Apple Watch apps

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on Apple Watch apps:

Best free weather apps for iPhone and iPad in 2023

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The Best Weather Apps
There are SO MANY weather apps to choose from, but these are the best free ones.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

In a world with about 10,000 weather apps — that’s an actual estimate, not a huge exaggeration — how do you choose the best free weather app for iPhone or iPad that you can trust and that includes the features you want most? It’s not easy. But a mix of full-featured free weather apps (most with premium versions) and specialty apps can cover all the bases for you.

We’ll go over some of the best weather apps below, whether you just want to avoid getting wet or if you’re a total weather freak who can’t get enough data, visual or otherwise.

Craft 74 new workouts on Apple Watch with SmartGym app [Awesome Apps]

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SmartGym 7 for Apple Watch
Time to get ripped with SmartGym 7 for Apple Watch. Or at least fit.
Photo: SmartGym
Awesome Apps

The SmartGym app is already well-loved by Apple Watch users, and its recent update adds more than 70 new workouts and loads of convenient new functionality.

And it’s considered so good it’s currently up against two other finalist apps to win the App Store Award for Apple Watch App of the Year.

These are Apple’s picks for the best App Store apps and games of 2022

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2021 App Store Awards
App Store award winners are going to get a physical plaque from Apple.
Photo: Apple

Apple crowned 16 apps and games as winners of its 2022 App Store Awards for “making a profound cultural impact.” The App Store’s editorial team honored apps and games on five platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV.

This time around, the company also selected five “Cultural Impact winners that have made a lasting impact on people’s lives and influenced culture,” Apple said in a press release Tuesday.

NightWare for Apple Watch pulls veterans with PTSD out of nightmares

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NightWare for Apple Watch pulls veterans with PTSD out of nightmares
NightWare uses sensors built into Apple Watch to detect a nightmare then vibrates to pull the wearer out without waking them.
Photo: Apple

Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder can be tortured by their nightmares. NightWare running on Apple Watch can pull the wearer out of their horrible dream without waking them up.

It’s the first product developed specifically to treat nightmares to be cleared by the FDA.

Uber puts the brakes on Apple Watch app

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Uber puts the brakes on Apple Watch app
No more calling for an Uber from your Apple Watch.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

If you want to call an Uber, you’ll have to do it from your iPhone — the Apple Watch app was disabled on Monday. Apparently permanently.

Uber gave no reason for the change.

Carrot Weather, Fantasian and more pick up 2021 App Store Awards

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2021 App Store Awards
This year's Trend of the Year is "Connection."
Photo: Apple

Carrot Weather, LumaFusion, and Apple Arcade hit Fantasian are some of the titles recognized in the 2021 App Store Awards, announced on Thursday.

Apple also identified “Connection” as the Trend of the Year, thanks to games like Among Us! and apps like Bumble, which “brought people together in meaningful ways — while meeting social, personal, and professional needs.”

Apple Store’s new ‘lists’ feature lets you keep track of things you want

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Apple Store app gets new 'lists' feature
Grab the newest update now.
Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

The latest update to the Apple Store app adds a brand-new “lists” feature that makes it easier to keep track of all the things you want.

You can then share and discuss your lists with in-store Specialists, Apple says — then get a recap of your conversation sent to the app so it’s easy to find later. Lists also make it faster to buy what you want when you’re ready to check out.

Blast off with space games and female erotica [Awesome Apps of the Week]

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Blast off with space games and female erotica [Awesome Apps of the Week]
These apps are out of this world.
Image: Cult of Mac

Space: the final frontier. And kinda sorta the theme of this week’s roundup of new and updated apps.

We’ve got an app that brings Star Trek, NASA and Tetris faces to Apple Watch. A free iOS game that will get arcade fans flashing back to Asteroids. And an audio app for women that blends erotica, meditation and ASMR for a trip deep into inner space.

I’m not sure how Godzilla and Kong fit into the space theme, but they crash onto the scene as well. (If only we had SpaceGodzilla.) Three … two … one …

Get in shape in 2021 with this top-rated fitness app

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With audio workout app Auro, you can pursue your fitness goals absolutely anywhere.
With this audio workout app, you can pursue your fitness goals absolutely anywhere.
Photo: Jenny Hill/Unsplash CC

It’s time for a new year, and a new you! There’s no better way to get your heart pumping and your Apple Watch working to its full potential than with innovative fitness app Auro. And right now, a one-year subscription is on sale at 50% off.

