Apple Watch tips - page 2

How to set default Apple Pay cards on iPhone and Apple Watch

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iPhone continues to rock across the globe.
Set your Apple Pay default credit card for your Apple Watch on your iPhone.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

If you have more than one credit card, chances are you’ll want to put them all into Apple Pay so you can use any of them when the mood strikes, or your card balance dictates.

If you’ve got an Apple Watch, you’ll need to add them to the Watch via a separate process than the way you added them to the iPhone.

Once you’ve added more than one card, though, you might want to change the default Apple Pay card. Here’s how to do just that.

How to take a screenshot on your Apple Watch

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Apple Watch Sport green
These are the buttons you're looking for.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

So, you’ve got your Apple Watch and you want to show off that cool new watch face customization, or the screen of one of the games you’re playing.

Sure, you could take a picture of your Apple Watch on your wrist with your iPhone, but that’s sorta silly. Plus your arm might be super-hairy and someone will make fun of you.

Here’s how to just take an Apple Watch screenshot so you can show off and yet still remain tease-free.

Apple Watch stuck on update? Here’s how to fix it

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Fix things if your update gets stuck.
Here's how to fix things if your Apple Watch update gets stuck.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

If you’re trying to update your Apple Watch software to the latest version, you might get stuck. Some users are reporting that the update starts and then just seems to hang there, like a diver never quite ready to take the plunge.

If your update is hanging without any error message, the fix might be simpler than you thought.

How to restart Apple Watch when things go wrong

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You might need to force it to restart.
You might need to force it to restart.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

The Apple Watch on your wrist is a miniature computer. As such, it might get wonky from time to time. It might freeze, apps might not load all the way or it might just get slow — especially if you haven’t downloaded today’s Apple Watch software upgrade, which brings various performance enhancements and bug fixes.

When your watch is getting wonky, it’s good to know how to force a restart, powering your Apple Watch down and back up again to reset its internal workings. Here’s how.

How to get your Apple Watch to leave you alone

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Activate do not disturb and silence your Apple Watch right from your wrist.
Activate Do Not Disturb and silence your Apple Watch right from your wrist.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

If you’ve spent any time with an Apple Watch, you might have noticed that it notifies you quite a bit. There’s the ubiquitous Stand Up commands, notifications from Messages, Calendar and the like, and then all the third-party apps that send you taps all day long.

If you chose to have your Apple Watch mirror your iPhone’s Do Not Disturb schedule, at least it will stop bugging you during those hours, but what if you just need to stop the notifications right now on your Apple Watch?

Here’s how to do just that.

ICYMI: Apple Watch Nightmares

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Getting Apple Watch ordered or fixed can be a nightmare.
Getting Apple Watch ordered or fixed can be a nightmare.
Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s hot new wrist gadget is pretty fantastic and shiny, but when you trash it, how can you get it fixed? We’ve got the skinny on how to do just that, based on our own run-in with a shattered Apple Watch Sport. Plus? Rob and Evan take on more tips and tricks for the Apple Watch than you can stand, Luke’s got a look at how the next iPhone 6s could be the biggest “incremental” upgrade ever, and Leander has a rant-tastic video on his time with his own Apple Watch.

Get all of this, and lots more, in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, free to download and subscribe.

Apple Watch’s Digital Touch has more colors than you know

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Getting to this screen is key. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Getting to this screen is key. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

When you hit your Apple Watch’s side button, just under the Digital Crown, you get a list of the contacts you‘ve marked as Favorites in order to send your heartbeat or taps to them via Digital Touch, or folks you want to text with using your new Apple wrist gadget.

There are seven different presets for color coding those contacts, too, which default to red, blue, green, yellow, orange, white and purple.

Did you know that you could customize the colors of each of these seven slots? Here’s how.

How to make your Apple Watch wake up where you left off

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This might suit your needs much better than a simple timepiece. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
This might suit your needs much better than a simple timepiece. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

When you make your Apple Watch wake up, either by raising your wrist or tapping the watch face itself, it will show you the watch face you’ve chosen. That’s what a watch does, right?

