Inside watchOS 3: Apple Watch gets more familiar with dedicated dock button

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  • Reply 21 of 41
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    So with the side button, it's one click for Dock, two clicks for Apple Pay & press and hold for SOS, correct? Where's the Lock and Power menu going then? Relegated to Settings I guess? Just curious.

    ---

    Yes, press and hold the side button to call 911.  The way it works is it brings up this screen and counts down three seconds before calling.  Any time during those three seconds if you tap anywhere on the display, it halts the emergency Call process, which you may swipe the item to resume.  Leaving you with the Power Off and Medical ID options.  I sure hope there aren't a lot of unintentional calls to emergency services by those just trying to power down their watch.


    edited June 2016 patchythepirate
  • Reply 22 of 41
    focherfocher Posts: 687member
    mubaili said:
    the first time since I owned the Apple Watch it ran out of battery in 4 pm after I installed the watchOS 3. before watchOS 3, the battery would normally be around 60% level at 4 pm. I am worried.
    It's Apple punishing you for installing a Release 1 Beta when you likely aren't using the device for development and testing. Or perhaps it's just the nature of the beast.
  • Reply 23 of 41
    mubaili said:
    the first time since I owned the Apple Watch it ran out of battery in 4 pm after I installed the watchOS 3. before watchOS 3, the battery would normally be around 60% level at 4 pm. I am worried.
    1. Beta OS? 2. Beta. Don't run beta on things you use for real. 3. Its Apples way of nudging you towards AppleWatch2. ;)
  • Reply 24 of 41
    19831983 Posts: 1,225member
    I get what Apple was trying to do with the first versions of watchOS, they were nice concepts just not very practical or intuitive. watchOS 3.0 seems to be a very good rethink, and has significantly upped my interest in the Watch. The new OS together with the rumoured 2nd-gen hardware coming this Fall has now made Watch a must have for me now.
    albegarc
  • Reply 25 of 41
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    1983 said:
    I get what Apple was trying to do with the first versions of watchOS, they were nice concepts just not very practical or intuitive. watchOS 3.0 seems to be a very good rethink, and has significantly upped my interest in the Watch. The new OS together with the rumoured 2nd-gen hardware coming this Fall has now made Watch a must have for me now.
    Just curious what you think is more intuitive now than before? The biggest changes with 3.0 are improved app load times and repurposing the side button (which now combines glances with an app switcher). I guess I'm missing something though I never felt the Watch was confusing to use in the first place.
  • Reply 26 of 41
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,358member
    kevin kee said:
     Because honestly, an unlimited 'live' views will stupidly drain the battery.
    If only Apple had people who were smart enough to consider that scenario.
  • Reply 27 of 41
    sog35 said:
    Like this update, especially using the side button for the doc.

    I hope they redesign the home screen next. That thing sucks. The icons are way too small for it to be of any use. They should limit the home screen to 9 Apps and then swipe to the next page for 9 more. Yes that is a lot of swiping, but you can always use your frequent apps in the dock.  Current home screen looks cool but not practical at all.

    100% agree. It's the reason why I rarely use the home screen. 2/3 of the time I spend more time hitting the wrong apps than the right one. So, a redesigned home screen would be great.
  • Reply 28 of 41
    Can anyone with watchOS 3 tell me if you can play podcasts or audiobooks on it without being tethered to a phone, just stored on the watch. Want one for running but only if it can get podcasts and audiobooks, guys in the Apple Store didn't really have an answer for me
  • Reply 29 of 41
    sog35 said:
    sog35 said:
    Like this update, especially using the side button for the doc.

    I hope they redesign the home screen next. That thing sucks. The icons are way too small for it to be of any use. They should limit the home screen to 9 Apps and then swipe to the next page for 9 more. Yes that is a lot of swiping, but you can always use your frequent apps in the dock.  Current home screen looks cool but not practical at all.

    100% agree. It's the reason why I rarely use the home screen. 2/3 of the time I spend more time hitting the wrong apps than the right one. So, a redesigned home screen would be great.
    The 'home screen' should simply be Apps that scroll up and down with the digital crown. And then click the digital crown button to open. With the crown you can quickly scroll the the bottom by spinning faster.

