Apple Watch apps - page 3

Apple Watch your Airbnb plans take shape

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The new Airbnb app for Apple Watch simplifies communication between hosts and guests.
The new Airbnb app for Apple Watch simplifies communication between hosts and guests.
Photo: Airbnb

When Airbnb set out to design an app for the Apple Watch, its team did so like a master woodcarver. Whittle away until you leave what is essential.

The popular community hospitality network launched a watch app today that provides a simple messaging hub for hosts and guests. Travelers can send a host a message with name, photo and requested dates. A host can accept or decline right on the wrist and respond to messages, either through dictation or a preset response.

Training for a marathon? Apple Watch can help

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You Apple Watch can't assess the efficiency of your running style
Apple Watch can help improve your race time (but watch where you're going!)
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

With Autumn rapidly approaching, marathon season is almost upon us. So if you’re planning on running a race, now’s the time to ramp up your training.

Whether you are doing a full marathon, a half-marathon or a 10K race, here are my top 10 tips for using your Apple Watch to achieve a new personal best.

Create 20 iOS games for 20 bucks with this bundle of lessons [Deals]

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This bundle of lessons teaches how to develop iOS games across four different genres.
This bundle of lessons teaches how to develop iOS games across four different genres.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

 

Making games can be as fun as playing them, and the key to mastering both is practice. After working through this bundle of lessons, you’ll be ready for the iOS game-making equivalent of Carnegie Hall. Covering the how-tos with over 20 games in four different genres, this package from StackSkills usually goes for over $2,000. But right now the whole thing is just $20 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Enter the world of iOS 9 by building apps for iPhone and Apple Watch [Deals]

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This bundle of five courses bridges the worlds of iOS and Apple Watch developing.
This bundle of five courses bridges the worlds of iOS and Apple Watch developing.
Photo: StackSkills

Apple Watch is changing the face (pun intended) of user interaction and design. But developing its next generation of apps also requires having a foot in the still-vibrant world of iOS. Lucky for you budding Watch whizzes, we’ve found a bundle of 5 courses that bridge the worlds of wearable and mobile development, by teaching essential skills through building real, working apps on both platforms. And right now it’s going for 93% off, $25 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Kahney’s Korner: Why you should buy an Apple Watch

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Should you buy an Apple Watch?
Our Glorious Leader Leander Kahney tries on his Apple Watch soon after receiving it.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

For me, it’s the burning question of 2015: “Should I buy an Apple Watch?”

As editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, everybody’s always asking me if Apple’s smartwatch is a must-buy. The simple answer is there’s no simple answer, for reasons that might surprise you.

Why I dropped everything to create Apple Watch apps

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Are Apple Watch expectations just too high?
Are Apple Watch expectations just too high?
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

I dropped everything to make apps for the Apple Watch. I’ve owned the Watch from day one and I admit it is has its shortcomings, but oh my does it have potential.

The device convinced my co-founders and me to start Tap Get to work exclusively on Apple Watch apps — early, while the rest of the world is still making up its mind about smartwatches and other wearables.

Radar Cast lets you Watch for bad weather

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radar-cast
Radar Cast can make you feel like a meteorologist on the five o'clock news.
Photo: George Tinari/Cult of Mac

If you’re like me, you spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to pick out the perfect weather app for your iPhone. Apple’s Weather app just doesn’t cut it and it’s very hard to find something that has a little bit of every detail without being cluttered or downright ugly. That happy medium for me is Carrot Weather but unfortunately it’s been crashing on the iOS 9 developer beta. In its place I’ve been testing Radar Cast, a slightly unusual weather app that attempts to deliver all the most crucial information to your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.

Domino’s Pizza app update lets you keep your eyes on your pies

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Dominos-Apple-Watch
Domino's has added a couple cool features to its iOS app.
Photo: Domino's Pizza/iTunes

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.

Hub hotel has smart rooms you run from your wrist

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Hub hotel smart room
That map on the wall is an augmented-reality city guide.
Photo: Premier Inn

I typically look for two things in a hotel room: Internet included with the room and free breakfast. But a new hotel in London’s Covent Gardens might have me adding some things to that list.

The recently opened Hub hotel from Premier Inn, the U.K.’s largest lodging chain, sports some pretty impressive tech features that involve both smartphones and wearables like the Apple Watch. And while your hotel room shouldn’t be the coolest part of any trip, Premier is really giving the rest of your vacation something to live up to.

