Apple earlier this month previewed watchOS 10, bringing Apple Watch users a fresh approach to quickly view information with redesigned apps, a new Smart Stack to show relevant widgets right when they’re needed, and delightful new watch faces.
New metrics, Workout Views, and Bluetooth connectivity for power meters, speed sensors, and cadence sensors arrive for cyclists, while new Compass Waypoints and Maps capabilities further help hikers. The Mindfulness app offers additional tools to support mental health. watchOS 10 is available as a developer beta today, and will be available as a free software update this autumn.
Kevin Lynch, Apple’s Vice President of Technology, and Deidre Caldbeck, Director of Apple Watch Product Marketing, sat down exclusively with The Independent to talk about the Apple Watch.
David Phelan for The Independent:
Lynch says, “We look at how do we continue improving the experience, having the willingness to rethink and re-imagine, based on what our users are telling us.”
That’s timely because this autumn there will be big changes in how the Watch will be used, even down to what individual buttons do. The new software sees the arrival of widgets on the Watch.
Widgets are those highly useful items on a computer desktop or phone home screen that show updateable information. So, where the Fitness app on the iPhone shows a generic image, the Fitness widget tells you exactly how active you’ve been today, for instance. Or the widget for an app like the flight tracking app, Flighty, reminds you how many days until your next flight, or if it’s behind schedule.
[P]reviously, most extra information on the Watch has been shown through complications, those little areas of some Watch faces that can show the date, today’s temperature, battery charge and so on. Those remain, but with watchOS 10, by turning the Digital Crown, a new stack of widgets scroll up on to the display. This means you can have a spare, simple Watch face but easy access to lots of stuff.
But this change means that the functions of the buttons have changed… right now you invoke [Control Center] by swiping up on the display, though this only works from the Watch’s home screen. With watchOS 10, you can’t do this any more, instead pressing the side button. The big benefit is it now works from any screen on the Watch, not just the home screen.
MacDailyNews Take: As Day One Apple Watch users, we’ve been through so many UI changes and improvements by now that the leap to watchOS will feel very familiar. Happily, we’ll have to learn some new ways of doing things with our wrist computers that we highly expect will be beneficial overall!
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