However, Apple Watch is much more than a timepiece, with tons of apps that you use to make your life a bit easier and cooler, right? It would be great if you could wake the watch to the last app you were using.

Here’s how to get your Apple Watch to show you that most recent app when you lift your wrist.

The scientifically perfect way to organize your Apple Watch apps

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Is Apple Watch demand waning?
You're probably not organizing your Apple Watch efficiently, according to science. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The Apple Watch’s tiny screen has already proven to be a boundless landscape for creatively organizing app icons, but one obsessive reddit user has created the most scientifically convenient app layout we’ve seen yet.

How to use Handoff with Apple Watch

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An unfortunately named tech for Apple devices, that's what. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
An unfortunately named tech for Apple devices, that's what. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

There are some things your Apple Watch just cannot (or should not) do, like sending emails or searching the web.

You can still ask Siri to do these things, but she’ll ask you to take your request elsewhere — namely, to your iPhone. Here’s how Handoff works with Apple Watch.

ICYMI: Essential Apple Watch tips

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A ton of tips for your wrist! Photo: Stephen Smith
A ton of tips for your wrist! Photo: Stephen Smith

This week, we focus on four non-obvious yet essential tips and tricks for using that fancy new Apple Watch on your wrist. Rob plays a new Apple Watch game, calling Lifeline the best game he’s played on his wrist, while Leander takes a speedy trip around the block on Stromer’s amazing electric bike. Luke digs into an Apple patent for a magical new Apple TV remote, and Buster checks in on how the Apple Watch will likely prevent heart attacks in the future.

All that and much, much more in the weekly installment of Cult of Mac Magazine!

Dismiss all your Apple Watch notifications at once

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Get rid of the whole list at one time. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Get rid of the whole list at one time. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Notifications are the mainstay of Apple Watch (or any smartwatch, for that matter). Chances are you’ll get a ton of them, as most of the iPhone notifications will transfer over to your Apple Watch after you pair the two devices.

Typically, you swipe a notification left and then tap the X button when you want to dismiss a notification, or you tap through to the notification itself and then tap “Dismiss.”

But what happens when you have a slew of notifications and you’re just not interested in swipe-tapping them one at a time to go away?

Use AirPlay to turn Apple Watch into a Music hub

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Play your tunes on the big screen. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Play your tunes on the big screen. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Playing music on the Apple Watch is a lovely thing. You can control your iPhone’s Music app using the Apple Watch Music app, choosing playlists and adjusting volume on the fly.

You can even start apps like Spotify or Rdio on your iPhone, then use the Music Glance on your Apple Watch to forward, reverse, pause or play music from these streaming services.

Did you know, however, that you can also send music from your Apple Watch to your Apple TV or any AirPlay-enabled speaker?

Here’s how.

How to restore an erased Apple Watch from backup

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Too many incorrect passcode attempts. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Too many incorrect passcode attempts. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

If you forget your passcode on Apple Watch, or you’ve entered an incorrect one too many times, you can use the Apple Watch app on the iPhone to enter the passcode one more time. If you still can’t quite remember it, though, you’ll need to erase and restore the erased Apple Watch. This sets it back to factory default settings, and takes all the content off of it.

So how do you get all your stuff back onto the Apple Watch?

ICYMI: Why we love the Apple Watch (and you will too)

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We love the latest wrist-bound gadget from Apple, and we're betting that you will too. Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
We love the latest wrist-bound gadget from Apple, and we're betting that you will too. Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

You’re bound to love the Apple Watch as much as we do, and we’ve got a fantastic issue of Cult of Mac Magazine to prove it.

