Apple Watch

Zac Hall, 9to5Mac:

The tech enthusiast in me wants to find a use for every Apple Watch feature, but this can create an overwhelming experience if you’re not intentional about your approach. It’s possible to want to reduce your reliance on the iPhone through the Apple Watch, only to find yourself even more annoyed by interruptions on your wrist.

Identifying utility from the Apple Watch while toning it down when the watch becomes too much has been something I’ve been working through recently. I’ll share where I’ve landed as well as a few feature requests for managing the experience for the better.

Gaining control over your Apple Watch is a decluttering process, removing unneeded apps, and pruning the tree of notifications. Nicely presented, worth reading.

Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

Apple has lost a legal bid to block Swatch from registering Steve Jobs’ famous “One more thing” saying as a trademark in the UK, reports The Telegraph.

Here’s The Telegraph link, paywalled.

From the decision:

On Monday, judge Iain Purvis overturned a previous decision that sided with Apple, saying that even if Swatch had meant to “annoy” Apple, the company could not stop it from doing so.

He added that the phrase may have originated with the 1970s television detective Columbo, a character who was known for cornering criminals by asking them “just one more thing.”

That Columbo reference might be prior art here. But still, modern times, that’s a phrase I definitely associate with Apple, no doubt.

In 2017, Apple filed a complaint in a Swiss court over the use of the slogan “Tick Different” in a Swatch marketing campaign, arguing that the watchmaker was unfairly referencing the Apple’s 1990s “Think Different” ad campaign for its own gain.

And:

Two years later the Swiss court agreed with Swatch that Apple’s “Think Different” was not known well enough in Switzerland to warrant protection, and that Apple had not produced documents that sufficiently backed up its case.

Fascinating.

Disney Parks Blog:

The MagicBand, the colorful wristband guests wear at Walt Disney World Resort, makes each visit even simpler and more seamless. We’ve continued to invent and innovate, and soon, we’ll be debuting a new option: Disney MagicMobile service!

If you’ve paid a recent visit to a Disney park, you are no doubt familiar with the MagicBand, the wrist device that you wear everywhere, tapping to enter the park, or pay for food and souvenirs.

Launching in phases starting later this year, Disney MagicMobile service is a convenient and contactless way to access MagicBand features like theme park entry through the power of your iPhone, Apple Watch or other smart device.

This is such a smart idea. Disney currently has to spend a fair chunk of change designing and manufacturing the MagicBand. And even if you argue that guests pay for the MagicBand, it is a cost incurred somewhere, either as a cost you pay or folded into more expensive ticket prices.

But why incur the cost, if guests already bring their own magic band (AKA, Apple Watch) to the park. This is a great partnership, one that saves Disney the cost of making and evolving their own devices, and one that boosts the sale of Apple Watches.

Imagine if Apple created a custom Apple Watch face only available for people who go to Disney World, et al. Or a special edition Apple Watch band sold through the park. The possibilities are boundless.

WMUR (via 9to5Mac):

The tech school teacher has been ice skating his whole life. On Sunday, he was on Salmon Falls River in Somersworth when the ice broke.

“It was just that terrible feeling. ‘Oh my God. I’m going in the water,’” Rogers said.

And:

No one was around and he couldn’t reach his phone. He was in the water for several minutes as hypothermia started setting in.

Imagine the above scenario before Apple Watch. This is a piece of tech that has saved many lives. Not many tech products can make that claim.

Mitchell Clark, The Verge:

The Apple Watch’s ability to act as a camera remote for your phone got a mention in its announcement keynote, so it’s been around a while, but I’ve only ever used it once or twice to take group pictures. Twitter user @PeterSciretta, however, has pointed out that you can also use it as a vlogging aid.

Here’s a tweet video showing this remote viewfinder in action:

https://twitter.com/strawberrywell/status/1346618135604908032

These are pins, representing all the various Activity Awards you can earn. As far as I can tell, you can buy any of the awards, so there’s a level of honesty required here.

I found this fascinating, like a museum tour of Apple’s Activity artwork. Not seeing any affiliation with Apple, wondering about that.

If you are interested in Apple Fitness+, cycling or not, this is a great detailed look (with lots of images) at where Fitness+ excels and what’s missing, at least at the moment.

This is Apple’s official Fitness+ press release. There is a lot of detail, worth making your way through if you are interested in the service.

A few things that stand out:

Customers who have purchased an Apple Watch Series 3 or later from Best Buy since September 15, 2020, will get an additional three months of Fitness+ for a total of six months free. Best Buy customers who already owned an Apple Watch Series 3 or later before September 15, 2020, and are My Best Buy members will get an additional month of Fitness+ for a total of two months free.

And:

As part of its overall membership offering, both digitally and at its athletic resorts nationwide, premier health and wellness brand Life Time will be the first health and fitness club company in the US to offer Apple Fitness+.

