watchOS

Apple has announced that it is ending support for the original watchOS SDK and original Apple Watch 1.0 apps, which required a phone to even open. From June 1st, Apple will require developers of new Apple Watch apps to use the native SDK, which came with watchOS 2. The requirement was posted on the Apple Developer news page last night.

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[UPDATE: Apple has confirmed what Siri told us earlier today. The company has now issued a press release in which it says that WWDC will be held from June 13th through June 17th in San Francisco. The same lottery process applies to getting tickets this year as in previous years. Developers can apply for tickets via the WWDC website now through Friday, April 22 at 10:00 a.m. PDT.

In a change from traditional years, the Monday keynote will be held at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, not Moscone West. All other conference sessions will take place at Moscone, though. The annual Bash will also be held at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.]

In an unusual chain of events, it appears Apple is announcing the WWDC dates through Siri. Although the Apple website has not been updated with any new info, Siri is proudly proclaiming that WWDC 2016 will indeed be held in San Francisco from June 13th to June 17th. Although Siri didn’t explicitly say, it is almost certain that WWDC will once again be held at Moscone West, simply because it’s the best choice of venue for an event like this in San Francisco. This is an unusual announcement nonetheless, it being the first time Apple has used Siri as the primary announcement vehicle for one of its events. WWDC is expected to feature the unveiling of iOS 10, OS X 10.12 and more …

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Alongside iOS 9.3 today, Apple has released watchOS 2.2, the latest software update for all Apple Watch owners. Starting with watchOS 2.2, iPhones running iOS 9.3 or later can pair and swap between multiple Apple Watch models; changing between Apple Watch models previously required a lengthy unpairing and re-pairing process. Apple Watch users will also notice an enhanced Maps app and more starting with the watchOS 2.2 update.

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If Apple’s most recent hardware events were about going bigger (larger iPhones, a jumbo iPad, and a new Apple TV), Apple’s March 21st event is about going smaller. Apple yesterday officially sent invites to its much-anticipated event to be held at its Cupertino campus with the tagline “Let us loop you in.” The event, which was originally internally scheduled for a week earlier, will focus on Apple’s new 4-inch iPhone SE, a smaller, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, and new Apple Watch bands. The company will likely also reveal the final versions of iOS 9.3, tvOS 9.2, watchOS 2.2, OS X 10.11.4, and an iTunes update. We’ve reported nearly the entirety of what’s expected to come at the event, so read on for a full roundup of everything we’re likely to see. (Updated March 18th with the latest information):

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Apple today has released the fourth watchOS 2.2 beta for Apple Watch developers. In terms of new features, the watchOS 2.2 so far has added a totally revamped Apple Maps app and glance, and it’s required to use iOS 9.3 beta’s new multi-watch feature. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.

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Apple today has released the third watchOS 2.2 beta for Apple Watch developers. In terms of new features, the watchOS 2.2 so far has added a totally revamps Apple Maps app and glance and is required to use iOS 9.3 beta’s new multi-watch feature. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.

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Apple has released the second watchOS 2.2 beta for Apple Watch testers today. Pairing multiple Apple Watches to a single iPhone is a feature of the iOS 9.3 beta and requires the watchOS 2.2 beta on each Apple Watch. The latest software update in testing also includes a revamped Maps app with the Nearby feature first introduced in iOS 9.0.  We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.

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Even though I’ve owned a Mac for going on 5+ years now, I never thought I would actually end up using screen savers. But the launch of Aerial a few months ago, which I’ve been using daily ever since, has definitely changed my mind. Awesome Apple TV screen savers on the Mac is a win. And today I came across the Apple Watch Screen Saver for OS X by Rasmus Nielsen and immediately knew it would be my next screen saver of choice.

Incorporating over 80 combinations of the already recognizable and well designed Apple Watch faces, all in Retina display quality, it makes a great additional screen saver to have installed. For those unfamiliar with the process of installing new screen savers on the Mac, or just want an overview before starting, I’ve put together a small guide below to walk you through the process:

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Siri percolated throughout all of Apple’s platforms in 2015. It started with iPhone in 2011, iPad in 2012, debuted on Apple Watch in early 2015 and Apple TV with the new model a few months ago. It’s quickly becoming a premier feature on these platforms, with live-as-you-speak transcription and radically new features like ‘Remind me about this’ contextual tasks when inside apps. Except for one platform of course. Mac OS X has been ignored and left abandoned with regards to true voice searching and Siri. It’s 2016, and I want Apple to bring Siri to the Mac.

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The Maps app for the Apple Watch is set to receive a useful upgrade with new features with the upcoming watchOS 2.2 release. Currently in beta, the upcoming software update adds the Nearby search features in Apple Maps as well as quick navigation buttons for travel directions to home and work addresses.

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Tim Cook teased Apple’s product pipeline to investors back in October 2013 by saying the company would enter new categories with releases that fall and “across 2014.” This set the expectation that the next year would include new releases in each quarter rather than staying mostly quiet until WWDC in June, then saving new iPhones, iPads, and Macs for the fall.

