As smartwatches grow in popularity, the Apple Watch will continue to be the hands-on - or wrist-on - favorite. Photo: Apple
Apple Watch owners received a new software update this morning in the form of watchOS 2.1.
The new update comes over a month after watchOS 2.0.1 was made available to the public and contains a number of bug fixes and performance improvements to go with expanded system language support.
Apple Watch users can now watch Vines on their wrist. Photo: Vine
Twitter is bringing its short video sharing service, Vine, to wrists across the globe today with its first Apple Watch app.
Vine for Apple Watch brings two feeds to users — favorites and featured — which allows you to catch up on clips from favorite creators, as well as watch featured videos that are handpicked from channels across the network.
Haters gonna hate, but we’re giving Apple’s latest product revelations a big thumbs up. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Wow. That was a big deal. For a mere “s” upgrade, Apple went way above and beyond with today’s big product showcase. Three major product lines have been not just upgraded, but reinvented, and finally there’s a reason to buy the one that has been languishing — the Apple TV, which is now a gaming console as well as an entertainment center.
Maybe I’ve drunk too much Kool-Aid, but I thought this morning’s presentation was one for the history books.
Developers have been showing the Apple Watch some extra love lately. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Though there aren’t any specific numbers on Apple Watch units sold up until this point, we do have some exciting statistics on how many apps are available for watchOS. It turns out that ahead of the watchOS 2 public release, developers have shown significant interest in the platform. They’ve contributed an impressive 11,469 Watch apps to the App Store and counting, but growth has particularly taken off in recent months.
Apple has released a new set of betas for the mobile operating systems it announced at WWDC 2015 in June. iOS 9 beta 4 and watchOS 2.0 beta 4 are now available to registered developers, nearly two weeks after Apple seeded the previous betas.
Beats 1 is Apple's new worldwide radio station Photo: Apple
This week: our favorite features announced at the WWDC ’15 keynote; why we have high hopes for Beats 1 radio on Apple Music; Phil Schiller discusses some of Apple’s more controversial product decisions in a surprising new interview; and, though it’s all cheers for consumers, we’ll tell you why some developers dread Apple’s yearly WWDC announcements.
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Build a beautiful new website quick with Squarespace’s drag-n-drop interface. Start a free trial and save 10% off your first purchase with code “CultCast”.
So long, farewell, see you next year. Photo: Apple
Now that Apple’s annual developer conference is over, we’ve got the skinny on all the news coming out of the WWDC this year. From a thorough wrap-up of the keynote to in-depth looks at iOS 9, OS X El Capitan, the new watchOS 2, and the exciting Apple Music, we’re here to fill your weekly digital magazine to overflowing.
Get Cult of Mac Magazine now, and soak in Cult of Mac’s smart, informed, and sometimes a little snarky take on all the info from WWDC 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.”
Changes are coming to Apple Watch. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple Watch apps have been ridiculously slow ever since Jony Ive’s timepiece started slapping itself onto wrists in April, but that could change by this fall thanks to the introduction of watchOS 2.0.
The next generation of Apple Watch’s software and apps was unveiled today at WWDC in San Francisco by Apple VP Kevin Lynch, who showed off a number of new features that probably should have been included on the device at launch. As we predicted, third-party apps will finally be able to run natively on the Apple Watch and there are a bunch of smaller improvements coming to the timepiece as well.
Here’s everything you need to know about watchOS 2.0.