MacRumors

While the wait continues for Apple Watch pre-orders to be processed and prepared for shipment, it is worth a reminder that the wrist-worn device has the same standard 14-day return policy as other Apple products such as the iPhone, iPad and Mac. Apple Watch Edition models can only be returned if they are determined to be in original condition after passing inspection at an offsite Apple facility.

The 14-day return policy applies to the date that the customer receives the Apple Watch, meaning that those who pre-ordered the device can rest assured that they will have a full two weeks to test the smartwatch before having to return it. Apple Watch pre-orders made online can be shipped back to Apple or brought to an Apple Store in the same country of purchase for a refund in the original form of tender.

A growing number of users have turned to the MacRumors forums to discuss about their Apple Watch pre-orders, with the conversation divided into three threads based on shipping estimates of 4/24—5/8, 4-6 weeks or June. Given that Apple Watch supply appears to be limited, it remains unknown how many customers will have their pre-order fulfilled by launch day on April 24. Choose your thread and share what you think.

Forum Discussion Threads

1. 4/24—5/8 Delivery Estimate Discussion
2. 4-6 Weeks (May 13—27) Delivery Estimate Discussion
3. June Delivery Estimate Discussion

Apple Watch pre-orders began on April 10 at 12:01 AM Pacific in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and United Kingdom, and completely sold out in less than six hours on the U.S. storefront. While some early customers received a shipping estimate of 4/24—5/8 for certain Apple Watch models, many others were given a delivery estimate of 4-6 weeks or June.

Adonit recently announced the launch of a new version of its popular Bluetooth-enabled Jot Script stylus, featuring a rechargeable battery, a revamped body, and iPad Air 2 support. When Adonit asked if we'd like to review the new stylus, we jumped at the chance because our last stylus review covering the Adonit Jot Pro and Jot Mini was popular with MacRumors readers.

The Jot Script 2 Evernote Edition is one of Adonit's higher-end styluses, connecting to an iPhone or iPad over Bluetooth. It's a digital stylus, so it's able to offer the accuracy of a regular rubber-tipped stylus with a tip that's only 1.9mm, giving it a pen-like feel.

Adonit's Jot Script 2 improves upon the original Jot Script with a redesigned slimmer body that has a better grip, an upgraded Pixelpoint tip, and longer battery life. It's been launched in partnership with Evernote, so it works with Evernote's Penultimate app, and it comes with six months of Evernote's premium service.

Apple introduced new display technology with the iPad Air 2, breaking a lot of digital styluses, including Adonit's previous Jot Script. Older styluses don't work as well with the iPad Air 2, resulting in a lot of missing contact. The Jot Script 2 is one of the first styluses that works well with Apple's newest tablet.

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With the launch of OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite, Apple released its much-anticipated Photos app, which was first announced during its Worldwide Developers Conference in 2014. The Photos for OS X app took several months to complete because it was designed from the ground up to work with OS X Yosemite and integrate with both the Photos for iOS app and iCloud Photo Library.

Because Photos for OS X replaces both of Apple's existing photo apps, Aperture and iPhoto, you're going to need to migrate your Aperture and iPhoto libraries into the new Photos app if you want to be able to use Apple's latest and greatest photo editing tools with your images.

The migration from iPhoto or Aperture to Photos actually happens automatically if you only have one library in your Pictures folder. However, you may have more than one photo library on your Mac if you've split your iPhoto library up or if you use both iPhoto and Aperture, which makes things a little more difficult. You may need some help figuring out how to manually migrate additional libraries, so we've created a handy guide to explain how to get those other libraries into Photos quickly and easily.

One quick note: Before you migrate all of your existing photos into Photos for OS X, make sure you have enough iCloud storage space if you want to take advantage of iCloud Photo Library, which syncs your images across al of your devices. With iCloud Photo Library turned on in the Photos app, all of your images will be uploaded to the cloud, which does eat up your iCloud storage space. You can use Photos without iCloud Photo Library -- just make sure you turn it off in the Preferences menu.

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Google today released a significant update to its Chrome browser for iOS, adding several features to improve its compatibility with iOS 8. There's a new Notification Center widget that includes controls to let users launch a new tab or initiate a voice search directly from the Today view of the Notification Center.

