Apple Watch: All the Little Things! [watchOS 4.3 beta]

[iamMacPerson]

B4 is just as buggy as B2 was for me. The Watch as a whole crashes constantly, and unlike the iPhone where it automatically reboots, the Watch just stays off. B2 did it where I would have to hold the power button to boot the Watch back up. In B4, I have to hold both the crown and power button in to get the Watch to boot back up. Note that it isn't just taking a while to wake up, it'll sometimes never wake up unless I reboot it.

Also battery life is terrible. I haven't even had my Watch off the charger for 3 hours, and with hardly any usage, it's already at 85%. The screen is weird when waking up, like it goes to half brightness for a second then brightens all the way up. Annoying. I'm gonna try unpairing and repairing and see of it works after that. Really annoying.

 

[LewisChapman]

It's been like that for several major iOS releases. Apple has chosen to fake the battery meter percentages near 100%. If you overcharge Li-Ion batteries they will explode. So it's kind of important to stop charging them when they are full. But when you stop charging them the device it will use the battery to stay powered on. So the battery will drain. It's also good for the battery's lifetime to not keep charging it when it's near full charge. So it's important to let the battery drain some and then charge it to full again. You can see that with MacBooks. They can be connected to power but the battery meter might show 95% and not charging. But with iOS devices the battery meter will show 100% even when the battery is not fully charged. That's why it looks like the battery remains "fully charged" even though in reality that's not the case. Apple has chosen to do the same with the Watch too.

Could you provide some sources for this including some reports of said battery explosions?

I was under the impression that the devices use a 'trickle charge' once they hit 100% so that the batteries aren't overcharged - I didn't think you needed to 'stop charging' the device once it hits 100%.

Also by your theory, if my watch hits 100% at 3am whilst I am sleeping and I use it the next day starting at 8am; I will have more battery than someone who sits and watches it change to 100% in the morning at 8am then takes it off and uses it during the day.

 

[nanohits]

Im having more issues with this beta. All of a sudden my screen goes blank and will not come one till I hit the both the buttons till the Apple logo comes on. Happens to me at least twice a day. Anyone else has this issue of screen going totally blank?

 

[teidon]

I was under the impression that the devices use a 'trickle charge' once they hit 100% so that the batteries aren't overcharged - I didn't think you needed to 'stop charging' the device once it hits 100%.

Trickle charging is not used with Lithium batteries. It's harmful for them and dangerous over time. It is used with NiMh batteries though. http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

A video about overcharging Lithium battery:

Spoiler

 

[LewisChapman]

Trickle charging is not used with Lithium batteries. It's harmful for them and dangerous over time. It is used with NiMh batteries though. http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

A video about overcharging Lithium battery:

Spoiler

Interesting - we have that thing on our wrists and in our pockets!

When you say that the iPhone/Watch doesn't actually get to 100% - does the battery not just charge to 100% then stop then charge back up once it has discharged some?

 

[teidon]

When you say that the iPhone/Watch doesn't actually get to 100% - does the battery not just charge to 100% then stop then charge back up once it has discharged some?

It does get to full charge. It just shows something like 95%-100% as 100%. And I'm not 100% sure about the iOS devices faking the battery percentages. It's just my own observation over the years of using them.

And Lithium batteries are little dangerous. They do have safety mechanisms which try to prevent any harm from happening. There have been very few news (I'm not aware of any) about authentic/authorized batteries exploding but some (possibly cheap) third party batteries might caught in fire and/or explode.

So should any Lithium battery start swelling or making some weird noise, it's best to stop using it immediately and you might also want to place it somewhere where there is little burning material. And should such battery ever caught in fire, don't bother putting any blankets or so on top of it. It's self-oxidizing. Either cool it down with water, use D class extinguisher (meant for metal fires) or just let it burn.

 

[LewisChapman]

It does get to full charge. It just shows something like 95%-100% as 100%. And I'm not 100% sure about the iOS devices faking the battery percentages. It's just my own observation over the years of using them.

And Lithium batteries are little dangerous. They do have safety mechanisms which try to prevent any harm from happening. There have been very few news (I'm not aware of any) about authentic/authorized batteries exploding but some (possibly cheap) third party batteries might caught in fire and/or explode.

So should any Lithium battery start swelling or making some weird noise, it's best to stop using it immediately and you might also want to place it somewhere where there is little burning material. And should such battery ever caught in fire, don't bother putting any blankets or so on top of it. It's self-oxidizing. Either cool it down with water, use D class extinguisher (meant for metal fires) or just let it burn.

What is the benefit of the device showing 100% when between 95%-100%?

Is it just because it may worry the user with the percentage going down as the automatic charging stops (to prevent overcharging)?

 

[teidon]

What is the benefit of the device showing 100% when between 95%-100%?

Is it just because it may worry the user with the percentage going down as the automatic charging stops (to prevent overcharging)?

I believe that's the reason. If it didn't fake the percentage and you charge the battery to 100% and then take it off the charger it would very quickly drop to 99%. Which I guess someone might consider broken. And also if the device is in charger and it's showing 98% and not charging, someone is likely going to say it's broken. There are so many iOS users that Apple doesn't want to deal with all those complaints. So anything close enough to 100% is shown as 100% and it always says it's charging even though it might not be. (On MacBooks the charger's light is orange when charging and green otherwise)

 

[newtestleper]

Im having more issues with this beta. All of a sudden my screen goes blank and will not come one till I hit the both the buttons till the Apple logo comes on. Happens to me at least twice a day. Anyone else has this issue of screen going totally blank?

