We’re not talking leagues faster – I still routinely got the loading screen while the app attempted to pull data from the iPhone – but at least a little.Īs with the iPhone and iPad, apps are likely to provide the killer feature for the Apple Watch and now they can do more. Apple now allows apps to run directly on the Watch, rather than relying on the iPhone to do all the processing.Īt the moment, for most apps that means running a little faster. The biggest change has yet to be realised.
Wi-Fi calling is also built-in, which means you don’t need a phone to place a call if being Dick Tracey is your thing and your mobile phone provider supports it – currently EE and Vodafone in the UK.Īpple has also added activation lock for if the smartwatch ever gets stolen – a feature the iPhone has had for a while and was conspicuously missing when the Apple Watch launched. Users can also reply to more messages with emojis, dictation and canned responses. Siri does more, from launching glances to starting workouts, but it still feels awkward talking into a watch. It’s the little things.īeyond amusing animations, I found it quicker to dive into the dedicated app to view my upcoming appointments or weather than it was to turn the crown. Other watchfaces, such as Astronomy or Solar, will run through their animations when the dial is turned, while you can make Mickey dance by moving his hands backwards and forwards. That includes new third-party complications such as Dark Sky, which lists the temperature forecast at that particular time. On the modular watchface, for instance, it will scroll through upcoming calendar events, the weather or other interactive elements. Turning the digital crown on compatible watchfaces now moves forwards or backwards in time. The digital crown will scroll forwards or backwards in time, showing events including within some third-party apps and complications. It works better on a phone as an alarm clock. The time is displayed when the screen or buttons are touched, while hitting the side button turns the alarm off or the crown to snooze. It works well given the Apple Watch has to be charged over night – but no change there to battery life. The nightstand mode, which displays the time, date, charge state and next alarm in a green hue reminiscent of monochrome LCD alarm clocks. The complications also act as buttons to quickly launch the app, rather than having to hunt for them in the app grid, swipe through a glance or ask Siri.
The number of apps is limited at the moment, but a good example is Citymapper, which puts the estimated time of arrival of any planned journey in a complication. Apps such as Dark Sky can insert a small weather-information widget right on the watchface. More interesting are the third-party “complications”. Here Dark Sky displays rain coming soon and Citymapper displays the estimated time of arrival for a planned journey. Third-party apps can add little widgets called ‘complications’ on to the watchface.
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