Yesterday, Apple “began rolling out the third betas of iOS 9, watchOS 2, and OS X 10.11 El Capitan and we’ve been digging into each of them, trying to figure out what is new, changed, and improved,” Chance Miller reports for 9to5Mac. “Most of the changes come on the iOS 9 and watchOS 2 side of things, with the new OS X 10.11 beta focusing mainly on under-the-hood changes.”
“watchOS 2 beta 3 includes a variety of enhancements and bug fixes. For one, the update enlarges the size of the keypad buttons, making them significantly easier to tap,” Miller reports. “iOS 9 beta 3 also brings its fair share of enhancements. For one, Apple News is included in the build, also in a beta form.”
Much more, including screenshots, in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve now been wearing Apple Watch daily for 2 months, 15 days.
The top issues are, in no particular order: Third-party apps are sometimes slow (but, that’s about to change with Apple soon to allow native third-party apps), the display is difficult to see in direct sunlight, the Watch should recognize repetitive motions (sit-ups, for example) and not turn the display on and off with each rep, email should have a reply option (coming in watchOS 2), and (a very minor quibble) the app icons should display the app name when dragged while the apps are in “jiggle” mode for rearrangement (icons alone sometimes get confusing as to what’s what). Other than that, we have no issues of which to speak.
Beta 3 for the watch and phone are much better than 1 or 2. Battery life on both is much improved and everything seems to be working well on the watch again.
And I concur with the MDN take on the issues they’ve experienced, especially the screen on and off issues. It’s a frustrating item that we should be able to override if we are ok with the (temporary) extra tax on the battery.
When I go for a run I like to be able to view my stats. You should see me now running down the road raising my wrist, shaking my arm and trying to wake the display. It’s hilarious I tell you.
Love it.
Frustrating? It’s really not a big deal.
Shaking your arm? Just tap.
I recognize how it is supposed to work, and it does work properly for the most part on WatchOS 1, but I did have issues with that version of the OS as well, which I had hoped might be addressed as part of the betas.
I’m running Beta 3, and it’s wonderful, but the third party Apps I’m currently using are still not properly triggering that view option with the wrist flick or the tap. Both work as expected when I am standing still but NOT when I’m running.
Coming from a Pebble where that wrist flick worked each and every time is what makes it a little frustrating that’s all. First world problem, I know.
It’s just “raise,” not “flick.” No special tricks.
I can understand it may be frustrating when a Pebble motion does not work on an Apple Watch.
Likewise, it must be frustrating to Pebble owners to have to press a button rather than tap.
Here’s a video someone compiled showing the wrist ‘flick’.
I realize I termed it improperly, but what I was trying to explain was that the ‘wrist raise” or any other motion – including tapping the watch face – does not function as it should when I am running. Thus, me trying to activate the face in any possible way while flailing my arm. When I am standing still both of those options work. Can you see now why that might be frustrating?
I don’t recommend that video as it will give you a false sense of how it is designed to work. I recommend these instead:
https://www.apple.com/watch/guided-tours/
It’s right there: “just raise your wrist.” No special motions, flicks, or flailings.
If tapping doesn’t work it may be broken. That would be frustrating.
Snap to view option. Screen comes on only when you “snap” your wrist up to the viewing position.
watchOS 3 maybe?
Can’t wait for watchOS 2. Too many third party apps are weak, slow, and crashing. I know that’s going to change, and it hasn’t caused me to question my purchase. There are so many other things that just work so cool. Activity monitoring, ApplePay, messaging, notifications in general work very well.
I’m not sure if this has been reported, but the Apple Photos app finally has the ability to manually add geolocation data. This was the number one feature I have been anticipating since Photos was launched.
Can you edit that info too on an existing photo?
Absolutely. I have 150k photos (74k on iCloud and my iPhone) that I use to have sorted by contextual hierarchy in Aperture. After using location-based and keyword sorting, I am convinced that it is vastly superior. I plan on adding geolocation info on my Photos library with photos dating back to the ’60s. So excited to get started!
That is fantastic and a long-awaited feature. Have fun!