Tapping on "New Tab" or on "Voice Search" will automatically launch the Chrome web browser with a new search tab open or an activated voice search, making it handier to look things up quickly. There's no comparable Safari widget for quick launching searches, so the new Chrome widget gives it a bit of a leg up over Apple's built-in browser. Safari users can, however, use Siri for quick searches.

The app also includes support for iOS Extensions for apps like 1Password and LastPass, so it's now easier to input passwords into Chrome with those apps.

Other new features include the ability to pull to reload and open and close tabs and easier-to-open links copied from other apps.

What's new
- Start searching and browsing faster: quick access to Voice Search and open new tabs from the Today View
- Ergonomically-designed: Pull to reload and open/close tabs
- Support for iOS App Extensions, such as 1Password and LastPass
- Easily open links copied from other apps

The Chrome web browser can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

While the Apple Watch is marketed as "the most advanced timepiece ever created, a revolutionary new way to connect with others, and a comprehensive health and fitness companion," the wrist-worn device has a number of other use cases that should prove convenient for many day-to-day tasks. The apps and accessories below, for example, will turn the Apple Watch into a remote control for controlling a TV from your wrist.

SamMote for Apple Watch

SamMote was recently updated to allow Apple Watch users to control supported Samsung TVs using their wrist. The third-party app, created by developer Eric Degrange and noted by A-Watch.fr, is compatible with most Samsung Smart TVs manufactured between 2011 and 2014 (Series D through Series H models). SamMote is free on the App Store [Direct Link] and also supports iPhone and iPad, so it is worth testing the remote control app works with your own Samsung television.

Roomie Remote for Apple Watch

Roomie Remote is a Wi-Fi-based universal remote app for home theater and automation that controls thousands of devices like TVs, cable and satellite boxes, receivers, Blu-ray players, lights and thermostats. The app also allows you to control Apple TV. iPhone and iPad versions of the app have been available since February 2012, and earlier this week the app was updated with Apple Watch support as well. Roomie Remote works with a wide variety of devices, but is $9.99 on the App Store [Direct Link] and may require additional in-app purchases depending on what devices you want to control.

Pronto for Apple Watch

Pronto is a 360-degree infrared remote receiver and blaster that will enable Apple Watch users to control their TV using the smartwatch. The cylindrical-like accessory was created through a partnership between the Peel Smart Remote app and Pronto and can be placed anywhere in your living room to control TVs, set-top boxes, DVD and Blu-ray players, and more. Pronto is compatible with all iOS devices that support low-energy Bluetooth, and soon the Apple Watch.

Apple has outlined the Apple Watch's built-in accessibility features for vision and hearing on its website, with four of the primary assisitive technologies being VoiceOver, font adjustment, mono audio and the Taptic Engine. The accessibility features can be accessed using the Apple Watch directly or through the Settings app on a paired iPhone.

For the visually impaired, the Apple Watch features VoiceOver, a gesture-based tool that uses the device's built-in speaker to communicate what is appearing on the screen. VoiceOver is compatible with built-in apps and available in 14 supported languages. Apple Watch users can also activate Larger Dynamic Type to adjust the size of the font or choose Bold Text to make the text heavier.

Apple outlines six other assistive technologies for the visually impaired: zoom, grayscale, extra large watch face, reduce transparency, on/off labels and reduce motion. Zoom is controlled using the Digital Crown on the side of the Apple Watch, while the other accessibility features must be enabled through settings.

Apple Watch also supports mono audio for people that are deaf or have hearing loss in one ear, enabling users to play both audio channels in both ears and adjust the balance for greater volume in either ear. Apple Watch also features the Taptic Engine for haptic feedback, giving your wrist a gentle tap every time a notification comes in.

After a bit of re-branding and the launch of a trio of new apps in Do Button, Do Note, and Do Camera, IFTTT today confirmed that two of those experiences - Do Button and Do Note - will be coming to the Apple Watch when the device arrives to customers beginning next week.

Coming as a client update that will bring Apple Watch support, like many other apps before it, the two task-management apps will allow users to run their favorite "Recipes" from the simplicity of their wrist. Envisioned as a simple "If this, then that" equation, Recipes require a "Channel" (an app) and a "Title" (a command) to be executed properly. So users can, in essence, create a Button to post a picture quickly to a Facebook album, or share it to Twitter followers.

