Apple had previously announced that watch OS 2, its proprietary operating system for the iPhone’s most expensive accessory, the Apple Watch, would debut on the 16th of September. Due to some technical issues, this launch was eventually moved forward and after a five day wait, the smartwatch OS has finally started rolling out today.
It’s set to launch in Austria, Denmark and Ireland later this week. And many other places, as of yet, remain Watch-less. This could’ve been due to the fact that the new hardware from Apple was not as well received by critics as the company had anticipated or simply because the cost for purchasing this smart gadget is way too high in most markets.
With that apart, let’s get to the latest and biggest update to the smartwatch OS from Apple. The new OS, according to the Cupertino, makes the Watch more personalized and much more secure for you. The post announcing the new update reads:
To take advantage of its size and location on your wrist, Apple Watch was designed with its own unique operating system — watchOS. With watchOS 2, we’ve refined it. There are more faces to choose from. Faster, more powerful apps. Enhanced communication options. And innovative new ways to make your Apple Watch your own.
New features of watch OS 2 include a large variety of new watch faces and the ability to select ‘Time-Lapse’ (Choose from a selection of dazzling time-lapse videos shot over 24 hours in iconic locations around the world) as the background. You can also select pictures of your own to set as the watch face or slideshows of an album too. You also get more complications i.e. important pieces of information you can see right on your watch face, like Weather or World Clock. Now you can get more right at your fingertips including stuff like your home devices like lights, thermostat, sensors, cameras using Insteon.
You also get a Time Machine so that you can see the future. Just kidding. But you get a similar ability with Time Travel. You can rotate the crown on the side of your Watch and see what has happened already, what’s curently going on and what has been predicted of the future, like weather, for instance.
Another very useful feature introduced in watch OS 2 is the ability to use your smartwatch as a night clock in Nightstand mode. It will just lay there in a low power mode showing you the time, all night long.
But by far, the best thing that could have happened to the Watch via its new OS update is the new native apps support feature. This cuts the Watch from its past inseparable partner, the iPhone, and makes it a very useful individual hardware.