And:

Starting January 1, 2021, UnitedHealthcare will offer five additional months of Fitness+ at no additional cost for UnitedHealthcare Motion enrollees with Apple Watch, to help empower eligible program participants on their path to a healthier lifestyle. Following the extended trial, UnitedHealthcare Motion enrollees may be able to apply program incentives to cover the Fitness+ monthly subscription cost.

It’ll be interesting to see if other healthcare providers will jump on the Fitness+ bandwagon, a bit of preventative maintenance that might lower long term healthcare costs.

Apple:

With iOS 14.3 and watchOS 7.2, Apple Watch users can view their cardio fitness level in the Health app on iPhone, and receive a notification on Apple Watch if it falls within the low range. Breakthrough technology released in watchOS 7 allows Apple Watch to easily measure low cardio fitness, and today cardio fitness notifications empower users to be more active for dramatic long-term health benefits.

Cardiorespiratory fitness, as measured by VO2 max, is the maximum amount of oxygen the body can use during exercise, and it can be increased through physical activity. Apple Watch already estimates average and higher levels of VO2 max during vigorous outdoor walks, runs, or hikes, which many runners and other athletes monitor to improve performance.

Now, with watchOS 7, Apple Watch uses multiple sensors, including the optical heart sensor, GPS, and the accelerometer, to estimate lower levels, too. This is significant because direct measurement of VO2 max typically requires a rigorous clinical test with specialized equipment that is not readily accessible to most people. watchOS 7 also allows Apple Watch to take cardio fitness measurements as users walk throughout the day, whether or not they are tracking a workout. With this innovation, Apple Watch is better able to measure VO2 max for users with low cardio fitness, who may not complete high-intensity workouts.

This announcement coincides with today’s launch of Apple Fitness+.

WSJ. Magazine:

“It does feel like people might think we built Fitness+ because of Covid,” Jay Blahnik, Apple’s senior director of fitness technologies, tells me via a video call from the company’s fitness studio in Los Angeles. “But we’ve been working on it for a very, very long time.”

And:

With the launch of Fitness+, however, Apple aims to create a new ecosystem for the watch: a subscription-based, on-demand virtual-fitness studio, with an initial 21-person team of trainers (recruited after an intensive search, in which Apple says “no gym was too gritty for us to go into”), covering 10 disciplines—from high-intensity interval training to dance workouts to rowing to “mindful cooldowns”—offering a fresh slate of workouts, of varying lengths, every week (all set to the beat of Apple Music).

And:

“We have a carousel called ‘Try Something New.’ So if you tend to do more linear workouts, like running or cycling, you would be suggested things like HIIT [high-intensity interval training] or yoga, that would move your body in different directions.”

And:

What Apple is pursuing, suggests Benedict Evans, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz and a longtime tech-industry analyst, is a “broader bundling strategy”; the new AppleOne, for example, includes Fitness+ along with services like iCloud and Arcade. The company, he says, is “trying to create more perceived value without adding marginal cost.” And, importantly, it adds value to the watch itself, which Evans suggests, “hasn’t worked really well as a developer platform”—in other words, “most of the stuff you do with it comes with it.” Fitness+ is a logical evolution of the watch that could increase its relevance for many users.

Lots more in the article itself. I linked to the Apple News version of the article, but here’s a link to the version on the WSJ site.

I am very interested in how Fitness+ interacts with Apple Watch. There seems to be the promise of a new set of interface mechanisms, highlighting progress in a different way than the current simple tally of minutes and calories burned. Looking forward to Monday’s launch.

Apple:

Apple today announced Fitness+, the first fitness experience built around Apple Watch, is launching Monday, December 14. Apple Fitness+ brings studio-style workouts to iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, intelligently incorporating workout metrics from Apple Watch for a first-of-its-kind personalized and immersive experience users can complete wherever and whenever is convenient for them. Apple Fitness+ will launch with 10 of the most popular workout types, including High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), Strength, Yoga, Dance, Core, Cycling, Treadmill (for running and walking), Rowing, and Mindful Cooldown, led by a phenomenal team of trainers whose approach is welcoming to all. The workouts are fueled by inspiring music from today’s top artists designed to keep users motivated from start to finish.

And:

Apple Fitness+ dynamically integrates personal metrics from Apple Watch to inspire users, animating them on the screen during key moments in the workout, providing an engaging and immersive experience to help users stay motivated.

The tight Apple Watch integration is one of the key features that will distinguish Apple Fitness+ from competitors, like Peloton.

For example, when the trainer says to check heart rate, the heart rate metrics are spotlighted; during tough intervals, a countdown timer starts to help users get through to the last second; and when they close their Activity rings, a celebration happens right on the workout screen.

I’m definitely going to incorporate Fitness+ into my workout regimen, looking forward to seeing how well Apple Watch works here, what interface elements have changed.

My favorite bit:

For those who enjoy a little competition, HIIT, Treadmill, Cycling, and Rowing workouts have an optional Burn Bar that shows, in real time, how a user’s effort stacks up against anyone who has previously completed the same workout.

