watchOS 10 will introduce an all-new system of widgets for interacting with the Apple Watch, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
In the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman explained that widgets will become a "central part" of the Apple Watch's interface with watchOS 10. He compared the new system to Glances, the widgets interface that launched on the original Apple Watch before being scrapped within a few years, and the style of widgets that iOS 14 brought to the iPhone.
The new interface will apparently be "reminiscent" of the Siri watch face that was introduced in watchOS 4, but as an overlay for any Apple Watch face. "It's also similar to widget stacks, a feature in iOS and iPadOS that lets users pile many widgets into one and scroll through them," Gurman added.
The plan is to let users scroll through a series of different widgets — for activity tracking, weather, stock tickers, calendar appointments and more — rather than having them launch apps.
Apple is also apparently testing changes to the functions performed by the Apple Watch's buttons. For example, a press of the Digital Crown may now launch the new widgets view, rather than navigate to the home screen.
Gurman believes that the move is an admission that an iPhone-like app experience "doesn't always make sense on a watch" since "Apple Watch apps have barely caught on." Due to being a radical departure from the app-centric experience existing Apple Watch users are used to, Apple may make the new interface optional.
The changes are part of what Gurman claims will be one of the Apple Watch's biggest software updates since its introduction and the most significant change to the Apple Watch this year, as only minor hardware updates are expected to be unveiled later this year.
Monday December 16, 2024 10:06 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after Apple released iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2.
iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software update.
There's no word yet on what's included in iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3, ...
Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by Joe Rossignol
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year.
Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie.
The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...
Tuesday December 17, 2024 6:25 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple on Monday seeded the first tvOS 18.3 beta to developers for testing. The update will likely be released in January. So far, there are only minor changes for the Apple TV, with one new feature and a few code changes discovered.
Below, we outline what is new in tvOS 18.3 so far.
Robot Vacuum Support in Home App
First, tvOS 18.3 will add robot vacuum support to the Home app on the...
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital."
In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by Juli Clover
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag.
Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
I'd just be happy if Apple would open up a watch face store where devs could submit their own watch faces based on some parameters that Apple set. There are so many cool faces that would come out of that. Maybe one day.
The Siri watch face introduced in watchOS 4.
