First look: Apple Watch companion app debuts in iOS 8.2 with unique camera pairing method
With the release of iOS 8.2 on Monday, countless iPhones have been upgraded with compatibility for the forthcoming Apple Watch. Here's a closer look at the new Apple Watch companion app.
Upon launching the app, users are presented with a greeting depending on the time of day in the "My Watch" menu. Images of the Apple Watch are shown above a "Start Pairing" button, or users can access a quick link to the Apple Store to learn more about the device.
Interestingly, the Apple Watch appears to have a convenient camera-based pairing method. By default, the application asks users to hold their Apple Watch up to their iPhone's camera and align it with a viewfinder shown on the screen.
For those who don't want to use the camera-based method, Apple also offers a manual pairing mode. This requires users to tap the "i" icon on their Apple Watch to view its name, and then manually enter the name into the app.
Of course, with the Apple Watch hardware not available to the public until April 24, the pairing mode cannot be tested yet.
The application also includes an "Explore" menu, which features three videos showcasing the Apple Watch. The videos are entitled "Reveal," "Introducing Apple Watch," and "Health and Fitness."
The third and final menu in the Apple Watch app is the App Store. This is where users will download and install Apple Watch applications on their iPhone, which are then automatically pushed to the wrist-worn device.
Since the hardware is not yet available, the App Store is not yet online. Apple has simply included a page with a picture of the Watch, noting that preorders begin April 10.
The app also states that the new App Store, which has been built "just for the Apple Watch," is "coming soon."
iOS 8.2 is now available to download through the Software Update option in the iPhone's settings application, and it can also be installed when connected to a Mac or PC through iTunes.
Upon launching the app, users are presented with a greeting depending on the time of day in the "My Watch" menu. Images of the Apple Watch are shown above a "Start Pairing" button, or users can access a quick link to the Apple Store to learn more about the device.
Interestingly, the Apple Watch appears to have a convenient camera-based pairing method. By default, the application asks users to hold their Apple Watch up to their iPhone's camera and align it with a viewfinder shown on the screen.
For those who don't want to use the camera-based method, Apple also offers a manual pairing mode. This requires users to tap the "i" icon on their Apple Watch to view its name, and then manually enter the name into the app.
Of course, with the Apple Watch hardware not available to the public until April 24, the pairing mode cannot be tested yet.
The application also includes an "Explore" menu, which features three videos showcasing the Apple Watch. The videos are entitled "Reveal," "Introducing Apple Watch," and "Health and Fitness."
The third and final menu in the Apple Watch app is the App Store. This is where users will download and install Apple Watch applications on their iPhone, which are then automatically pushed to the wrist-worn device.
Since the hardware is not yet available, the App Store is not yet online. Apple has simply included a page with a picture of the Watch, noting that preorders begin April 10.
The app also states that the new App Store, which has been built "just for the Apple Watch," is "coming soon."
iOS 8.2 is now available to download through the Software Update option in the iPhone's settings application, and it can also be installed when connected to a Mac or PC through iTunes.
Comments
That dark screen makes me wonder if we'll finally get night/dark mode on iOS. I would love that.
Seems more likely that they are differentiating the Watch brand from the iPhone brand with dark/light respectively, taking advantage of the OLED display on the Watches, which work great with black backgrounds. Notice all of the heavy use of bright, non-rectangular graphics on black backgrounds for the Watch UI, which works well with the OLED and black edges of the watch to create a feeling of a larger edge-to-edge screen than what is really possible here. Very few screens in the UI are shown with full-screen solid fills of color, which make the watch screen seem small.
Follow-up point: notice how when you scroll around the home screen on the Watch, the app icons don't slide up to the edge of the screen to be "cut in half" as they scroll off screen. Instead, they shrink down to nothing before they leave the screen. This helps the screen feel larger, because you don't notice the edge so much. Same concept as the lack of solid fills of color on the screen. Rectangular UI on the watch will be non-existent, on purpose.
Ok well I want OLED on my iPhone then. I've had enough of the bright white backgrounds, especially now that I've seen the watch (and people who have seen it hands on rave about the display).
Does iOS 8.2 fix the daily rebooting issue?
What daily rebooting issue? I can county on one hand the number of times any of my iOS6 devices have spontaneously rebooted (one hand per device) since I got the devices (6/6+) or installed iOS8 on them (several 5/5S/5C/4S). Please explain.
I'm getting more excited for this latest addition to the Apple family of products. Cool!
Like most Apple products, seeing them in person and actually using them gives people that extra push to actually buy because they are so smartly designed.
If I remember correctly, OLED displays don't keep their color balance as well as the LED-based kind in the iDevices. Since the ?Watch isn't designed to be used as frequently as iDevice displays the issue of tight color balance is made moot.