Apple Music also plays a strong role here:

Music is a central part of the Apple Fitness+ experience, and the trainer team weaves music throughout the design of every workout. Users can choose from nine different styles, including Latest Hits, Chill Vibes, Upbeat Anthems, Pure Dance, Throwback Hits, Everything Rock, Latin Grooves, Hip Hop/R&B, and Top Country, and see the full workout playlist before they start. They can also filter by music to find the right workout to fit their current mood. An Apple Music subscription is not required to enjoy the music in Fitness+, but for those who have one, favorite songs or an entire playlist from Fitness+ workouts can be downloaded to their Apple Music library to listen anytime.

Looking forward to taking Fitness+ for a spin. Monday.

David Shayer, TidBITS:

As an Apple software engineer, I worked on the first two releases of watchOS, so I’m familiar with many of the Apple Watch’s internal trade-offs. While I don’t have any inside information about current versions of watchOS and Apple Watch hardware, there are at least four reasons to think Apple won’t support third-party watch faces any time soon, if ever.

Read for the details, but:

• Battery life
• Buggy code
• Apple’s image
• Copyright worries

In a nutshell, handing control of Apple Watch faces over to developers would put the Apple Watch quality experience at risk.

Dan Moren, SixColors:

On the only road trip I’ve taken since the whole world situation went to pot, we ran into a strange issue where Google Maps wanted to take us on a bizarre route that would have taken an hour longer than the normal route, for reasons that we still don’t understand. I encouraged my wife, who was driving, to use Apple Maps instead, but she was annoyed by the way the Apple Watch taps her wrist to alert her even though CarPlay is already showing the directions onscreen.

And:

While I was pretty sure that there was an easy way to turn off those alerts altogether, I felt like they could still be useful sometimes, so disabling them entirely seemed like it might be throwing the baby out with the bath water. But, lo and behold, Apple has—at some point in the past—improved its options, and you can now disable the alerts on a granular basis, depending on what kind of directions you’re using.

If you use Apple Maps and wear an Apple Watch, take a read for the setting changes. Worth knowing about.

Solid walkthrough/explainer on the Apple Watch Series 6 blood oxygen monitoring mechanics. Read the comments on the post, too.

Side note: I’ve got a woven Solo Loop band, and I’ve found both blood ox and ECG to work flawlessly, even though my band is a bit loose-fitting (my preference).

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

Apple appears to have been planning to introduce country-specific Apple Watch bands for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but with the games postponed until 2021 due to the global health crisis, they have yet to be released.

To get a sense of Apple’s past efforts here, follow this link to the bands Apple pulled together for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Will we have games in 2021? If so, seems likely we’ll see another rollout of summer games bands.

John Gruber:

A few people have wondered why Apple doesn’t just map fluoroelastomer Sport Band sizes to Solo Loop sizes. I can see why Apple doesn’t do that — they can’t assume everyone already has access to an Apple Watch with a Sport Band, and even for people who do have access to one, Apple can’t assume it’s the right size watch (38/40mm vs. 42/44mm). And to further complicate matters, each Sport Band comes with two sizes for the side with the holes: “S/M” and “M/L”. So that’s four separate mappings from Sport Band holes to the new Solo Loop sizes. That’s complicated. But it’s no longer a safe assumption that everyone has access to a printer, either, so let’s figure out the mappings here.

Great community contribution from John. And this Daring Fireball post is a bit of a collector’s item, with the ultra-rare embedded graphics, well composed and useful.

To me, this whole Solo band sizing kerfuffle is a bit of a mess. Ideally, Apple would have created a simple tool mapping your choice of bands (assuming you already own an Apple Watch) to a sizing recommendation, based on how you wear your watch now. Harder with some bands, but certainly doable with the Sport Band.

But I do get that rolling out an interface is harder than it might look.

That said, one thing I think Apple should absolutely address is the mixed messaging on Solo band returns. There’s a prominent report claiming that if your Solo band doesn’t fit, you have to return both the band and the watch. Even worse, you have to go to the back of the line to order a new one. Yechh.

Today, rumors have been flying around from folks who called Apple or visited Apple Stores asking about this policy. Some were told they could return their band, sans watch, no problem. Others were told they had to return both the watch and the band.

Unnecessary mess of mixed messages. I hope Apple sends out a clarifying, definitive policy message. And soon.

Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:

Face ID is normally a completely seamless way to unlock an iPhone and iPad: just swipe up and it unlocks automatically. At a time when we’re frequently wearing masks, however, it’s rather less seamless.

So we’d like to see Apple allow an unlocked Apple Watch to automatically unlock an iPhone and iPad

Tricky to implement. If someone grabs your phone, they’d be able to unlock it just by being near you.

That said, the core premise strikes me, I’d add it to the pile of ideas on ways to unlock your iPhone with a mask on your face. I’d love to see Apple add Touch ID back in to a future iPhone, whether under screen or as an iPad Air-like layer on the power button.