, but for better or worse, it’s many people’s mindset when we start a new year. We’ve already rounded up some of the best applications to help you stick to your new year’s resolutions, but what about hardware?

One of the key aspects of the Apple Watch is the Digital Crown, which lets users navigate the watchOS interface without having to touch the screen all the time. However, it seems that Apple is working on ways to replace it as a new patent shows an Apple Watch with optical sensors where the Digital Crown is currently located.

As Apple typically introduces Activity Challenges for Apple Watch users on commemorative dates, the company will soon be promoting a “Ring in the New Year Challenge.” The challenge will offer special achievements during January 2022.

The Apple Watch includes a variety of ways to motivate you for working out, including streaks, achievements, challenges, and awards. But if you want to transform your digital Apple Watch awards into physical awards, Activity Awards is a company that does exactly that. Head below for our hands-on.

Apple is facing a new class action lawsuit over an alleged design flaw in the Apple Watch Series 6. As reported by Bloomberg, the proposed class action lawsuit alleges that the Apple Watch Series 6 suffers from a design flaw that makes the screen “prone to breaking or detaching” and exposing “razor-sharp edges.”

One Apple app that’s been missing from the Apple Watch is Safari. It shouldn’t be too surprising that Apple has chosen to omit it from such a small device, but now that the displays are significantly larger, it’s time for them to reconsider. A few years ago, Apple added the ability for apps to show web views if a link was tapped. But there’s been little to no movement on expanding that functionality. µBrowser is a new app that attempts to change that.

Facer has become a popular place to get unique smartwatch faces across Wear OS, Tizen, and watchOS. However, its Facer Creator tool hasn’t included the ability to develop Apple Watch faces. That changes today with the arrival of Facer Creator 7.0 with support for watchOS.

Apple is requesting the reinstatement of exclusions from tariffs on the Apple Watch and several Mac Pro components that are imported from China. Apple currently pays a 7.5% tariff on Apple Watches imported from China, and seven key Mac Pro components face a 25% tariff. The policy was originally initiated under the Trump administration.

There are plenty of ways to manage notifications on the iPhone and Apple Watch – methods range from simple permission boxes when you first open an iPhone app to more configurable features like Focus modes. However, there’s one workflow that Apple doesn’t offer yet which would greatly improve the Apple Watch experience.

Samsung’s new smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch 4, saw the company dramatically boost its market share in Q3, according to a new report. Most of that was at the expense of Huawei and Apple, the Cupertino company’s share of the market dropping by 10%.

However, that’s largely a matter of timing, which favored Samsung in two ways …