Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming watchOS 3.1.3 update to developers for testing purposes, more than a week after watchOS 3.1.1 was released and three months after the launch of watchOS 3.
watchOS 3.1.3 can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General > Software Update. To install the update, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it must be in range of the iPhone. watchOS 3.1.3 requires an iPhone running iOS 10 to install.
We don't know yet what new features or bug fixes might be included in the watchOS 3.1.3 update, but we'll update this post with any new discoveries. watchOS betas are often rather minor in scale, focusing on small bug fixes and performance improvements rather than major interface changes.
The watchOS 3.1.3 beta comes shortly after Apple pulled the watchOS 3.1.1 release after it was found to be bricking some Apple Watch Series 2 devices. Apple has not re-released an updated version of watchOS 3.1.1 that fixes the bug, so many users are still running watchOS 3.1.
Thursday January 23, 2025 6:41 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones.
Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3.
Notification Summary Changes
Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries
Apple Intelligence...
Friday January 24, 2025 1:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes.
While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...
Friday January 24, 2025 8:16 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 is expected to be widely released next week, and that means the first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner.
Apple has previously implied that iOS 18.4 will be released in April, as that is when it promised to make Apple Intelligence available in even more languages.
Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far.
Apple Intelligence for Siri
Siri ...
Thursday January 23, 2025 7:32 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today.
A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
Wednesday January 22, 2025 6:01 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device.
The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
Tuesday January 21, 2025 4:31 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes.
The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
Friday January 24, 2025 9:09 am PST by Juli Clover
The upcoming iPhone 17 models that Apple plans to release this year will not feature a smaller Dynamic Island, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today.
On social media, he said that he is expecting the size of the Dynamic Island to remain "largely unchanged" across the iPhone 17 lineup. His statement is contrary to prior rumors that we've heard about planned changes for the iPhone 17 models.
...
Saturday January 25, 2025 5:07 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's retail stores will be rolling out "merchandise/floor marketing updates" next week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman did not explicitly say if the store updates are related to any upcoming product announcements, but he did mention that next week is around the time that Apple rolls out its annual Black Unity watch band for the Apple Watch.
In each of the past four years, ...
Thursday January 23, 2025 2:48 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
It's also time for Apple's first product announcement of the year.
Last year, Apple said it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and the wireless earbuds are expected to launch very soon.
Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code
In his Power On newsletter last weekend, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the...
I found a solution to your (and my) problem, in case you haven't found one yet.
1. Delete the already downloaded watchOS update in the Watch app (if you haven't done so already). 2. Force restart your iPhone (hold power- and home-button until the Apple logo appears). 3. Force restart your Watch (hold side button and crown until Apple logo appears).
Now, after both devices are powered back up, you should be able to install the app-updates from the Watch app on your phone. Strangely, already updated iPhone apps with Watch apps were not pending automatically for installation - I had to manually start the update/reinstall process.
Although I am on a first day update the HW with the iPhone and the Macs, I do have concerns regarding Apple Watch. I stopped installing Betas on any device, too many problems, too much battery consumption and so on.
However the Watch - sacred me when I realised that Apple issues an update, it bricks your device and if it's not under Apple Care - you have to pay for their mistake....
No. They did not and never have charged for firmware flashes, especially when the update is what caused it.
I'm hoping Apple release this (or at least a fixed version of 3.1.1) very soon. I downloaded 3.1.1 and left it to update overnight. When I got up the next morning there was a message on my iPhone saying it couldn't install because I didn't have an internet connection. Of course the real reason was that Apple had pulled the release.
However this means I can no longer install apps on my watch. When I try it says something along the lines of "cannot install app because an OS update is in progress". This wouldn't be the end of the world but apps that are already installed on the watch that have been updated on the iPhone also can't be installed. Therefore even though the app is on the watch my iPhone doesn't think that app is installed on the watch and won't communicate with it. I have a couple of apps that I use very often (Hole 19 & Dark Sky) that I currently cannot use on the watch. I've deleted the 3.1.1 download from the watch and rebooted it but I still can't install or update apps on my watch. I could restore the watch from a backup to see if that solves it but then I would have to set up Apple Pay again and the whole process takes ages.
It's really annoying not to be able to use the watch (especially Hole 19 which I use whenever I play golf - which will be several times next week).
Part way through the install on a Series 0, no problem so far. One thing I've noticed (and never seen before) when the progress "ticks" are making their way round the dial, the last mark turns on an off about once a second.
