On top of new OS X El Capitan and new iOS 9, Apple also took the curtains off its next generation operating system for its Watch – watchOS 2, featuring native apps support and a bunch of new, and enhanced features.
One of the most obvious changes is the Time piece. You can now customise the watch face with your favourite pictures. Set your own photo, photo album or even a time-lapse as the face of the watch for a beautiful effect.
Photo Face will have a fixed image on the watch face, Photo Album Face will change the pictures in your album each time you raise your wrist, and Time-Lapse shows iconic locations around the world shot over 24 hours.
Once the background has been set, you can make your own complications to show information from third-party apps directly on your watch face. You can see information such as your flight time, the date and time now, and such.
Turn the crown and you will be greeted with a Pebble Timeline-like feature that shows you future and past events. Just rotate the crown to go forward or backward in time so if you have a meeting later today, you will be able to see it right on the front of the Watch.
watchOS 2 also turns your Apple Watch into a nightstand with new Nightstand mode that doubles as an alarm too. The Digital Crown transforms into snooze and the side button turns off an alarm.
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Another enhanced feature is multiple screen for friends. On the existing watchOS, you can only add up to 12 favourite contacts on Watch. watchOS 2 now have multiple page support, so you can categorise your contacts to friends, family, work, etc.,
Other new communication features include the ability to send drawings in various colours, reply emails directly on Watch, and Facetime audio support for high quality audio calls.
Thanks to native app support, fitness has just gotten better on watchOS 2. Your favourite fitness apps can now run directly on Apple Watch, and you can even use Siri to control those apps.
Tell Siri to start a 30 minutes run, go for a 5 mile run, or a 300 calorie workout, Siri will be able to do everything for you without you even touching the watch. There’s also a new achievement badge with your name engraved at the back, so you can share and show off to your friends.
As for the new features, Apple has been listening to what its customers wants, and introduced some new features to make the Watch more useful than ever. Some of the new features include ability to connect directly to a network even when a phone is not around, play audio on watch speaker, play shortform video, access to HealthKit, and run HomeKit natively on the Watch.
Like El Capitan and iOS 9, watchOS 2 will be available for developers starting today. The rest of us, as usual, will have to wait for the final release, but hey, it’s free!
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