Here’s What A Web Browser Running On The Apple Watch Looks Like (Spoiler: Not Great)

“Wouldn’t it be neat to have a web browser on my Apple Watch?”

No, no it wouldn’t. It’s a thought most smartwatch owners have had at one time or another — but in the end, we probably don’t want that.

Comex, a well-known jailbreak developer who went off to spend some time as an Apple intern before moving on to other projects, has whipped up a fleeting but seemingly functional example of what a browser might look like running on the Apple Watch — and… well, again: you probably don’t want this.

The web just wasn’t built for screens this small. It took years for smartphone browsers to become more usable than frustrating, and a lot of the usability gains there came from massive screen spec jumps. A 1.5″ smartwatch screen never becomes particularly web-friendly, no matter how many pixels you cram in that screen.

Alas, Comex makes no mention of how he got this up and running. Out of the box, running arbitrary code like this shouldn’t be possible — while a native SDK is inbound, only stuff built with Apple’s somewhat limited WatchKit framework is supposed to run on the device for now. Is this a subtle demonstration of the world’s first jailbroken Apple Watch?

Here’s the vid, as tweeted by Comex and spotted by 9to5mac (Speaking of usability: pardon the wonky tallness of the video; it was shot vertically, so there’s no easy way to embed it in a pretty way. For best viewing, consider fullscreening it):

Apple Confirms Tattoos Can Affect Apple Watch’s Heart Rate Sensor Readings

Apple has updated its Apple Watch support documentation, confirming that the device may have issues when worn by users who have wrist tattoos. The changes were added following a series of reports from new Apple Watch owners who found that their tattoos seemed to interfere with the smartwatch’s ability to track their pulse or cause other problems. Apple now says that permanent and temporary changes to your skin, including the ink used in tattoos, can impact the heart rate sensor’s performance.

In addition, the document clarifies, the ink, pattern and saturation of the tattoo can block the light from the sensor, making it difficult for Apple Watch wearers to get reliable readings. That is to say, those with darker tattoos that cover more of the skin’s surface may have more issues than those with lighter tattoos that are smaller in size.

The paragraph on tattoos was added to a page detailing how the Apple Watch heart rate sensor works, in a section that explains what sorts of factors could affect the sensor’s performance and a wearer’s ability to get a good reading. The Internet Archive, which keeps historical copies of websites, shows that an earlier version of this same page didn’t include the note about tattoos, ahead of the Apple Watch’s launch in April.

That implies that Apple learned of the issues from user feedback, as Watch owners began to call in to report problems with their device. Some users even posted videos to YouTube demonstrating the problem first-hand, which were picked up by the media.
It’s not all that surprising that a wrist tattoo could impact the effectiveness of the Apple Watch’s light sensor. The sensor allows an Apple Watch owner to wear the device looser on the wrist – “snug but comfortable,” says Apple – and still get a good reading. Explains Apple:

Apple Watch uses green LED lights paired with light‑sensitive photodiodes to detect the amount of blood flowing through your wrist at any given moment. When your heart beats, the blood flow in your wrist — and the green light absorption — is greater. Between beats, it’s less. By flashing its LED lights hundreds of times per second, Apple Watch can calculate the number of times the heart beats each minute — your heart rate.

This type of technology has been known to cause problems in the past. For example, a reddit user several months ago noted that they had a problem getting a good reading using the Fitbit HR heart monitor. (A CNet report from 2014 also found that some of the then-current heart rate monitors on the market could also be thrown off by skin pigmentation.)

Apple Watch’s sensor is actually more advanced than the company has claimed, according to the teardown from iFixit posted in late April. The site said that Apple’s heart rate monitor is “actually a plethysmograph—it looks and acts like a pulse oximeter, but Apple isn’t claiming it can measure your blood oxygen level,” iFixit’s analysis noted. It suggested also that Apple wasn’t advertising the functionality due to FDA regulations.

Related Articles

1. PSA: iOS 8.2 Comes With An Apple Watch App You Can’t Delete 
2.  Apple Watch’s Battery Life Could Be Its Achilles Heel 
3.  Apple’s Latest Betrayal

Despite having this better sensor, it doesn’t solve the problems associated with inks on the skin blocking readings.

Apple recommends a workaround for those who experience these sorts of issues, saying that you can connect your Apple Watch wirelessly to external heart rate monitors, like Bluetooth chest straps. Of course, that’s not quite as elegant a solution as simply wearing a watch, but at least it will give more serious athletes and other quantified self enthusiasts an alternative means of gathering this data.

Developers wrestle with making 'killer app' for Apple Watch

(GNN) - Software developers say it will not be easy to come up with a "killer app" for Apple Inc's Watch - few have seen the product and the software is still in test mode.

