Apple Watch

Apple yesterday officially confirmed its annual September special event for next week. The September 15 event is said to focus primarily on a new iPad Air and new Apple Watch hardware, including the Apple Watch Series 6. Interestingly, Apple is also reportedly preparing a new Apple Watch Series 3 replacement. Read on as we detail what that could mean for the Apple Watch lineup this year.

All the signs now point to two Apple events in the near future: the now-announced one on September 15, and a second one in October for the delayed iPhone 12 keynote.

Some still believe that the September event will include the new iPhones, suggesting that the scheduled two-hour slot is too long for just the new iPad Air and Apple Watch models. But I think it’s pretty likely the September event will not include the new iPhones …

It’s been a busy morning for Apple news, with the company having officially announced its September 15 event that will reportedly be focused purely on Apple Watch and iPad announcements. Apple has also published a YouTube placeholder stream for the September event, and it includes a clear reference to the Apple Watch Series 6.

Apple just announced its next special event for September 15, inviting people to tune in virtually through the Apple website. While the assumption was that the event would include the iPhone 12 announcement, Bloomberg now reports that the September event will instead focus on Apple Watch and iPad announcements.

The connected gym equipment market has heated up in the last couple of years, with Peloton as a leading brand in the space. Today, the company announced a new home exercise bike, called Peloton Bike+, which features Apple GymKit support for seamless syncing of workouts to Apple Watch.

The Peloton Bike+ will be available starting September 9, priced at $2495. The original Peloton Bike is getting a price cut to $1895. The company also announced a new range of treadmills – find out everything new over at Connect The Watts.

I normally decline power-bank reviews on the grounds that, for the most part, when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ’em all. The Zendure SuperTank Pro was an exception thanks to its ability to double the battery-life of a MacBook Pro, while the Chargeasap Flash 2 (just Flash from now on) is a rather neat travel solution more geared to iPhones, iPads, and – unusually – the Apple Watch.

That’s not to say that the Flash can’t power MacBooks too: it definitely can. It can output a total of 210W, which gives it the same ability as the Zendure to charge or power two MacBook Pros at the same time. But this one has a lower capacity, while its USP is an integral wireless charging pad that can charge not only an iPhone, but also an Apple Watch …

In a new report published today, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman runs down the list of products that Apple is expected to launch in the fall product season. In addition to the widely reported iPhone 12 lineup, the publication says that Apple will release an edge-to-edge iPad Air; an alleged instruction manual depicting the new design was leaked last week.

Apple is also said to be readying hardware updates to the Apple Watch. There will be a successor to the Apple Watch Series 5 and a successor for the Series 3, which will target the lower-end of the market.

The way that Apple Watch podcast downloads are counted is being changed, to avoid double-counting which occurred with the original approach. The issue only occurs with Apple’s own Podcasts app.

This change means podcasts will see their audience number appear to fall – and, indeed, for Apple Watch listeners to more-or-less disappear altogether …

Apple has set its next Apple Watch Activity Challenge for August 30 to “celebrate the natural wonder of national parks.” Apple Watch users can earn the achievement by completing a hike, walk, wheelchair workout, or run of at least one mile.

After making the first-ever public Apple Watch beta software available earlier this month, the third beta is now available for public watchOS 7 testers. It has arrived just a day after Apple released the latest watchOS 7 developer beta.

Eurasian Economic Commission filings have tipped the hats on many new Apple products ahead of official announcements, and today we have more to share.

First reported by Consomac, the regulatory database reports never-before-seen model identifiers for Apple ‘tablets’ and ‘wearables’, likely relating to Apple Watch Series 6 and the upcoming iPad refresh.

When I began my watchOS 7 Diary on installing the public beta, I listed seven features I was looking forward to testing. These have so far proven to be a mix of hits and misses, but two of the features in particular have made it unquestionably worthwhile.

Apple highlights 13 new features in its preview of watchOS 7 …

Alongside the release of iOS 14 beta 5, Apple today has also released watchOS 7 beta 5 to developers. watchOS 7 includes new features such as sleep tracking, new watch face features, fitness improvements, and more.

watchOS 7 is one of those software updates that makes your Apple Watch feel faster without upgrading to a new model. Subtle enhancements to how launching apps works on watchOS 7 contribute to this effect. These include changes to the Dock and Apple Pay on all Apple Watch models with watchOS 7 and the always-on display on Apple Watch Series 5.

One of the exciting features of watchOS 7 is the ability to easily share and download Apple Watch faces with a direct link. But what about thinking bigger than just sharing directly with others? buddywatch is a neat new platform dedicated to sharing, discovering, and downloading new watch faces.

Apple has officially released the the first public beta of watchOS 7 to Apple Watch users today. If you’re an Apple Watch user who is interested in running the watchOS 7 public beta, you can head to Apple’s Beta Software Program website to get started.

Apple Watch Fall Detection has been credited with saving a number of lives, thanks to its ability to automatically call emergency services if it detects you falling and you don’t confirm that you’re ok.

But the feature could get even more sophisticated in future, with the ability to send comprehensive data to emergency services so they can get a sense of your condition before the ambulance arrives …

Samsung has launched a slew of products at its virtual Unpacked event today including its latest smartphones, smartwatch, fully-wireless earbuds, and more. The new devices offer some compelling features ahead of Apple unveiling the iPhone 12 and new Apple Watch later this year.