You can now stream Pandora from your Apple Watch without an iPhone

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Apple Watch Series 5 California Face
It could be one of many new faces.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

The newest update to Pandora for Apple Watch gives you the ability to stream music without being connected to your iPhone.

The feature takes advantage of changes made in watchOS 6, which rolled out last fall, that allow third-party apps to stream audio on Apple Watch. Of course, you’ll need a device with LTE connectivity to enjoy it.

App Store testers plow through up to 100 apps per day

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Apple removes 17 malware apps which secretly clicked on ads
Nothing makes it onto an Apple App Store without a human looking at it. That takes less time than you might think.
Photo: Apple

With close to two million applications in its software stores, Apple reportedly doesn’t have much time to devote to testing most new submissions. Details leaking out about the process show that a typical app either gets approved or blocked in 5 or 10 minutes.

A lot of them get blocked.

Shift Keyboard lets you tap out your messages on Apple Watch

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Apple Watch
Coming soon to a wrist near you.
Photo: Adam Foot

Right now, the easiest way to write messages on Apple Watch is using voice control or Apple’s recommended responses. But one intrepid developer wants to go back to the past by adding a keyboard to Apple’s wearable device.

His app, Shift Keyboard, just launched in the App Store. Developer Adam Foot spoke with Cult of Mac to try and sell us on the idea.

Instapaper kills its Apple Watch app

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Instapaper for Apple Watch
Instapaper on Apple Watch was surprisingly decent.
Photo: Instapaper

Instapaper has become the latest big service to ditch its Apple Watch app.

The most recent Instapaper app update removes the Apple Watch component, and there are apparently no plans to bring it back. One Instapaper developer explains that it didn’t prove popular enough to warrant a required rebuild for watchOS.

Understand your sleep patterns with Pillow [50 Essential iOS Apps #35]

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Pillow on Apple Watch report
Pillow users your Apple Watch or iPhone for sleep tracking and reporting your sleep quality.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: pillow sleep tracker appDo you ever wake up feeling exhausted, even though you are sure you slept well the night before? Or do you find yourself getting that 2:30 feeling a few hours early without any clear explanation? With the Pillow sleep app for iPhone and Apple Watch, you can get detailed analysis of your nightly slumber. Even better, you can gain insight into your body’s ideal sleep and wake times.

Add some personality to your forecast with Carrot Weather [50 Essential iOS Apps #32]

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Carrot Weather forecast says its hot hot hot
Carrot weather tells it like it is... rain or shine, frigid or inferno.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Carrot Weather app Weather can be exciting, but checking the weather rarely is. Regardless of what’s going on outside, Carrot Weather makes checking the forecast hilarious and fun. Better than that, Carrot Weather offers an Apple Watch app that is best in class for the platform.

Alexa will now take your questions on Apple Watch

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Alexa App
Voice in a Can lets you talk to Alexa on your Apple Watch.
Photo: Atadore/Apple App Store

Amazon has not launched an Alexa app for watchOS, but new third-party software lets you sideline Siri on your Apple Watch should you prefer the voice of Alexa.

The app, Voice in a Can, will also work on iPhone and iPad, though the voice assistant won’t do all the things it does on the Amazon Echo.

iPhone dependence is killing Apple Watch. Here’s how Cupertino could fix it.

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It’s time to cut the cable and set Apple Watch free
It’s time to cut the cable and set Apple Watch free
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

For activity tracking, fitness and notifications, Apple Watch is pretty awesome, and these days, that’s all most people use it for. Which is a shame.

When it launched back in 2015, Apple had a much bigger vision: a wearable computing platform supporting a rich and varied ecosystem of apps. Like an iPhone strapped to your wrist. But the reality has turned out to be rather different. Instagram is just the latest of a series of high profile apps to desert the platform. So what’s up?

I believe Apple Watch’s dependence on iPhone is holding it back, and the time has come for Cupertino to set its smartwatch free. In this, the third and final part of my wish list of watchOS 5 features, I’ll focus on how I hope Apple will improve setup, apps and iCloud to create a badass stand-alone device.

Day of reckoning looms for old, slow Apple Watch apps

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watchOS 1 app warning
Opening a watchOS 1 app on a device running that latest beta of watchOS 4.3.1 gets this warning.
Graphic: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The latest watchOS beta warns that support will end soon for applications that haven’t been updated for years. This is part of an ongoing push by Apple to get all third-party apps that were written for the first-generation Software Development Kit updated to something more recent.

Unfortunately, this drive is instead causing some developers to drop their out-of-date Apple Watch apps.