When you run with Apple Watch, swiping to the right in the Workout app reveals your heart rate. Does the device display this data just for curiosity value, or can Apple Watch heart rate information actually improve your running?
The new iPods are here, but should you even bother getting one? We’ve got our opinion on the matter, plus one on what Apple should really do to fix its built-in fitness apps.
Plus, a bit about why the Apple Watch isn’t doomed after all, a profile of another fantastic iPhone photographer, and a gallery of some cringe-worthy iPhone cases that you’ve really got to see to believe.
All that, plus much, much more, in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine. Don’t forget to subscribe and download this week’s issue.
Apple Pay rolled out in the U.K. this week, letting a bunch more people start paying for snacks, clothes, and commutes with their late-model Apple gear. It’s all very neat and exciting, but our friends should get ready for some unexpected side effects of living in the high-tech future time.
For example:
Jean-Claude Biver, the watch division president of LVMH — which owns brands including Bulgari, Chaumet, Hublot, TAG Heuer, and others — has revealed that the French luxury conglomerate plans to enter the smart watch space to take on Apple.
Making no attempt to disguise their plans to ride on the Apple Watch’s coattails, Biver said that Apple’s presence “will help create a new class of clients enthusiastic about luxury watches,” who LVMH will target with their forthcoming devices that will start at around $1,600.
Most every app I’ve installed on my Apple Watch brings some sort of Glance along with it. While that’s a neato-keen thing to put in your App description to sell more apps, I’m not convinced that every app I have needs to be on my wrist.
Nuzzle, Words with Friends, Tile, Fandango, Foursquare: These are all apps I surely do not need or want on my Apple Watch.
Here’s how to clean up your Apple Watch Glances section for a much more focused and clear informational workflow. Because seriously, how many swipes do I need to get to the battery Glance?
Apple continued its marketing blitz for the Apple Watch today with four new TV ads that highlight how useful the new wearable is for fitness freaks as well as travel junkies.
Two of the clever new ads titled ‘Beijing’ and ‘Berlin’ show two sets of friends using Apple Watch and its many apps to explore the city, talk to locals in a different language, and communicate on the fly. The other two ads feature number fitness and goal setting apps, as well as how the watch brings people closer together.
You can watch all four ads below:
Apple Pay dropped in the U.K. this week, and iPhone 6 and Apple Watch users can employ the touchless payment method to travel on a variety of public transports, including subway, London Overground, busses, and trams. But public agency Transport for London has issued an advisory to those who wish to pay for their commute with the power of living in the future:
Make sure your devices have enough juice to get you where you’re going, or it’ll cost you.
There are two kinds of people in this world, those that want to watch television on their wrist, and those that don’t.
I fall into the first camp, so you can imagine my disappointment when I heard that while the update to Hulu’s iOS app includes support for Apple Watch, it does not include (dang it!) support for watching TV on Apple’s hot new wearable. Boo.
It does, however, allow you to control Apple Watch, as it’s a remote for Hulu on the various devices Hulu comes on, like Apple TV, PlayStation 3 and 4, Chromecast and Xbox ONE. So, I guess there’s that.
That Slice data? Totally misleading, says analyst Mark Hibben.
Instead, he says, Apple sold over 4.5 million Apple Watches in two months of the June fiscal quarter. That’s way more than the 1 million units of the original iPhone Apple sold when it first launched in 2007.
“Apple Watch has a bright future,” writes Hibben, “despite what some market research polls might indicate. In its launch quarter, Watch will add about $2 billion in revenue to Apple’s top line.”
With numbers like that, even Apple can’t call the Apple Watch a hobby.
A new report suggests that the Apple Watch’s maker has sold its wearable short when it comes to its performance in water.
Developer Craig Hockenberry says that the wearable works (mostly) fine in liquid and knows because he swims with his smartwatch regularly. In the ocean.
Where sharks live.
Irish software development studio Probendi is suing Apple in Europe over the use of the term ‘iWatch’ in its search engine ads.
Court documents filed by Probendi in Milan claim that even though Apple doesn’t own the trademark for iWatch, it has used iWatch wording on Google in an effort to direct customers to the Apple Watch website.
Apple Pay today makes its debut in the United Kingdom, nine months after it launched in the U.S., and it has been greeted by plenty of support from local banks. Those with a supported device can register their credit and debit cards now through the Passbook app on iOS.