Happened for a few days for me, but yesterday was the first day it didn't occur. I deleted some faces that I have no intention of using, so maybe one of those was buggy. Plus, the battery drain is a lot better than it was two days ago, so maybe another pointer to a face being buggy. If I get through a second day without a crash, I'll work out which faces went bye-bye.

 

[jeremiah239]

Anybody having issues with the touch screen becoming unresponsive? I'm getting phantom touches and I can't use the touch screen the only way to fix it is to hard reboot and then the screen works perfect for about 5 mins and then it does the same thing again. My watch is unusable! I'm resetting it now and hopefully it helps.

 

[newtestleper]

Anybody having issues with the touch screen becoming unresponsive? I'm getting phantom touches and I can't use the touch screen the only way to fix it is to hard reboot and then the screen works perfect for about 5 mins and then it does the same thing again. My watch is unusable! I'm resetting it now and hopefully it helps.

Thanks for reading above.

 

[jeremiah239]

Thanks for reading above.

Maybe you should re-read what I typed...

 

[Sir Ruben]

I've really had enough of beta 4, it's no better than beta 3. It's latest trick is acting like it's been switched off. I first notice when I lift my arm to look at the time and the screen does not light up, so I tap it and nothing, I press the buttons and nothing. At this point I have to hold both buttons in for ages until the apple logo shows. Never have I hated beta software so much!!

 

[jeremiah239]

Maybe I wasn't clear enough... My screen lights up and comes on when I raise my wrist but the digitizer becomes buggy and I get phantom touches. When I reboot I can navigate fine everything is smooth, then 5 mins later I can't use the touch screen again, it lights up I can use the Digital Crown to go home but the icons start flashing and bugging out and when I need to type my passcode in it just keeps pressing 3 or 6 by itself. I'm trying to figure out of I'm having a hardware problem or if it's just the beta.

 

[newtestleper]

Happened for a few days for me, but yesterday was the first day it didn't occur. I deleted some faces that I have no intention of using, so maybe one of those was buggy. Plus, the battery drain is a lot better than it was two days ago, so maybe another pointer to a face being buggy. If I get through a second day without a crash, I'll work out which faces went bye-bye.

As expected, it has already crashed twice today.

 

[psylence2k]

Does anyone know if you can activate airplay for a device (Apple TV, Airplay speakers,etc) from the watch ?

 

[JUiCEJamie]

Has anybody else noticed how Force Touch is a little more receptive?
I don't have to apply even half the amount of pressure in beta 4. Perfect.

 

[gr8tfly]

In the 1.01 Maps the haptic cues are different for left turn vs right turn but the audible cues are the same for both.
Do any of the betas fix this?

I had a hard time distinguishing the haptics, but the audio is definitely different for left v right. One goes up-scale, the other down. (In v1.0.1)

Reminders Nano does the trick for 99¢

Bought it and it does the trick. Great tip!

 

[Twimfy]

I have a real problem with b4. Either I keep losing connection with the phone (which is remedied with a hard phone reset) or even worse the watch just keeps switching itself off, usually whenever I get a text or phone call come through.

Anyone else had the random shutting down issue? I've tried the usual steps but it keeps doing it. Hoping it's a b4 issue and not a problem with the watch itself.

 

[nanohits]

Happened for a few days for me, but yesterday was the first day it didn't occur. I deleted some faces that I have no intention of using, so maybe one of those was buggy. Plus, the battery drain is a lot better than it was two days ago, so maybe another pointer to a face being buggy. If I get through a second day without a crash, I'll work out which faces went bye-bye.

I didn't have any new faces. So thats not the issue. I did a reset but with my backup. Next will be a full reset. As it happened again today

 

[newtestleper]

I didn't have any new faces. So thats not the issue. I did a reset but with my backup. Next will be a full reset. As it happened again today

I meant existing faces - just ones I never use. I just had to do a hard reset because, while the watch didn't freeze, I couldn't swipe down for notifications nor view the app screen.

 

[Cjhooper]

I have a real problem with b4. Either I keep losing connection with the phone (which is remedied with a hard phone reset) or even worse the watch just keeps switching itself off, usually whenever I get a text or phone call come through.

Anyone else had the random shutting down issue? I've tried the usual steps but it keeps doing it. Hoping it's a b4 issue and not a problem with the watch itself.

I have! My watch will just be off every now and again once or twice a day. Also I have been having connection problems which is very annoying. It's making me paranoid because I had an iPhone with a bad Bluetooth and wifi radio that I had to exchange and it's acting the same.

 

[Gjwilly]

I have a real problem with b4. Either I keep losing connection with the phone (which is remedied with a hard phone reset) or even worse the watch just keeps switching itself off, usually whenever I get a text or phone call come through.

Anyone else had the random shutting down issue? I've tried the usual steps but it keeps doing it. Hoping it's a b4 issue and not a problem with the watch itself.

I'm getting this.
Today I was able to fix the lost connection by just toggling the Bluetooth on the phone. No hard reset needed.

 

[BaggieBoy]

Battery life is now exceptional for me. On B3 I was barely getting to the end of the day, now I'm on 40%+ after 16 hours or so. I have a couple of crashes but no more than early betas.

 

[plexdk]

Hmmm, im in a dilemma.. Im currently developing a new watch app, and i want to take advantage of watchOS2 - but i don't wanna screw up my watch, since i can't downgrade after testing...argh!