The advantage of having Recipes on the Apple Watch is interesting, as the Do Button specifically aims to introduce Apple Watch functionality to apps that haven't even confirmed first-party support for the wearable yet. Users will be able to control their Nest to a desired setting, or interact with a set of Hue Bulbs. Philips has confirmed a Hue Watch app is incoming, but has remained quiet on the actual launch window for the app.

While each interaction will be boiled down to basic on/off functionality thanks to Do Button - one can't go into Hue's deep color customization screen, for example - even the limited availability of such apps at the Watch's launch date is notable.

Available tomorrow, the IFTTT apps will give people the power to use the apps, services and devices they love, even if they don’t have Apple Watch functionality (everything from Gmail to Jawbone, Evernote, Nest and Facebook).

For example, use Do Button to turn your Nest thermostat to 70 degrees with a single tap, or to switch your lights on or off. With Do Note, simply dictate your request and tap to run your command – e.g. create a note in Evernote or quickly create an event in Google Calendar.

While Do Button lived mostly as an extraneous accessory to first-party apps on iPhone, the Apple Watch version has an advantage of being first out of the gate with a few of the most popular apps on the App Store. Do Note could be in the same boat, but with a focus on Evernote functionality right now - which has its own dictation-inspired note app launching for the Watch - it's yet to be seen if IFTTT's Do Note app will be as functional as Do Button on the Watch.

With the incoming update later today, all three IFTTT apps, including Do Camera, will be made available for iPad, as well. It will no doubt be interesting to see as time goes on the kinds of recipes users create, and IFTTT itself recommends, specifically due to the ease-of-use of the Apple Watch.

Do Button [Direct Link], Do Note [Direct Link], and Do Camera [Direct Link] can be downloaded from the App Store for free.

Apple has quietly updated the Apple Online Store to list that the Apple Watch Sport ships with one fluoroelastomer band that includes three pieces to make either a Small/Medium (S/M) or Medium/Large (M/L) strap.

The updated "what's in the box" section confirms a TechCrunch report from last week that, "with very good authority," claimed that the Apple Watch Sport would ship with a three-piece band.

It was initially believed that the Apple Watch Sport would ship with two separate bands for sizing purposes, leading to the creation of services such as BandSwapper that intended to allow customers to swap their unused bands for a different size or color. But Apple's unique three-piece approach to the Sport band eliminates the chance that customers will be able to swap out their unused band.

Earlier this month, a report indicated that Samsung would produce the A9 chip for the next-generation iPhone. Now, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, a reliable source on Apple's future plans, says that he expects Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to supply 30% of the chip orders for the next-generation iPhone. This is the latest turn in what has become a back-and-forth affair in determining the companies that will supply A9 chips for next-generation iPhones.

We believe key reasons in Apple’s (US) last minute decision to recruit TSMC are: (1) unstable yield rate at GlobalFoundries (US); (2) TSMC’s 16nm FinFET Turbo has exceeded Apple’s expectations in yield rate and performance; and (3) concerns of insufficient 14nm supply from Samsung LSI (KR) due to better-than-expected market feedback of Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, which uses the in-house 14nm FinFET-manufactured application processor Exynos 7420.

Kuo notes that GlobalFoundries, Samsung's manufacturing partner, has thus far had an unstable yield rate of 30% for the A9 chip, which is below the 50% yield rate that is required for mass production. Bringing TSMC into the chip-supplying fold calms some of the uncertainties of Apple. Additionally, TSMC's 16-nanometer process has exceeded Apple's expectations.

Alternatively, the Cupertino company is worried that the success of the the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, which use Samsung's advanced 14-nanometer process for their chips, will mean that Apple won't be able to book enough chips from Samsung for the next-generation iPhone. Thus, Apple is turning toward TSMC to complement the supplies from both Samsung and GlobalFoundries.

However, over the past couple of months there has been confusion and conflicting reports over the production of the A9 chip in Apple's next-generation devices. In December, a report indicated that Samsung had begun producing A9 chips. In the same month, another report indicated TSMC would be the main supplier for A9 chips in the next iPhone. Then, in January, Kuo expected TSMC to only provide A9X chips for the next-generation iPad. Finally, earlier this month, another report indicated that Samsung and partner GlobalFoundries would become the supplier for the A9 chip.