So I don't plan or intend on getting an Apple Watch for the foreseeable future. Am I able to delete this app or is this just another in a line of stock apps that I have little or no use for?
So I don't plan or intend on getting an Apple Watch for the foreseeable future. Am I able to delete this app or is this just another in a line of stock apps that I have little or no use for?
The latter.
I have a folder called "Apple" where I shove all the unused preloaded apps.
Not a big deal.
Does iOS 8.2 fix the daily rebooting issue?
What daily rebooting issue? I can county on one hand the number of times any of my iOS6 devices have spontaneously rebooted (one hand per device) since I got the devices (6/6+) or installed iOS8 on them (several 5/5S/5C/4S). Please explain.
I had that problem which I tolerated for a few months on my iPad 3 64GB 3G. I must confess that I kept it pretty full with a few hundred apps neatly tucked into 3 pages worth of folders, lots of photos and music, it would go down to 1-2 GB available before I would free up 2 GB, only to let it creep back up again.
It would crash and freeze completely on a daily basis out of nowhere with no particular pattern. I would have to do a cold reset with Wake and Home button. After a month those resets would take up to 15 minutes before I could use it, where the Apple logo stayed on for about 11-12 minutes, disappear for a bit, come back again like a normal restart for a minute or so. I was even starting to get concerned that I would have screen burn from the Apple logo. The last straw was when it would only survive for a few minutes before crashing again. I thought it was done with some hardware issue like RAM or SSD.
I finally had to bite the bullet and restore the iPad completely, I didn't even want to risk a restore from backup to not reload whatever junk that may have caused the problem. After the complete restore, I loaded only a few dozen apps and never had any issues afterwards. I'm guessing it was all those incremental updates through the years from the original iOS 4.0 in early 2011 to iOS 8.1. Now it feels like a brand new device, although Real Racing 3 still crashes on a daily basis, especially if other apps are still open, but the iPad has not crashed since.
My rebooting is nothing like as bad as your experience.
It never happened until iOS 8. It now happens regularly on my iPhone 5, and I've had it happen perhaps once or twice on my iPad Air 2. Bad Apple.
Does iOS 8.2 fix the daily rebooting issue?
What daily rebooting issue? I can county on one hand the number of times any of my iOS6 devices have spontaneously rebooted (one hand per device) since I got the devices (6/6+) or installed iOS8 on them (several 5/5S/5C/4S). Please explain.
I had that problem which I tolerated for a few months on my iPad 3 64GB 3G. I must confess that I kept it pretty full with a few hundred apps neatly tucked into 3 pages worth of folders, lots of photos and music, it would go down to 1-2 GB available before I would free up 2 GB, only to let it creep back up again.
It would crash and freeze completely on a daily basis out of nowhere with no particular pattern. I would have to do a cold reset with Wake and Home button. After a month those resets would take up to 15 minutes before I could use it, where the Apple logo stayed on for about 11-12 minutes, disappear for a bit, come back again like a normal restart for a minute or so. I was even starting to get concerned that I would have screen burn from the Apple logo. The last straw was when it would only survive for a few minutes before crashing again. I thought it was done with some hardware issue like RAM or SSD.
I finally had to bite the bullet and restore the iPad completely, I didn't even want to risk a restore from backup to not reload whatever junk that may have caused the problem. After the complete restore, I loaded only a few dozen apps and never had any issues afterwards. I'm guessing it was all those incremental updates through the years from the original iOS 4.0 in early 2011 to iOS 8.1. Now it feels like a brand new device, although Real Racing 3 still crashes on a daily basis, especially if other apps are still open, but the iPad has not crashed since.
My rebooting is nothing like as bad as your experience.
It never happened until iOS 8. It now happens regularly on my iPhone 5, and I've had it happen perhaps once or twice on my iPad Air 2. Bad Apple.
My crashes started at iOS 8 as well.
Don't have that issue. Is yours broken?
Ok well I want OLED on my iPhone then. I've had enough of the bright white backgrounds, especially now that I've seen the watch (and people who have seen it hands on rave about the display).
Until recently at least, OLED screens have had terrible color reproduction with inaccurate, oversaturated colors and a greenish tint that makes skin tones look terrible. (See Samsung phones)
Apple's use of OLED on the Watch suggests that either they've found a solution to this problem or they've accepted it as an reasonable tradeoff for battery life and text visibility on the Watch's tiny screen.
I had a rebooting issue with IOS7 and ended up doing a full restore which resolved it. I've been told that the incremental updates end up cluttering IOS over longer periods. Seems that the restore process puts the version of IOS on the phone that was backed up but without the incremental updates.
Does iOS 8.2 fix the daily rebooting issue?
Don't have that issue. Is yours broken?
Since iOS 8, yes.