During the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2015 that took place last June in San Francisco, Apple previewed updates for all of its major operating systems — watchOS included. The company hinted that watchOS 2 is coming this Fall. However, the news was overshadowed by several major leaks, including those that concerns the 9 September launch of iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus and updates on iOS 9. Apple also announced that the upgrade to its smartwatch operating system will be released on 16 September.
To provide some guide on what watchOS 2 is and how it can affect major Apple products, Serenity Caldwell of iMore.com came up with a practical list of Frequently asked Questions (FAQs) for Apple Watch users :
What's watchOS?
As OS X is to the Mac, and iOS is to the iPhone and iPad, watch OS is to the Apple Watch. It's the operating system and underlying software responsible for showcasing your clock face, powering notifications, launching and running apps, and pretty much everything you do on the Watch.
iOS 9. OS X. Why is watchOS lower-case without a space?
Same reason iOS has a lowercase i without a space?
"This fall"? Do we have a specific launch date?
Apple, being Apple, is rather coy when it comes to specific launch dates for its fall operating systems. The next event is September 9, though, so if Apple sticks to the same pattern the company has been using for iOS—and watchOS is intimately linked to iOS—we should see a gold master (GM) for developers that day and general availability (GA) for everyone the following week.
We usually get new iPhones with a new version of iOS. Are we going to get new Apple Watches with watchOS 2?
Nope. Apple rarely revs the same product twice in one year, the third-to-fourth-generation iPad being one of very few exceptions. Expect to see new hardware sometime next year at the earliest.
So I hear there are some new clock face options?
Correct! In watchOS 2, you'll see the return of clock face options shown off briefly at the original Apple Watch event: Timelapse, Photo, and Photo Album.
Sadly, they seem to be limited to displaying the time; if you want additional complications in the fall with watchOS 2, you'll probably want to stick with one of the other clock faces.
Timelapse offers you a 24 hour timelapse of five locations around the world: Hong Kong, China; London, England; Mack Lake, Michigan; New York City, New York; and Shanghai, China. You just pick the timelapse you want, and it displays when you raise your wrist or turn on the watch.
Photo lets you pick a specific image from the Photos app to display whenever you enable your watch, while Photo Album rotates through all images from your Apple Watch-synced album—you'll see a different picture every time you raise your wrist.
What else is new on the clock face?
Not only are there new clock faces coming in watchOS 2, but you'll also be able to add custom third-party complications to your existing clock faces. With these complications, you'll be able to check your flight info or step count without launching Glances or the app itself.
If your watch is charging on its side, you'll also get the new Nightstand mode in watchOS 2; this lets you view the time and set/silence alarms without having to squint sideways to try and read your clock face.
And let's not forget my favorite new clock face feature: TIME TRAVEL.
Hold up, my watch can travel through time?!
Well, sort of! In watchOS 1, you could turn the Digital Crown when you were on the Solar or Astronomy clock faces to move through days, weeks, and months as shown by the Sun, Moon, Earth, or Solar System.
With watchOS 2, Apple has made this perk a bit more functional: On any clock face that features complications, spinning the Digital Crown will let you rewind or fast-forward through the previous or next 48 hours to see what's happened—and what you still have in store.
This will even work for third-party complications, so you can see if your electric car will be charged in time to drive it to the airport for an upcoming flight, for example. Apple also uses news headlines as an example — you can turn the Digital Crown counter-clockwise to catch up on complication headlines you might have missed. And when you're done time traveling, just press the Digital Crown to return to the current time.
Time Travel works on the concept of a timeline, which means the app powering the complication provides a list of events for the clock face to show. If you try to go back further than the timeline allows, the complication will cease changing and fade to gray.
Also, as mentioned during the keynote, Time Travel won't work with the stock complication, because science.
To provide some guide on what watchOS 2 is and how it can affect major Apple products, Serenity Caldwell of iMore.com came up with a practical list of Frequently asked Questions (FAQs) for Apple Watch users :
What's watchOS?
As OS X is to the Mac, and iOS is to the iPhone and iPad, watch OS is to the Apple Watch. It's the operating system and underlying software responsible for showcasing your clock face, powering notifications, launching and running apps, and pretty much everything you do on the Watch.
iOS 9. OS X. Why is watchOS lower-case without a space?
Same reason iOS has a lowercase i without a space?
"This fall"? Do we have a specific launch date?
Apple, being Apple, is rather coy when it comes to specific launch dates for its fall operating systems. The next event is September 9, though, so if Apple sticks to the same pattern the company has been using for iOS—and watchOS is intimately linked to iOS—we should see a gold master (GM) for developers that day and general availability (GA) for everyone the following week.
We usually get new iPhones with a new version of iOS. Are we going to get new Apple Watches with watchOS 2?
Nope. Apple rarely revs the same product twice in one year, the third-to-fourth-generation iPad being one of very few exceptions. Expect to see new hardware sometime next year at the earliest.
So I hear there are some new clock face options?
Correct! In watchOS 2, you'll see the return of clock face options shown off briefly at the original Apple Watch event: Timelapse, Photo, and Photo Album.
Sadly, they seem to be limited to displaying the time; if you want additional complications in the fall with watchOS 2, you'll probably want to stick with one of the other clock faces.
Timelapse offers you a 24 hour timelapse of five locations around the world: Hong Kong, China; London, England; Mack Lake, Michigan; New York City, New York; and Shanghai, China. You just pick the timelapse you want, and it displays when you raise your wrist or turn on the watch.
Photo lets you pick a specific image from the Photos app to display whenever you enable your watch, while Photo Album rotates through all images from your Apple Watch-synced album—you'll see a different picture every time you raise your wrist.
What else is new on the clock face?
Not only are there new clock faces coming in watchOS 2, but you'll also be able to add custom third-party complications to your existing clock faces. With these complications, you'll be able to check your flight info or step count without launching Glances or the app itself.
If your watch is charging on its side, you'll also get the new Nightstand mode in watchOS 2; this lets you view the time and set/silence alarms without having to squint sideways to try and read your clock face.
And let's not forget my favorite new clock face feature: TIME TRAVEL.
Hold up, my watch can travel through time?!
Well, sort of! In watchOS 1, you could turn the Digital Crown when you were on the Solar or Astronomy clock faces to move through days, weeks, and months as shown by the Sun, Moon, Earth, or Solar System.
With watchOS 2, Apple has made this perk a bit more functional: On any clock face that features complications, spinning the Digital Crown will let you rewind or fast-forward through the previous or next 48 hours to see what's happened—and what you still have in store.
This will even work for third-party complications, so you can see if your electric car will be charged in time to drive it to the airport for an upcoming flight, for example. Apple also uses news headlines as an example — you can turn the Digital Crown counter-clockwise to catch up on complication headlines you might have missed. And when you're done time traveling, just press the Digital Crown to return to the current time.
Time Travel works on the concept of a timeline, which means the app powering the complication provides a list of events for the clock face to show. If you try to go back further than the timeline allows, the complication will cease changing and fade to gray.
Also, as mentioned during the keynote, Time Travel won't work with the stock complication, because science.
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