Buster and Rob team up to review the fan-flipping-tastic Apple wrist-held, while Leander waxes rhapsodic about how great this new Apple gadget really is. Rob takes a look at 7 stealthy tips along with 12 things the team noticed after a week with Apple Watch. Alex chimes in with 10 of the weirdest Apple Watch apps, plus much, much more, all in this week’s installment of the greatest Apple digital mag you’ve ever read.

7 stealthy tips and tricks for Apple Watch

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Learning the user interface can take some time, and then there are all the subtle tricks.
Learning the user interface can take some time, and then there are all the subtle tricks. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

So, you just got your shiny new Apple Watch and you’ve doubled down on learning how to use its all-new interface. That should keep you busy for a while.

There are still a few things that you might not know about it, however, especially these not-so-obvious tips and tricks for Apple Watch we’re going to share with you right now.

How to change out your Apple Watch band

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Apple Watch band connector
The band stops here.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

When I found out I’d be able to change out the band on my Apple Watch Sport, I was ecstatic. While I really don’t mind the green fluoroelastomer band, I’m looking forward to swapping it out for something a little less Swatch and a bit more Gap casual.

Changing the band is a pretty simple affair, but if you haven’t had the chance to put one on your wrist yet, it’s a bit hard to tell just how to do so.

How to clear credit card info from a stolen Apple Watch

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Apple Watch back
Let's hope you never have to worry about theft. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

So, you just got that shiny new Apple Watch. It’s amazing, right?

So amazing that someone may try to steal it from you. Sure, that sucks, but it could happen.

Here’s how to clear the credit card info from the stolen device if you no longer have physical possession of your Apple Watch.

How to navigate using only your Apple Watch

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Tap your way to wherever you want. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Tap your way to wherever you want. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo:

As a sufferer from dysmappia (not a real word), I still get lost in a town I’ve lived in for 15 years. The iPhone and GPS accessibility has allowed me to find my way around pretty much any urban center I’ve been in, and even some rural ones as well.

Now that Maps is on Apple Watch, I’m going to be navigating around even more easily, lifting my wrist to see which way to go instead of burying my head in an iPhone. It’s sure to at least be a ton safer.

Here’s how to get from point A to point Z using just your Apple Watch.

Customize your Apple Watch settings

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This screen is way too small for all the tweaks available. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
This screen is way too small for all the tweaks available. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Getting your Apple Watch set up is fairly basic, but to truly make this your own personal device, you’ll need to dig into the Apple Watch settings.

You can do all of these things on the Apple Watch itself, but why force yourself to tap and swipe on that tiny screen? Use the Apple Watch app on your iPhone for a much more pleasant experience. You can thank me later.

How to set up your Apple Watch Friends screen

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Learning the user interface can take some time, and then there are all the subtle tricks.
The Friends screen is one of the most important on the Apple Watch. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

After linking your new Apple Watch to your iPhone, your favorite contacts are automatically synced over. But to get the most from the device, you’ll want to make a couple of tweaks to the Apple Watch Friends screen.

It’s truly one of the most important screens on the Apple Watch — here’s how to make the most of it.

How to sync and play music with your Apple Watch

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Get ready to rock with your Apple Watch. Photo: Apple
Get ready to rock with your Apple Watch. Photo: Apple

Apple’s smartwatch doesn’t come with much onboard storage, but that doesn’t mean you’re screwed when it comes to Apple Watch music. You can add your own playlists and listen to your favorite tunes using Bluetooth headphones or AirPlay speakers.

To get the songs you want, you need to create a playlist on your iPhone or iTunes, then beam it over to your Apple Watch. Here’s how to do it.

Set up your Apple Watch face the right way

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There's a lot of utility in this watch face. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
There's a lot of utility in this watch face. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

There are 10 Apple Watch faces to choose from, and each one comes with a crazy amount of options. The moon phases widget is pretty neat, but do I really want to clutter up my watch’s minimalist look?

The cool thing is that you can almost have it all. Apple makes it pretty easy to pick your preferred Apple Watch face and then tweak the specific options you want to add to (or delete from) your wrist.

Here’s how.