While app makers are passionate about developing for the Apple Watch, some are skeptical about the prospects of coming up with a big idea for the little computer on a wrist that hits stores on April 24, said Markiyan Matsekh, product manager at software engineering firm Eleks.

A killer app that grabs consumers' attention will be key to the success of the Apple Watch and could spawn new companies, as the iPhone did. The photo-sharing app Instagram grew into a $1 billion business bought by Facebook Inc, and Snapchat has gone from a mobile messaging app to a company valued at $19 billion.

Apple has blocked some features, such as the gyroscope and accelerometer, on the development kit, and the watch simulator cannot test all functions, developers said. Apple declined to comment on why developers cannot access certain features.

"The limitations are discouraging," said Matsekh, who helped develop a Watch app to control a Tesla Model S without involvement from the electric carmaker.

App designer Mark Rabo believes Apple is spurring creativity though restraint.

The challenge he believes is "not trying to take a phone app and cram it into a Watch."

Rabo is developing an app called "Revere," that ties notes to calendars. The Watch will recognize the wearer is walking into a meeting and pull up previously dictated notes about the attendees, for instance.

Apple listed about 40 apps on its website as it unveiled its smartwatch on Monday with "thousands" more in the works, it said.

Watch apps showcased by Apple so far are mostly extensions of services like Uber, American Airlines and Twitter.

"People are playing it pretty safe and right now just extending their application," Ryan Taylor, design director at Normative Design, the software firm hired by Rabo. Once the Watch is released, it will be easier to develop, he said.

Taylor points out that there has been no "killer app" so far on Android smartwatches that have been on the market for two to three years.

What Apple is "trying to do is get people to think of apps differently than an iPhone app. That cultural shift is taking a little bit more time and that's OK," he said. (Reuters)(Reporting by Malathi Nayak; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Apple’s Latest Betrayal

(GNN) - “Seriously, fuck them,” read the tweet by M.J. The person was speaking about Apple and the new MacBook the company recently announced.

There are countless other tweets and comments with the same sentiment. Right now there’s visceral hate directed at the company. A swath of consumers feel betrayed by the stark design of the new MacBook. Our original post on the topic was shared over 25,000 times. For good reason, too.

The new MacBook thinks different. It has more in common with a tablet than most laptops. Think of it as an iPad that has a keyboard and runs OS X. And like the iPad, it only has one port, which is the cause of the outcry.

Most computers have several ports scattered around the frame. There’s usually one for charging, a couple USB ports for various tasks and some sort of port to output video. The new MacBook combines all three into a lone USB-C port. This means users will not be able to, say, charge the laptop and an iPhone at the same time. Or input data from a flash drive while outputting video to an external monitor.

This is Apple’s world and we just live in it.

To Apple’s credit the company must see a market for such a computer. The low-power Intel chipset that powers the computer likely doesn’t provide enough oomph to play computer games, but it should render GIFs just fine. This is a couch computer. It’s a Facebook and Twitter machine. It even looks like a great programming computer. Watch the Apple event yesterday. The company didn’t demonstrate any of its new software on the new MacBook including the Photos app. Simply put, the new MacBook isn’t for photo editing.

Expectations are high for Apple. Had a different company like HP or Lenovo released a watered-down computer like the new MacBook, there likely wouldn’t have been an outcry, but rather a collective chuckle. For some reason, a swath of Apple fans expects the company to build every product to meet their needs. If it doesn’t, feelings of betrayal sneak in. This happened with the original MacBook Air.

Apple released the first MacBook Air in 2008. It cost $1,799 and, like the new MacBook, was a svelte wonder of technology. But it lacked ports. The industry cried foul, pointing out that it only had a power port, a single USB port and a Micro-DVI port. There wasn’t a CD-ROM or Ethernet port.

And in 2008 this was a big deal. Software was still shipped on disks and Wi-Fi was hard to find.

Apple fans felt betrayed. They felt forgotten. If a customer wanted Apple’s latest and greatest machine, they would have to buy into interacting with a computer without a CD drive or wired Internet.

Eventually, Apple dropped Ethernet from its entire MacBook line and the MacBook Air is now the least expensive laptop Apple offers.

The new MacBook joins the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. It’s not a replacement for either – at least not yet. But it bears a nameplate previously retired: MacBook. It’s not an Air, it’s not a Pro. It’s just a MacBook, which was long the company’s stalwart against Microsoft.

It’s highly likely that in a generation or two, Apple will drop the price of the MacBook to under a thousand. Will the MacBook Air survive? Maybe not. Apple is steadily making the MacBook Pro smaller. It’s easy to see a future where the MacBook will be the company’s only inexpensive laptop and a slightly slimmer MacBook Pro will be the other option if you want silly things like multiple USB ports, SD card slots and a MagSafe power adapter.

