On Monday, Apple revealed its plans for the next iteration of the Apple Watch software and it could change everything. To be clear, this was about the software running on the watch, not any new hardware, but it may be enough to change from a marginally useful gadget to an indispensable part of a workflow.
Jason Snell writes at Six Colors that Apple was perhaps too conservative in the first two iterations of the watchOS, obsessing about battery life to the detriment of usability. So now, they're taking advantage of the performance they left on the table to soup it up some. And then they're admitting where their original plans missed the mark and changing the device to suit how people have actually used it over the past (is it just?) one year.
The big downer for me was how long it took to do simple things. As far as I could see, it was often faster to take the phone from your pocket, unlock it, and launch an app than it was to do the same task on the Watch. Now, it should be instantaneous.
One of the big demos for me at Apple's presentation was the ability to lock and unlock your Mac with no passcode, as long as you're wearing your watch. Finally! Long and secure passwords for your Mac!
There are rumors of new Watch hardware around Christmas. If the promises bear out, the old hardware will seem like new hardware when the new OS drops sometime around September.
What I really like is that they were willing to rethink the UI and not just double-down on it. That gets my respect. There is nothing I don’t like about the redesign.
I’ve been using the watch for a year come Father’s Day and while I am very glad I did so, I can even more appreciate the changes. One of the main things I wanted was more complications on faces and especially for the custom graphic face. But now being able to just swipe faces, it doesn’t matter as much. Much more natural than force press and swipe.
Replacing the side button functionality is excellent and having an actual app dock you can swipe. While I could navigate the honeycomb thing, it was frustrating. Before the only time I used the side button was for Apple Pay.
Plus of course faster loading will be great. There were third party apps I did use a lot – especially Overcast. I mostly opened apps and the workout via Siri. I can hardly wait, but while I have a developer account – I will be waiting a month or two before I put it on my iPhone. I did though install iOS 10 on my iPad Pro 13″ and only have problem with one app. Otherwise I am liking the changes there.