One of the biggest questions surrounding the Apple Watch has been what kind of accessories will be allowed to work with the device. Several third-party companies have already started advertising their own bands and cases, but Apple has yet to introduce any kind of formal guidelines.
Until now.
Like its iPhone counterpart, the new “Made for Apple Watch” program outlines how third-party manufacturers can make their own bands. Here are some of the key takeaways:
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?
Although it’s poised to win the smart home war eventually, Apple’s HomeKit is still half-baked. Case in point: hardly any smart home accessories officially integrate with it yet, let alone Apple’s own products.
Despite its parent company’s rivalry with Apple in the smartphone race, the SmartThings platform has beat HomeKit to the Apple Watch, and it makes the idea of controlling your home from your wrist look pretty useful.
Got an shiny new Apple watch but hate the band it came with? You could order a new one from Apple’s website and wait a few months for it to come it. Or if you bought the Apple Watch with the Classic or Modern buckle, there’s a simple way to modify it so you can add any strap you want.
Lewis Hilsenteger at UnBox Therapy published a new video revealing a dead-easy way to add third-party bands to your Apple Watch. The best part is it doesn’t even require a third-party connector, and you don’t have to destroy your current band in the process. All you need is a pentalobe screw driver, an Apple Watch, and your new band of choice.
Watch the full how-to below:
Apple Watch owners may have noticed there’s a tiny port hidden inside the groove of the bottom band connector. Before the watch’s release there was some speculations whether the port just be used for diagnostics, but the Reserve Strap have discovered third-parties can use it to recharge the smartwatch.
The company originally developed an Apple Watch battery band that used the inductive charge to transfer power. Now that they’ve had time to dissect the Apple Watch they’ve found out you can just transfer battery power straight through the port, and they’ve come up with a much more elegant design to work with it.
Some purists will recoil in horror at the idea of covering up their new Apple Watch in any way, but based on the broken Apple Watches we’re already seeing, perhaps a little protection isn’t such a bad idea.
Whether you play sports or just want to garden without having to worry, these Apple Watch protectors will ensure your wearable remains as pristine as the day it came out of the box.
It’s been a week now that we’ve been living with Apple Watches affixed to our wrists, and in that time, we’ve curated a list of what we love, what we don’t and our overall impressions of Apple’s newest trinket. Is Apple’s timepiece the next must-have gadget? Some of us are smitten, but not all of us are sold.
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Full show notes ahead!
Apple’s approach to fitness is all about cardio and burning calories.
That’s great if you’re into running or cycling. But for other kinds of exercise, like bodybuilding or yoga, it’s not relevant at all. And if you want to lose weight, cutting the calories you eat is usually more important than burning calories through exercise.
So why does Apple Watch focus exclusively on cardio, and what does this means for people using one to get in shape?
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.
The Apple Watch is one of the most impressive feats of engineering to come out of Cupertino. When it comes to repairing Jony Ive’s wearable yourself, you’re not going to get much help though, so the brilliant minds at iFixit have already come up with a few repair guides.
iFixit published four guides today on how to repair various parts of the Apple Watch that will help make your fixes a breeze. Unfortunately, iFixit says pretty much any repair you make yourself will break the Apple Watch’s NFC chip, but they’ve got a guide on how to fix that two.
Here’s are some of the quick fixes you can make to Apple Watch yourself:
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.
Apple has issued a statement on its website confirming that rumors about a so-called “tattoogate” are accurate.
Reports that the Apple Watch ran into problems when being worn by a person with dark tattoos cropped up earlier this week, when Redditor guinne55fan wrote how his Watch kept locking and failing to send him notifications.
Amazon and Target have already embraced the wearable-future, where all the hassles of online shopping can be managed from your wrist. Today, the official Apple Store app is getting into the game too, with a new update that finally brings support for Apple Watch, even if it doesn’t have a buy button.
You won’t be able to purchase your next Apple Watch from your wrist, or check out different Sport band options, but there are still some pretty useful features for shoppers on-the-go.