Until then, a 13-inch MacBook Air is a better buy than the new MacBook. The battery lasts nearly as long, the computer is more powerful and it has plenty of ports. Plus, nobody has ever said that they wished their MacBook Air was just a bit thinner.

PSA: iOS 8.2 Comes With An Apple Watch App You Can’t Delete

iOS 8.2 is here! Hurray!

It’s got bug fixes! It’s got stability enhancements! It’s got… an app that you can’t delete that currently does nothing but play promotional Apple Watch videos!

Joining the dozen or so perma-apps that Apple includes on the iPhone is “Apple Watch”, an app that doesn’t actually do anything yet.

Come April 24th when the Apple Watch actually ships, the app will allow you to customize your watch settings, sync up your data, etc. For now, however, it just plays videos about the Apple Watch. Yep.

Have you already seen plenty of stuff about the Apple Watch? Don’t intend to buy one? Too bad! You can’t delete it.

(Once you pair up a Watch, a second “Activity” app will appear. So that functionality is there.)

Holding the icon allows you to move it around and toss it into a folder to be forgotten, but for now, deleting it is a no go.

At this point, the list of undeletable apps is getting a bit silly. Weather! Clock! Maps! Notes! Remindes! Stocks! Passbook! Newsstand! iBooks! The settings screen is already messy, Apple — just add one more screen to the pile and give us a way to toggle these things off our homescreens.

Don’t want the app? For now, your only option is to just not install iOS 8.2, or just grumble and tuck yet another app in your “Things I Don’t Use” folder.

Apple Watch’s Battery Life Could Be Its Achilles Heel

(GNN) Apple proudly proclaims that the Apple Watch has an all-day battery life. But what does that mean? Well, hopefully your workout doesn’t last longer than 30 minutes.

Apple defines the Apple Watch battery life here. According to the page, the “all-day battery life is based on 18 hours with the following use: 90 time checks, 90 notifications, 45 minutes of app use, and a 30-minute workout with music playback from Apple Watch via Bluetooth, over the course of 18 hours.”

The page is buried deep in the Apple Watch product page. Apple clearly does not foresee selling the Watch based on its battery life.

For specific usage, the life varies. Apple states that the Watch’s battery can last up to seven hours during a workout when heart rate sensor is turned on. When playing back music, the battery will last up to 6.5 hours and up to 3 hours when the Watch is used for phone calls. However, if the Watch is used as a watch, the battery can last up to 48 hours.

When the Apple Watch’s battery drops to a determined level, it automatically switches into Power Reserve mode, allowing the device to tell the time for up to an additional 72 hours.

Apple also states that it takes 1.5 hours to charge the Watch to 80% and 2.5 hours for a full charge.

According to Apple, these stats were gathered during a March 2015 test using a preproduction Apple watch paired to an iPhone using preproduction software. Apple warns that actual results may vary due to use and configuration.

Battery life could be the Achilles heel for the Apple Watch. It’s unquestionably a beautiful and capable device, but if the battery life falls short even a touch from these advertised claims, it will leave many users wearing a device that can just tell the time and not call an Uber.

You Can Keep Your iPhone In Your Pocket. Don’t Believe Me? Just Watch

(GNN) - This is no sidekick. It’s not merely a companion. The #Apple Watch completely eliminates the need to pull out your phone in many situations. That was the theme of today’s launch event.

This isn’t just another screen for your notifications. Yes, Apple Watch is time, saved. But Apple Watch is also things done. Hail and find your Uber. Browse and Like Instagram photos. Reply to WeChat messages. Take phone calls with its mic and speaker.

Until now, the perception of smartwatches was that they were merely companions to phones. You might get lightweight alerts and take basic actions from a wearable, but would have to pull out your phone to do anything substantial.

But Apple wants what’s on your arm to do the heavy lifting. That could defeat the top criticism I’ve heard of smartwatches: Our lives are complicated enough.

Many people already feel completely overwhelmed by technology. Ever-present screens, mountains of email, tablets and smart TVs crowding our view, and most annoyingly, the non-stop barrage of notifications and other reasons to pull out your phone.

Some tech enthusiasts were eager for a faster way to parse notifications, hence the rise of the Pebble. But having to bobble functionality between a phone and smartwatch made the issue sound worse, not better.

With the Watch apps shown on stage today, Apple made it clear that you won’t have to learn to juggle.

Your iPhone is still the brain, the transmitter, and the App Store portal for your Watch. You can’t ditch it completely. But when the Watch is doing its job right, your phone is firmly lodged in your pants or purse, not your hand. Seconds wasted opening it are now spent experiencing real life. With the help of the Apple Watch, we can wrestle control of our lives back from our phones.

And that aligns this new device with the philosophy Steve Jobs set forth for Apple years ago when he said “Man is the creator of change in this world. As such he should be above systems and structures, and not subordinate to them.”