Hands-On With watchOS 4: Siri Watch Face, Apple Pay, Activity Improvements, New Workouts and More

[Piggie]

Dear Apple.
Please get rid of the HUGE black dead-area bezel around the screen.

Samsung can do it with a phone.
You are about to do it with your new phone coming later this year.

Please use this tech on your next watch update, and make the screen go right up to the edges.

Everyone will benefit.

As a bonus, you won't have to keep using black background for the apps, in a poor attempt to try and hide the fact the bezel is so HUGE.

Thanks

 

[fyun89]

I sent some feedback about wi-fi.
They don't support 802.1X and that's a pity. Many corporate wi-fi networks are 802.1X, so AW is basically useless in a corporate environment. If you walk too far from your iPhone you lose connectivity and you stop receiving notifications.
So what's the point of wearing the AW if you have to bring your iPhone with you all the time?
Let's wait for watchOS 5

Well, there are many valid reasons to be able to use without a phone.

When I'm working out, I dont want to bring my phone. I just need the phone feature and connecting to Wifi enables me to use the phone feature on the watch without my phone being near by.

There will be many other reasons and another one I could think of are going to swimming pool, in occasions where ur phone batteries die first when you're near a public wifi, emergency situation where wifi can be used, etc.

 

[Abazigal]

Why innovate when you own the race ?

https://www.macrumors.com/2016/07/12/apple-watch-highest-customer-sat-jd-power/

I would argue that Apple is innovating at a breakneck pace still. That's why they are practically lapping the pack in this race. Just because you don't think much of a particular feature doesn't make it any less innovative. It just means the feature wasn't necessarily defined with you in mind and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[recoil80]

Well, there are many valid reasons to be able to use without a phone.

When I'm working out, I dont want to bring my phone. I just need the phone feature and connecting to Wifi enables me to use the phone feature on the watch without my phone being near by.

There will be many other reasons and another one I could think of are going to swimming pool, in occasions where ur phone batteries die first when you're near a public wifi, emergency situation where wifi can be used, etc.

I think the reason why they don't enable adding wi-fi manually is because it would be a pain to enter a password via the Watch. But once the network is know on the iPhone you are able to connect to it via the Watch and that's good, it is something I use at home all the time when I leave my iPhone in my jacket and continue to receive notification while moving to another room or to the upper floor.
In a corporate environment you sometimes need to work with a colleague at his desk, and if the guy isn't close enough to your desk you need to bring the iPhone. That's something I forget to do all the time, and I miss calls and emails.
I don't answer to emails on the Watch, but if I receive something urgent I can go back to my desk and pick up the iPhone or deal with it on the Mac. That's the point of having AW

 

[yegon]

Will third party apps be able to access master volume control in OS4, like Now Playing or Music? For example Overcast*.

*Overcast can change volume to some degree on podcasts stored locally on the watch, but cannot change volume on podcasts sourced from the phone directly.

 

[bobob]

my Suunto Ambit3 watch

For those not familiar with this model:

 

[diipii]

I have a watch. It tells me the accurate time. The battery lasts for years.
I never work out and my ankles, knees and hips are in great shape.
I will worry about my health....No I never worry about my health.
I will keep my money away from Apple. They already have more than they know what to do with and it's affecting Cooky's mental state.

 

[Apple_Robert]

If it takes you a day or two to run a marathon, then that is correct. Novelty watch? Are you just a Apple hater or uninformed?

I run much longer distances than a marathon on a regular basis in a day. Hence the need for more battery life than the current 5hrs from AW.

 

[swingerofbirch]

I have yet to use one.

It still *seems* complicated . . . there's just a lot going on on a very small screen.

Does it feel complicated?

 

[mrklaw]

I have yet to use one.

It still *seems* complicated . . . there's just a lot going on on a very small screen.

Does it feel complicated?

no. But that can depend how much you interact with it.

Most of the time I just check the time like a normal watch, and if I get a notification on my wrist I take a look and then ignore it, or grab my phone to respond.
It tracks my activity so my daily move/stand/calorie goals which is completely passive but I get a notification if I hit them.
If I do something more active its easy to bring up the workout app and hit 'open run' and off I go.

It can be frustrating if you try and do too much on the watch, but if you treat it more as an extension to the phone it works well

 

[DNichter]

I love my Apple Watch, but they seriously need to devote some people to watchOS and tvOS for that matter. Maybe they are waiting until the next revision of each? Either way, really uninspired releases for both in my opinion. I feel like they could be doing so much more. The company has billions in the bank, let's get some people dedicated to these platforms as well.
[doublepost=1497613973][/doublepost]

I have yet to use one.

It still *seems* complicated . . . there's just a lot going on on a very small screen.

Does it feel complicated?

No, but it really depends on what you use it for. I use it for messages, notifications, maps, and tracking my workouts. It works really well for that. Apple Watch "apps" are pretty useless though. At least they got rid of the horrible honeycomb grid.

 

[mrklaw]

I love my Apple Watch, but they seriously need to devote some people to watchOS and tvOS for that matter. Maybe they are waiting until the next revision of each? Either way, really uninspired releases for both in my opinion. I feel like they could be doing so much more. The company has billions in the bank, let's get some people dedicated to these platforms as well.

it feels like they keep making fairly big changes to how you interact with the entire device - like they still haven't figured out the best approach.