This week: how to train Apple Music to dish up better tunes; Microsoft calls it quits on the phone game; iOS 9 and El Capitan betas go public; awkward stories from Disneyland; and the REAL REASON Apple is building a “Spaceship” campus…
Our thanks to Bushel for supporting this episode, the simple-to-use cloud-based tool that anyone can leverage to manage the Apple devices in their workplace. Get Bushel for free for up to 3 devices when you sign up at Bushel.com/cultofmac.
Show notes ahead, my friends.
Apple’s fitness apps are surprisingly limited given that is a core selling point of Apple Watch. Even basic features like mapping runs and challenging friends are currently missing. And from what we’ve seen so far, watchOS 2 won’t address these shortcomings.
Here’s my wish list of 10 things I’d like to see Apple do to get its fitness apps in shape.
This week, we’ve got a ton of even more great stuff for you all in one place. Check out our guide to getting Apple Music on your iPhone so you can listen without burning up all your data on streaming, our beginner’s guide on running with the Apple Watch, a profile on one of the best sports photographers out there who also happens to use an iPhone, a hilariously true interview with the developers behind, yes, the Farty Troll game, and the straight skinny on iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan public betas.
Get all that (and more!) in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine. Download and subscribe right here, too.
We’re seeing a lot of reports across the Internet of Apple Watch owners getting some irritation from their wearables. We have a few likely culprits for these blights, including friction with the band; contact dermatitis from dirt, water, or soap getting stuck underneath; or allergic reactions to adhesives or nickel used in the smartwatch’s production.
Whatever the cause, however, the fact remains that wearable rashes are very real and not limited to Apple’s new smartwatch. Here are some of the most interesting (meaning disturbing and gross) pictures we’ve been able to turn up from the Internet.
After outselling all Android Wear watches within 24 hours, Apple Watch looked set to be the device that would finally give smartwatches their big break. But according to a recent report, sales of Cupertino’s first wearable have since nosedived 90%.
It’s wise to take that report with a pinch of salt, but it got us thinking; if Apple’s first smartwatch really is a flop, which company can make a wearable worth wearing, and do wearable devices have a future at all?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over that very question.
Let’s face it — you wouldn’t have an Apple Watch if it wasn’t nice to look at. Now you can give your watch a gawk-worthy place of privilege whether it’s on or off your wrist, with TRNDLabs’s Natural-Wood Apple Watch Charging Stand, going for just $19.99 in this very limited-time Cult of Mac deal.
The third big beta update for Apple Watch is here.
Two week after Apple released the second watchOS 2.0 beta, the third beta version of the Apple Watch operating system is now ready for developers to install through the Apple Dev Center.
Nobody’s really sure what to do with wearables like the Apple Watch, and we don’t just mean in the “How does this improve my life?” sense of it. Safety and cheating concerns are putting it on a lot of people’s ban radar, and laws are scrambling to incorporate the new tech as needed.
But some researchers at Penn State are about to see if the Apple Watch might find a home in the classroom, after all.
Tinder is going hands-free, but not how you’re thinking, sicko.
Developer T-3 has looked at dating app Tinder, which has people swiping left or right to choose potential connections, and thought, “That seems like a lot of work.”
Its solution: Let your involuntary physical functions swipe for you. You can see the idea in action in the video below.
You know that feature when you order online from Domino’s that keeps you posted on the process of your order and even tells you which employee has put your pizza in the oven, and who just left the store to bring it to you?
I love that feature, for some reason. I don’t think it makes me some kind of creepy pizza stalker, if that’s even a thing.
But my main issue is that I had to keep my laptop open to stay on top of the whole process. Luckily, however, Domino’s has addressed that one, strangely specific gripe with the latest update to its mobile app.
One of Apple Watch’s best features is it can replace your wallet with NFC payments. Now Jawbone is ready to get in on the contactless payments too with the introduction of its newest wearable, the UP4.
The Apple Watch went on sale just over two months ago, but it appears that consumer interest in Apple’s wearable has taken a huge dive since launch week.
Apple kicked off launch week in April selling an average of 200,000 watches a day, however a new report from Slice Intelligence claims sales have dropped to fewer than 20,000 a day in the U.S., marking a 90% drop off since the week of April 10th.
You can see how interest has slowly dropped in the chart below:
If you’ve got the future strapped to your wrist and an iPhone paired with said Apple Watch, you can prank your friends with the lowest form of humor imaginable: the fart sound.
You’ll also need Apple Music, as this trick relies on the sound effect albums therein.
Here’s how to fart at your friends without actually soiling your own shorts.