Sometimes, it's okay to leave the phone at home. Photo: Apple
Your Apple Watch doesn’t need an iPhone to make it whole.
The new wearable is capable of performing a variety of tasks without a tether to your phone. All it needs is a connection to a familiar Wi-Fi network, and you can start putting it to use even if its iPhone buddy isn’t around.
Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush hasn’t officially announced that he’s running for office, but he’s already hitting the campaign trail and he’s brining his Apple Watch with him.
In Tempe Arizona today, Jeb held a town hall meeting at the Chamber of Commerce and stopped to rave about his Apple Watch. It’s so amazing, he says he even thinks it should replace Obamacare.
You can use the music glance to snap pics. Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac
The remote camera shutter and viewfinder is one of the most useful Apple Watch features, but there’s just one problem: It only works with the default camera app.
Apple hasn’t opened up the remote shutter API to developers yet, however, there’s still a way to turn your Apple Watch into a remote shutter for apps like Snapchat and Camera+. Instead of using the remote shutter app, you can actually use the volume slider in Music glance to snap pictures with your iPhone.
The Apple Watch is on the Chinese military's watch list. Though not in a good way. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The Apple Watch is expected to do big things in China — with even the high-end Apple Watch Edition selling out within its first hour of preorders in the country — but one place the company’s debut wearable device won’t take off is the Chinese army.
That’s according to a recently released memo in which Chinese military leaders argue that wearable devices such as smartwatches and fitness trackers are sure to compromise soldiers’ security.
If you think the Apple Watch is good-looking now, wait until you see it with lines and numbers everywhere.
If you’d like to see the Apple Watch in a cool new way, we have something to show you.
Apple created the below Apple Watch assembly drawing as part of its Made for Apple Watch program, which supports designers who are interested in creating third-party bands for the new wearable. It includes guidelines, notes and measurements of every part of the Watch, but mostly it’s just beautiful to behold.
Apple Watch is hands down the most beautiful smart watch you can buy, but it doesn’t have a gorgeous round face like the original Apple Watches did. Jony Ive never even considered using a round design because “a circle doesn’t make any sense” for a list-based interface, but the crazy tech pranksters at Peripatetic Pandas are ready to show him how wrong he was.
Using a metal grinder to round out the Apple Watch’s corners, the guys who also solved the iPhone 6’s protruding lens problem have also devised an ingenious way to get a custom round Apple Watch. Sure, their method will void your warranty, but it’s pretty amazing that the watch still works after the beating it receives.
It has a lot of talents, but first and foremost, it's a great watch. Photo: Cult of Mac Photo: Erfon Elijah/Instagram
Early adopters of the Apple Watch have had a few weeks with their new gadgets, and they’re having experiences that may not be worthy of one of Apple’s austere presentations. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t getting a lot of use out of the things and finding occasionally odd ways to integrate them into their lives.
A bunch of reddit users have been sharing their stories, and here are some of the more peculiar things Apple’s new wearable can do.
The Apple Watch is already improving lives. Photo: CNN Money
For many years Apple has been a great company when it comes to pushing the accessibility of its products for disabled users — from features like VoiceOver, which allow for descriptions of apps to be read aloud for the blind, to FaceTime which represented a breakthrough in allowing deaf people to communicate with one another using a mobile device.
In a new video for CNN Money, the latest step of that evolution is shown as a deaf Apple Watch owner demonstrates how he can use the device to control his hearing aid.
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.
Apple Watch is ready to take the plunge. Photo: DC Rainmaker
Summertime is finally upon us, and here in the Valley of the Sun, that mostly means one thing: cliff-jumping season.
I’ve been worried that my Apple Watch might not survive some of the 50-foot cliffs my friends and I like to hurl ourselves off of, but the folks at DC Rainmaker have put the waterproofing of Apple’s new wearable to the test by jumping off an Olympic diving platform. Despite momentarily being exposed to water deeper than the 1 meter it’s rated for, the Apple Watch keeps on ticking.
Safari on the Apple Watch would suck. Photo: Comex
Apple Watch is great at many things like checking weather, tracking fitness and sending notifications. But when it comes to surfing the web, Apple Watch is unsurprisingly the worst device for the task.
An Apple Watch version of Safari wasn’t included with Jony Ive’s smartwatch, but that didn’t stop notorious jailbreaker Comex from hacking a web browser onto the wearable. Comex posted a video of his hacked Apple Watch running a web browser on the Google homepage over the weekend, showing it is possible to browse the web from your wrist — but you’ll never want to.
This week: For years Apple has reportedly been working their magic on the worst device in every home—the remote control. And now, with a rumored new Apple TV on the the horizon, we’ll tell you why an Apple-hewn controller could be its flagship feature. Plus: how to create your own Apple Watch band; how to share your digital heartbeat with other lonely Apple Watch wearers; and we vote on our favorite new gadgets on an all-new Faves ’N Raves.
Our thanks to lynda.com for sponsoring this episode! Learn virtually any application at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at lynda.com.
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.
You've got options. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
The default calendar view on Apple Watch is a list of the upcoming events for the current day. If you tap on the Today link in the upper left of the screen, you can see the whole month at a glance, which lets you tap on any day to see that day’s list of events.
But what if you want it to look less like a list and more like a calendar on your iPhone or Mac?
Your Apple Watch could one day warn you of an upcoming heart attack. Photo: Apple Photo: Apple
The Apple Watch heart rate monitor is far better than everyone thought, and that could theoretically lead to big medical breakthroughs — like the ability tocan apple watch detect heart attack before they happen.
Developer Brad Larson dug into raw Apple Watch HealthKit heart rate data after a run and compared it to data from a heart rate monitor he had been wearing. The Apple Watch doesn’t have Food and Drug Administration approval as a medical device, but Larson discovered the wearable is nearly as accurate as an electrocardiogram.
Losing the TV remote may soon become a thing of the past, now that it’s going to be permanently strapped to your wrist. DirecTV debuted its Apple Watch app this morning that gives customers the ability to control their DVRs from Apple Watch’s tiny display.
Don't be such a square when you reply. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Messaging is one of the best use cases for Apple Watch – you get a message, you dictate a reply, you get on with your day.
Apple has included several pre-written responses for you to use when you’re just too busy to dictate a response (or don’t want to talk into your watch). They’re pretty awful, though, ranging from the terse (“OK”) to the fairly robotic (“Sorry, I can’t talk right now”). None of them really quite fit the way we talk, do they?
Happily, Apple lets you change these canned responses to better reflect your personality and style. Here’s how to do so.
We’ve already seen the Apple Watch’s durability get tested in some pretty extreme ways. Now Consumer Reports is weighing in with tests of its own and Apple Watch dominated the smartwatch competition.
Both the stainless-steel Apple Watch and Apple Watch Sport passed their water-resistance test. The stainless-steel model also stood out for its sapphire display after surviving a test of up to 9 Mohs, just below diamond hardness.
Apple Watch supply is finally catching up with demand. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Apple is getting ready to offer customers the chance to pick up their new Apple Watches in brick-and-mortar retail stores, according to a new option on the Apple Online Store describing the service as “available soon.”
Unlock the secrets of developing apps for the Apple Watch for only $19 with the Mammoth Interactive WatchKit Developer Course from Cult of Mac Deals. Saving 93% on the retail price, you’ll learn how to create a variety of essential app types, showing you how to get the most out of the technology and kick-start your development future.
“I’ve been wearing the Watch since I posted that hoping to get a small profit,” he said. “Part of me hoped nobody would offer me the extra few hundred because I really wanted to wear this gorgeous first-gen product! I haven’t worn a watch in 10 years.”