The biggest surprise is still no third party watch faces. Surely the simplest and biggest win? Never mind messing about with silly photos etc, let developers provide more custom faces because Apple will never please everyone with the limited faces they make.

And music control is still woefully lacking. When they launched airpods with no way to skip tracks I thought it was the ideal time for watch OS to have a global music control complication or entire watch face. but still nothing. If I'm listening to music I should be able to just raise my wrist and easily see whats playing and skip tracks. Ideally an option for the crown to be a volume control even if the screen is off. The 'now playing' app you can put in the dock is ok, but it times out too quickly to be useful.

 

[DNichter]

it feels like they keep making fairly big changes to how you interact with the entire device - like they still haven't figured out the best approach.

The biggest surprise is still no third party watch faces. Surely the simplest and biggest win? Never mind messing about with silly photos etc, let developers provide more custom faces because Apple will never please everyone with the limited faces they make.

And music control is still woefully lacking. When they launched airpods with no way to skip tracks I thought it was the ideal time for watch OS to have a global music control complication or entire watch face. but still nothing. If I'm listening to music I should be able to just raise my wrist and easily see whats playing and skip tracks. Ideally an option for the crown to be a volume control even if the screen is off. The 'now playing' app you can put in the dock is ok, but it times out too quickly to be useful.

Yea, and I think that is actually a positive of the whole situation. It's not like they are just sitting there being stubborn saying they figured it all out on the first try. Realistically, no one knew how a smart watch would work going into it. I didn't even know if I wanted one. But since I purchased my series 0 on day 1, I haven't taken it off. I almost feel like they need to remove some of the features and get back to basic features, functions, and UI.

 

[NOV]

I felt amazed when I bought my Watch last week that there was no interval training available on any Apple Watch App (and with that I mean warm up-lap1 distance-break-lap2 distance-break etc. style of interval) as I was used to set on my Garmin. Guess in the meantime I will have to run with two watches then

 

[dugbug]

But can I get more then a day of battery life?

Probably. They have a new sleep mode to disable the display during movement

A day isn't a big deal though unless you are interested in sleep mgmt

 

[Spendlove]

I felt amazed when I bought my Watch last week that there was no interval training available on any Apple Watch App (and with that I mean warm up-lap1 distance-break-lap2 distance-break etc. style of interval) as I was used to set on my Garmin. Guess in the meantime I will have to run with two watches then

I think you can install apps for that. Pretty sure Runtastic does it. Did you get the Nike edition?

 

[frumpywumpy]

Anyone know what band is attached to the watch in the video? the white stitching makes it seem that it is not the Apple Saddle Brown Classic.

 

[jonnysods]

A more lightweight and stable OS is what I'm always excited about. I think I prefer the current dock right now though as I can see the full app at a glance.

I'm already getting excited for AW3 next year!

 

[tkermit]

Anyone know what band is attached to the watch in the video? the white stitching makes it seem that it is not the Apple Saddle Brown Classic.

Looks like some Hermès band replica.

 

[litmag01]

Just give us a watch face studio with more options and the ability to install 3rd party faces, offer faces for sale from big name watchmakers

You can bet that is in the works.
[doublepost=1497624919][/doublepost]Ugh... OS bloat.

 

[ksnell]

Don't you ever get sick of picking up two things out of the ten discussed and pretending like the rest didn't exist? Or was the video just too long to understand?

You can do better than insulting someone's intelligence. Attack the facts, not the person.

 

[Marconelly]

I wish they made apple pay watch to watch feature. If i want them to pay me, i get close to another person's watch to get their money.

(I know exactly what you meant, and it would be cool to have the feature - but it was hilarious reading that while looking at your avatar)

 

[Kaibelf]

You can do better than insulting someone's intelligence. Attack the facts, not the person.

I did. The fact is, the creator of the MR video took the time to film, explore and explain a litany of coming features, and the poster chose the two most minor ones and then attacked Tim Cook personally and implied it was all Apple is doing with this update. Do you support such behavior? It brings absolutely nothing to the conversation, misrepresents the actual information, and then wastes everyone's time with the throwaway juvenile "Timmy" nickname. It's tiresome, lazy, and stupid.

 

[NOV]

I think you can install apps for that. Pretty sure Runtastic does it. Did you get the Nike edition?

Yes, Thanks for the tip of Runtastic, I'll have a look at it.

 

[NukeDuke]

.

From what I have read on the forum, the AW would do well to make it to the end of a marathon race. That is terrible.

Maybe you should run faster?
[doublepost=1497634603][/doublepost]

If that makes her happy, that is all that matters. I need more than a Mickey watch face. Maybe the next release will be something that really catches my attention. If I was a casual runner, (30 mins a day) my mindset would be different and the Apple Watch (as it is now) would probably fit the proverbial bill for me.

Why do you think that someone who 'runs' for 30mins a day would be a casual runner? Ultra runners spend more time walking than running. Someone who specializes in running 5km or miles aren't 'casual' runners. I've run the gamut of 5km races through marathons and they all have their own unique challenges. Stop trying to be elitist about running slow long races....