    Simple, easy to understand, and you won't open wrong Apps by mistake



    Sort of like Slide Over on iPad then? I think I'd still stick with tap to select. Re-clicking the crown should return to the watch face. But a customizable home screen that can be set up in the Watch app on iPhone would be nice. Might make the Dock a little redundant though. Even a 6 app grid or so would be nice, like the iPod nano. The the side button could be repurposed or left alone.
  • Reply 30 of 41
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,311member
    So with the side button, it's one click for Dock, two clicks for Apple Pay & press and hold for SOS, correct? Where's the Lock and Power menu going then? Relegated to Settings I guess? Just curious.
    Press and Hold brings up a Menu for Power Off, Medical ID, and Emergency SOS. Things in the Dock and not PAUSED. They can in fact still be running. You can easily see this by doing something like the timer, start that, get out of it, go back to the dock and see it running!!! Apps are also grabbing Data in teh background, like Weather Data, so when you start the app and it starts up right away, it already has the weather data so you're not waiting around for that to load up. This are some of the tricks used to really speed the watch up. The Dock will hold 10 App's at once and you can Lock whatever Apps you want into that Dock. Swiping up you have access to quickly see your battery life, Airplane Mode, Mute, Do not disturb mode, Ping iPhone, LOCK and AirPlay. Swiping Left or right on screen will scroll through different watch faces. Swiping Down you have Notifications. It takes a while to learn all the little things the Apple Watch does. Like learning how to use the iPhone for the first time and I'm sure there's a lot of little things people still don't know the iPhone can do. How many know that when using Apple Maps, that not only do you get turn arrows on your Apple Watch screen, but that it taps you one way for a left hand turn, and different way for a right hand turn! If you learn this you don't have to look at a screen or hear a voice to know when to turn left or right. It's these little things that all add up and make the Apple Watch a great device. As they say Ignorance is Bless. Or You don't know what you're missing until you have it!
  • Reply 31 of 41
    OMG, watchOS 3 is so much better. I am pretty amazed at how well it's performing, and the vastly improved usability of the UI. 

    Well done, Apple. 
    edited September 2016 jbishop1039
  • Reply 32 of 41
    I was pretty skeptical at first with performance boost it would offer. I thought for sure it was being geared toward newer hardware. But I am extremely impressed with the response times for apps and general performance overall. watchOS 3 is a great OS update and most welcome indeed.
  • Reply 33 of 41
    Now they just have to get rid of that second button. Single-click on the round button brings up the App view, double-click on the round button brings up the Dock view. Long press brings up Apple Pay.That's all that's needed (the current function of double-clicking to bring the last used App is futile).

    Having two buttons is, in my view,  a major aesthetic oddity. 
  • Reply 34 of 41
    I miss screenshots, time travel, user definable colours for nightstand mode. And in the iOS watch companion app I still see glances. Strange. 
  • Reply 35 of 41
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,358member
    You can turn Screen Shots and Time Travel on in the General and Clock menus, respectively, in the Watch App. I didn't see anything about changing the colors of the Night Stand mode.


    edited September 2016 ai46caladanian
  • Reply 36 of 41
    sflagel said:
    Now they just have to get rid of that second button. Single-click on the round button brings up the App view, double-click on the round button brings up the Dock view. Long press brings up Apple Pay.That's all that's needed (the current function of double-clicking to bring the last used App is futile).

    Having two buttons is, in my view,  a major aesthetic oddity. 
    I like the two buttons. But would suggest double click crown to open a carousel like iPhone. Although a full replication of iPhone home/power buttons is probably not desirable, this small change would be more consistent. 

    I don't like the changes to weather app.  new tap center to get 10 day forecast could have been handled with a complication in corner of screen. Would have much rather tapped there as before to switch between the 3 info modes. Changing to force touch now takes two taps not one and takes more time.

    this was a retrograde change. 
  • Reply 37 of 41
    So with the side button, it's one click for Dock, two clicks for Apple Pay & press and hold for SOS, correct? Where's the Lock and Power menu going then? Relegated to Settings I guess? Just curious.

    ---

    Yes, press and hold the side button to call 911.  The way it works is it brings up this screen and counts down three seconds before calling.  Any time during those three seconds if you tap anywhere on the display, it halts the emergency Call process, which you may swipe the item to resume.  Leaving you with the Power Off and Medical ID options.  I sure hope there aren't a lot of unintentional calls to emergency services by those just trying to power down their watch.


    To add, in the Watch app on iPhone, go to Settings and then look for Emergency SOS. In that sub-menu, you can disable "Hold to Auto Call." Doing this, when you hold down the side button, Apple Watch will not automatically dial 911 (or whichever emergency number your country uses). Instead, it brings up the screenshot here where you can power off the Watch.
    ai46
  • Reply 38 of 41
    mubaili said:
    the first time since I owned the Apple Watch it ran out of battery in 4 pm after I installed the watchOS 3. before watchOS 3, the battery would normally be around 60% level at 4 pm. I am worried.
    Just revert then. See, solved.
    Also, that seems very very unlikely; 60% more usage from a OS update... Sure.
    edited September 2016
  • Reply 39 of 41
    macgui said:
    You can turn Screen Shots and Time Travel on in the General and Clock menus, respectively, in the Watch App. I didn't see anything about changing the colors of the Night Stand mode.


    That's really strange: I cannot find these settings in my watch companion app >settings>general. And I still see "glances" there. It seams my companion app got somehow stuck to the old version after updating to iOS 10 (got my 6s "bricked" and had to continue the update on iTunes). I will check the settings when I get my iPhone 7 plus, soon. 

    Edit: I just unpaired the watch, deleted the watch companion app, reinstalled the companion app, paired the watch again, restored the automatically taken watch backup and now everything is fine: I have the NEW companion app now. :D ...it really has been a problem of the update. 
    edited September 2016
  • Reply 40 of 41
    The dock apparently freezes apps that we don't necessarily want to freeze. I tried to use the Dock to switch between a pair of exercise apps but it keeps freezing the exercise app when I leave it in the Dock. Touch control of play/pause Finish buttons in Runtastic Pro doesn't work.
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