Apple Watch

Apple is once again celebrating the LGBT Pride parade in San Francisco with employees (including Apple CEO Tim Cook) joining the march earlier today, showing support of human equality and diversity across ethnicities and sexual orientation.

For the first time, Apple is gifting limited edition Pride Apple Watch bands to employees who take part, with rainbow colored nylon strap and red lugs.

More pics after the break …

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According to the latest story by Digitimes, Apple will reportedly be moving away from OLED screen technology for Apple Watch … at the same time as the iPhone 8 (for 2017, iPhone 7 will continue to use LCD) adopts OLED. The supply chain source says Apple is instead developing Micro LED panels for Apple Watch, to debut in late 2017.

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We’ve done roundups on all of the new features schedule to hit Apple’s four platforms — iOS 10, macOS Sierra, watchOS 3, and tvOS 10. But after seeing hundreds of features, the amount of new items can all start to blend together. With this in mind, we’ve put together a compilation of 16 top features (4 each) from each of Apple’s four platforms.
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The Dock in watchOS 3 was arguably the biggest new feature to hit the Apple Watch at WWDC 2016. It’s a feature that allows you to find and switch to your most used apps. It takes the best of the Glances model from previous versions of watchOS and merges it with an updated and actionable interface.

The Dock promotes using apps in a way that no such feature on the Apple Watch has until now. In my opinion, it breathes new life into the Apple Watch, providing practical functionality that was missing in previous iterations of watchOS. Have a look at our hands-on dive into the Dock as we explore this exciting new feature.
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Going out without your wallet or purse is something most of us have done at some time or another. When I did it four or five years ago, it was a complete pain as it was on a Saturday afternoon and no banks were open.

Picture the scene: I’m on my own in the car, call into a gas station to refuel, get to the till and … no wallet. Not the most convenient of times to discover one’s absent-mindedness. Fortunately I have a great bank. I called them, and they gave me an authorization number to give to the gas station attendant, who was able to put the transaction through.

But when I managed to leave my wallet at home on Friday evening, Apple Pay made it a non-event …

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Like iOS 10, tvOS 10 and macOS Sierra, watchOS 3 is a major update that pushes Apple’s wearable platform forward. You’ll find that, even in this early beta, the experience is much better than previous versions of watchOS.

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HomeKit, Apple’s smart home accessory framework, is gaining some much needed attention in iOS 10 and watchOS 3 thanks to a new built-in Home app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Apple previously relied on third-party apps from accessory makers to control the HomeKit experience, using Siri as the only first-party controller, and various apps like the third-party Home app and Hesperus filled in the void.

Apple’s new Home app comes with a modern look, relatively easy-to-use controls, and access to accessories and scenes from anywhere on iOS 10. Check out our hands-on below to see Apple’s Home app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch in action.

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Apple briefly mentioned some accessibility enhancements during its press event this week — watchOS 3 is adding wheelchair specific optimizations to Apple Watch — but iOS 10, macOS Sierra, tvOS 10 and watchOS 3 also have many other improvements to assist users with motor, vision, hearing, and learning impairments. Here’s the rundown…

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Apple Watch 2 concept image

Supply-chain sources cited by the variously-reliable Digitimes suggest that Apple maybe gearing up to launch the second-generation Apple Watch alongside the iPhone 7, in September.

Shipments of chips and components for the second-generation Apple Watch are set to begin in the third quarter, the sources indicated.

The time-frame is of course vague, but component production sometime in the July to September range would be compatible with Apple launching the Watch with the iPhone 7. If the next iPhone is an iterative model, as widely expected, then a new Watch could give the launch event more punch.

The same report suggests that Apple may be hoping for a significant boost in sales …

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Developer previews of watchOS 3 are now live and we’re starting to go hands-on with the next big release. Below are some of the tidbits we’re collecting of changes we’ve discovered on watchOS 3 on the Apple Watch.

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After today’s jam-packed event, Apple has published the full keynote video from this year’s WWDC. Apple has also released the promo videos used during the keynote showing off iOS 10’s newest features and a video dedicated to developers. On the same page with the full keynote page, Apple lists the preview pages showcasing what we’ll be seeing in the official software releases later this fall.

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Today at WWDC Apple has officially announced the next version of watchOS for the Apple Watch. watchOS 3 was unveiled by Apple executive Kevin Lynch and includes a variety of changes and enhancements.

Highlighting watchOS 3 is a major improvement to the speed of opening apps. Lynch explained that watchOS apps should open instantly and that watchOS 3 finally allows that to be the case.

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It’s Monday, June 13th and Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is about to kick off with the company’s opening keynote and press event at 10 AM PT/1 PM ET.

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Two new interesting watchOS apps are out this week that could add some usefulness to the Apple Watch. Cardiogram uses the heart rate sensor to provide your heart rate history directly on your watch, and Zepp Golf Swing Analyzer turns your watch into a game coach.

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We take Canary’s all-in-one security system with home air quality and temperature sensors for a test drive, including a walkthrough of its super slick iPhone and Apple Watch apps.

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Update 2: Apple is reporting that the iCloud.com services have also been restored.

Update: Apple is reporting that the availability of some services has now been restored but several features of iCloud are still down and undergoing maintenance.

As noted by Apple’s system status page, a multitude of Apple services are currently experiencing instability and downtime for some users. The affected services include the App Store, Mac App Store, Apple TV services, iTunes In The Cloud and critical features like Find My iPhone. We have also had a few reports of Apple Music downtime, seemingly repeating the outage yesterday, but Apple’s official status report does not mention any problems with Apple Music at this time.

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It’s been a while since my last Apple Watch diary piece, prompted by the experience of losing access to Apple Pay for a couple of days. Unless you get excited by straps, we haven’t seen much in the way of new developments of late, but one thing did change yesterday: that was the date from which only apps using the native SDK would be accepted into the App Store.

The sluggish performance of the Watch was our most immediate complaint when a few of us here looked back at our experience of the wearable over the year. All too often, you open an app or select a Glance and then spend several seconds – and sometimes much longer – staring at those spinning dots. Less a Glance and more an Impatient Stare.

I’d hoped that the switch to native apps might improve things notably, but so far I can see no evidence of this – which means that, of the eight different ways in which you can use the Apple Watch, I’m only using a subset of them …

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For all of its shortcomings, the Apple Watch has redeemed itself for me with its fitness and health tracking features. I wear it primarily because it’s a watch but I like (the idea of) having Siri always there plus access to important alerts instantly. The sports watch part can be ignored if you’re not interested, but being one device means its still there if you decide to explore activity tracking later.

That’s been my experience. I generally ignored activity tracking for the first year, but decided at the end of March to use the start of April as a reason to pay attention. The Activity app uses week- and month-long streaks to mark achievements, so the start of a new month (like today) can be motivating.

My real goal was to lose weight using Apple Watch as a motivator. Two months in, I’ve been very happy with the results so far and have to give Apple Watch plenty of credit for pushing me forward. My routine also involves iPhone apps, smarter food choices, and some basic equipment, but closing the Activity rings is the most compelling part.

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Some spy shots of upcoming Apple Watch bands by designer brand Coach leaked last month, but now the accessories are about to get official as Coach lists the products on its website.

The source of the original leak shared a URL to a not yet public listing on Coach’s site today, and we discovered product pages for several other models being prepared. The pages aren’t yet searchable on the site, and most don’t have images, but it looks like Coach is preparing for an upcoming launch ahead of Apple’s WWDC event later this month.

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