Apple Watch swim app works — but it will void your warranty

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Apple Watch swimming app
Shhh ... don't tell Apple.
Photo: Ted Bradley

The Apple Watch isn’t completely waterproof, so it makes sense that you won’t find a swimming option in the Workouts app. But that hasn’t stopped one development team from building their own way to track aquatic exercises on the wearable.

Active in Time has ported its own Pebble swimming app over to Apple’s smartwatch, and it tested its functionality (and the Apple Watch’s water resistance) with four lengths in an Olympic swimming pool. You can see the results in the video below.

Everything that’s new in iOS 9 beta 2

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post-327127-image-13898adb50f96c12d4c8bd1e9d6f6ce5-jpg
iOS 9 beta 2 goodies are here

Apple seeded iOS 9 beta 2 to developers today and while there aren’t any groundbreaking new features or drastic improvements, the company did manage to add a bunch of little changes and tweaks across the OS.

Most of the improvements are small design changes, but there are a couple really useful additions too, like adding Handoff to the app switcher, search improvements are more.

Take a look at everything that’s new in iOS 9 beta 2:

How Apple Watch can help you float your boat in Maryland

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Maryland DNR Apple Watch
Maryland residents can prepare to set sail with their Apple Watches.
Photo: Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Apple Watch might not be waterproof, but it will help Maryland residents get sailing, anyway.

The state of Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has launched a companion Apple Watch app to help residents find waterways to explore. This makes Maryland the first state government with an official app for Apple’s recently released smartwatch.

Napster’s Sean Parker is trying to create the Twitter of political opinions

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You should elect to download this ASAP.
Napster's Sean Parker is backing the Twitter for political opinions.
Photo: Brigade Brigade

Sean Parker — the rogue Silicon Valley investor behind Napster, and a formative part of Facebook’s early development — has a new iOS app out. It’s called Brigade, and it’s got good election timing: it’s an app devoted to sharing and polling people on their political opinions.

Repeat this simple mantra if you want to make killer Apple Watch apps

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Joe Cieplinski, a designer with Bombing Brain Interactive, shares his knowledge about design at AltConf 2015.
Joe Cieplinski, a designer with Bombing Brain Interactive, shares his knowledge about design at AltConf 2015.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

SAN FRANCISCO — The key to crafting great Apple Watch apps can be summed up with a simple mantra: “Make the user happy.”

That’s designer Joe Cieplinski’s approach to all design, really, but the precept is even more important than ever for developers making apps for Apple’s new wearable. Instead of attempting to cram all the features of an iPhone app onto that tiny screen, devs need to focus as much on what they leave out as what they include.

“That’s how you get a successful product,” Cieplinski, who works for Philadelphia-based Bombing Brain Interactive, told Cult of Mac after his AltConf panel here Tuesday. “It’s not just trying to be philosophical.”

7 fantastic Apple Watch apps you need right now

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Unlike my brethren in Cult of Mac’s shiny San Francisco HQ, I’m British — which means that weather is a minor obsession which dominates the majority of my waking thoughts and conversation.There are a number of different meteorological apps for Apple Watch, but Weather Nerd is maybe my favorite: offering detailed notes on rain (

Unlike my brethren in Cult of Mac’s shiny San Francisco HQ, I’m British — which means that weather is a minor obsession which dominates the majority of my waking thoughts and conversation.

There are a number of different meteorological apps for Apple Watch, but Weather Nerd is maybe my favorite: offering detailed notes on rain ("10 minutes away”), forecast comparisons with the previous day, and far more. Oh, and its forecasts are super-precise, too.

Download: Weather Nerd ($3.99)


Photo: Weather Nerd

Apple Watch apps are about to get the speed boost they desperately need

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Is Apple Watch demand waning?
Native Apple Watch apps are coming.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Watch is one the most incredible watch I’ve ever owned, but there’s just one problem — the apps are all soooo slow.

That could change pretty soon, according to Apple VP of Operations Jeff Williams, who says Apple will give developers a preview of native Apple Watch apps at next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

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.

You can now use your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac

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Just Knock on your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac. Photo: Knock
Just Knock on your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac. Photo: Knock

Remember Knock? Released last year, it was an iPhone app that allowed you to unlock your Mac without entering a password, just by tapping on your smartphone’s screen. Now you don’t even need your iPhone handy to use Knock: It’s the latest app to get the inevitable Apple Watch support.