Perhaps that was a promise better made a year later as most new products in 2014 were once again kept for the fall, but 2015 has been one where Apple has truly released new products all across the year. So many, in fact, that it’s probably difficult to recall every single new hardware and software product without referencing the history books.

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There are a few new goodies for iOS developers shipping during the holiday season. Over the weekend, app analytics firm AppFigures released a cool new feature called ‘Sharable Review Cards’. Essentially, developers can curate their App Store reviews for some of their best feedback and quickly share a link to that comment for others to admire.

The cards take on the theme from the app icon, so each review card appearance matches the app it is about. In the example above, my app Bingo Machine uses a dark blue background tint, so the AppFigures Card uses the same blue for the review title. It’s a pretty cool feature for devs who want to positively promote their app on social media with actual customer testimonials.

There are also some new releases from Facebook’s Parse, the third-party cloud sync framework that Apple later aped with its own CloudKit service, with complete support for the newest Apple platforms, namely watchOS and tvOS.

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‘There’s a new software update awaiting Apple Watch owners. watchOS 2.1 is now available through the Watch app on iPhone. The update includes Arabic language support for Siri plus other bug fixes and improvements. Full change log below.

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Alongside updates to iOS and OS X, Apple has released watchOS 2.0.1 with a whole host of changes and bug fixes. As well as including the new emoji character set like Apple’s other operating systems, watchOS 2.0.1 includes bug fixes for poor battery life, stalling software updates, Calendar event syncing and much more.

It has also seeded developers with the Gold Master release of tvOS for Apple TV. We’ll update with any changes …

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Is Apple considering another round of major changes to iOS’s Home screen? If watchOS and tvOS are any indication, the answer could be “yes.” Earlier this year, Apple launched the Apple Watch with a purely text-free Home screen, requiring users to identify 20-some initial apps (and manually-added third-party apps) by icon designs alone. This month, it will release the fourth-generation Apple TV with a refreshed UI, again almost entirely eliminating below-app text in favor of redesigned icons with 3D depth.

While it would be easy to write off Apple’s changes to text labels as one-off decisions for “really small screen” and “really big screen” devices, they collectively raise an interesting question: if developers properly redesigned their iOS icons, would text labels — a staple of graphical user interfaces for decades — really be necessary any more? I’ll take a look at some of the pros and cons below…

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After slightly missing the originally announced release date due to a last-minute bug, the watchOS 2 software update is now available for downloading through iOS 9’s Watch app and installing on your Apple Watch.

watchOS 2 comes just six months after the Apple Watch officially launched, and what Apple is labeling as a full successor to watchOS 1 feels a lot like a more polished version of what it likely had in mind from the start. It incorporates a few features first shown off last September and even includes fixes for a few common complaints over the original software.

The big story with watchOS 2 is support for native apps, which launch quicker and have more access to hardware, but there’s several small changes within the update worth discussing as well. Let’s explore:
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Apple released a gold and rose gold Apple Watch Sport plus a new fall collection of Sport bands today, and inside the watchOS 2 software update due out next week is a variety of Sport band-matching color options. These new colors let you personalize the watch face with many more choices than the current software version. Check out each new color below:
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Apple is continuing to fine tune the upcoming watchOS update for Apple Watch ahead of the software update’s release this fall, and now registered developers can test their apps against the latest build as watch OS 2 beta 5 is now available.

The watchOS 2 update allows developers to build native (read faster) apps that do not rely as much on the iPhone for processing power, third-party complications or widgets for the watch face, and closer access to hardware like heart rate sensor data and more. For consumers, watchOS 2 adds new features like Nightstand Mode, using photos or albums as a watch face, and various app refinements.

The last watchOS 2 beta notably added support for colored complications including Activity with increased legibility on certain watch faces including Utility and Modular. We’ll explore the latest watchOS 2 beta to find other new changes coming this fall, and let us know if you discover any differences between the last beta as well.
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Two months after the initial launch of the Apple Watch, and only a day following the device’s debut at Apple Stores, sources have revealed Apple’s considerations for the 2016 release of a second-generation model. According to multiple sources familiar with Apple’s plans, the Apple Watch 2 is planned to gain a video camera, a new wireless system for greater iPhone independence, and new premium-priced models. Interestingly, it will also feature similar battery life to its predecessor…

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Deleted posts from Apple’s support forums and active discussions elsewhere online indicate a growing concern for Apple Watch users: the inability to downgrade from a newer version of watchOS to an older version. The issue, which first became apparent when users discovered that watchOS 1.0.1’s heart rate monitoring was less frequent than in watchOS 1.0, is that the Apple Watch apparently lacks a user-accessible recovery or DFU (device firmware update) mode. While there has been a spike in downgrade-related complaints since Apple released the beta version of watchOS 2 on Monday, the issue remains a concern for some watchOS 1.0.1 users, as well.

Without access to such a mode, users with watchOS-related problems are currently being instructed by AppleCare representatives to send their new Apple Watches back to the company for service, often with “out-of-warranty repair” charges. By comparison, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV and Mac users all have the ability to downgrade to earlier OS versions on their own, without sending their devices back to Apple…

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