Check out some of the things the neutered app can do:
Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto are the two hottest options right now for car infotainment systems, but if you’re hoping that Ford will give you a pure CarPlay experience in one of their upcoming vehicles, you might as well keep on waiting for the mythical Apple Car.
Ford currently supports both CarPlay and Android in a limited capacity, but for now its CEO says the company will only allow the two systems to serve as secondary interfaces to its primary navigation system, SYNC.
John Mayer is world renowned for his skill at plucking strings on a guitar while singing breathy love lyrics. He’s also well known as a lover of expensive mechanical watches, but when it comes to the future of wrist wear, Mayer admits pretty much everyone’s just going to buy an Apple Watch now.
“We’re all going to end up with the Apple Watch, I don’t care what you say,” says Mayer. “Even if you have to wear it on your right hand.”
Tim Cook told investors on Monday to not even try to guess how much Apple’s supply chain costs are, but that’s not stopping some analysts from trying to determine the cost of Apple Watch components
IHS Technology toredown the 38mm Apple Watch Sport this week, and according to the firm’s estimates, Apple’s $350 timepiece costs less than $85 for all the components.
Now that the Apple Watch is out in the wild, we’re starting to see teardowns of its internals. iFixit has shown us the Taptic Engine, Digital Crown and tiny battery, but it wasn’t able to pry open the little computer that runs the entire device, the S1.
It turns out that the Watch’s system-on-a-chip is truly the feat of engineering Apple made it out to be. It also reveals a couple of tidbits about the Apple Watch we didn’t know yet, like that it packs the same amount of RAM as the iPhone 4.
Richard Ryan is friendly and easy-going — even when he’s behind a 50-caliber rifle, violently shredding an iPhone, iPad or, this week, the new Apple Watch.
Every neighborhood had that one kid who liked to build a model only to blow it up. Ryan, 33, is that kid, except with more firepower and a slow-motion camera. He delights in “blowouts,” meaning when a round completely shatters a device, and likes to admire the “peel back,” the path a bullet travels through a device’s metal casing.
“Very little, if any, practical knowledge comes out of this,” Ryan told Cult of Mac before shooting an episode where he tested the Apple Watch while skydiving in a wingsuit. “It goes back to that kid smashing that thing he just bought as soon as he gets outside the store. Yes, there is a cringeworthy feeling you get watching that device you and I both want get destroyed. But there is a visual payoff with the slow-mo. It’s entertainment.”
Far from being a superfluous device strictly for hard-core Apple fans, the Apple Watch is a surprisingly delightful and useful device.
Now that we’ve spent enough time with the latest gadget from the mothership, we’re noticing quite a few sweet little positives (and a couple negatives) about Apple Watch.
Bottom line: The more you use this thing, the better it is.
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.
The Apple Watch has been in short supply ever since its hype-filled launch, and a new report claims that it’s all the Taptic Engine’s fault.
Defects in the key Apple Watch component were found in the Apple’s supply chain, severely limiting early supplies of the wearable, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Casey Neistat showed us a brilliant way to turn your cheapo Apple Watch into a luxurious gold Edition, but if you’d like to make your fake Edition look just like the real thing, you can now get it gold plated for a fraction of the cost of Katy Perry’s.
More Apple Watch owners with wrist tattoos are reporting problems using the device. The light sensors that enable the Watch to determine if it’s being worn apparently get confused by tattooed skin.
The problem — let’s call it “Tattoogate” — is possibly the result of metallic pigments used for the inking process, although nobody knows for sure. While the glitch affects only a small number of users, it’s definitely mauling the buzz of some frustrated Apple Watch early adopters.
Cult of Mac reader Michael Lovell spoke with us about his disappointing experiences with the Apple Watch, and even sent in a video demonstrating the problem. Check it out below!
Apple Watch is the most personal device you’ll ever use, and it’s not just because you wear it all day.
This is the most customizable Apple product we’ve ever seen. Everything from clock faces to the app homescreen can be tweaked to your personal tastes. Early Apple Watch owners have already come up with a myriad of different ways to change the app homescreen so that it’s just not a giant blob of randomness. Some are a bit crazy, while others are down right brilliant.
Check out out some of the best custom layouts below:
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.