Free Republic

Fitness tracking and notifications are the most used features on Apple's first wearable, says a poll from ad technology company Fluent. For many Apple Watch owners, the gadget wrapped around their wrist is much more than just a watch. Around 80 percent of Apple Watch owners said they use the device for fitness tracking and notifications, according to survey results released Friday by advertising technology company Fluent. Listening to music is popular among 77 percent. Exchanging emails and instant messages is on the list of 66 percent. Using the watch to purchase items via Apple Pay is also a favorite...

Apple shipped iOS 9.3 Monday afternoon, less than an hour after the media event that introduced the newest version of Apple's mobile operating system. New features include Night Shift, updated Apple News, CareKit, and other improvements. The update can be found in Software Update on your iOS device, or in iTunes watchOS 2.2 Rolls Out with Multi-watch Pairing Apple released watchOS 2.2 on Monday to go along with iOS 9.3. The update added support for pairing multiple watches with a single iPhone, and improved Maps support. watchOS 2.2 lets you pair multiple Apple Watches with your iPhone Maps now offers...

Apple’s March 21st special event invitation (below) features the message: “Let us loop you in.” What could this cryptic sentence mean?Well, Apple does offer the stainless steel (silver) Milanese Loop for Apple Watch and there are rumblings of a new black Milanese Loop coming at the event, but it that really enough to warrant being the marquee on the special event’s invitation?What if the phrase refers to Apple Smart Bands? Or “Smart Loops?” Think Apple Watch bands loops that add extra functionality (GPS, for just one example) to the Apple Watch.Wouldn’t such a Smart Loop or a line of Smart...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Speaking of Jeb Bush, I assume by now that many of you have seen the little gif floating around, the gif of Jeb. A gif is like a live photo, if you have an iPhone 6S or 6S Plus. It's actually a two- or three-second video that's looped over and over again. At any rate, Jeb was in an editorial board meeting with the Des Moines Register recently. He had an Apple Watch and it rang. Somebody had called him, and he had no idea what was happening. Now, he has been highly touted as an Apple...

The end of the year does not seem to bode well for Apple, as the tech giant's shares continued to drop 0.3 percent in early Tuesday trading. The company's stocks have now dipped below $110 for the first time since October, pushing the company to new financial lows, according to USA Today. The drop in Apple's shares continued from Monday, when the company fell by as much as 3 percent, to $109.79 in early Monday trading. Though the stock recovered for a time, it nevertheless closed down 0.6 percent, to $112.48 by the day's end. With the company's high of...

Apple today released watch OS 2.0 which contains new features and capabilities for users and developers, including the following: New watch faces and timekeeping features Time-lapse videos of Hong Kong, London, Mack Lake, New York, Shanghai, and Paris Photo and Photo Album so you can see your favorite images every time you raise your wrist, including support for Live Photos Time Travel with the Digital Crown to see what’s coming in the future or what’s happened in the past Nightstand Mode so your Watch can be used as a bedside alarm clock 9 new colors to customize your watch face,...

I’ve put off writing about the Apple Watch until today because, quite frankly, I didn’t know what I wanted to say. But last night it came to me… The Apple Watch is the coolest gadget in the world that you don’t need (and I say that with all due respect). I’ll spare you the product details (visit www.apple.com/watch) so I can spend the rest of our brief time together explaining why I love Apple Watch, but don’t think you (or anyone) really needs one (at least not yet). First, some background: I have collected and worn reasonably priced wristwatches for...

A Watch, Water and Workouts The most common question I get about my Apple Watch is this: “Is it waterproof?”Everyone from followers on Twitter to Laguna Beach lifeguards have noticed that I wear my watch while swimming and want to know how this new device holds up when it comes in contact with 71% of the Earth’s surface. If you look closely, you’ll see that I just completed my exercise goal with a swim in the Pacific Ocean. This report will explore how well the watch works when it’s exposed to water. I’ll also make some recommendations for Apple to...

Wow. That was quite a spectacle. It was as if someone dropped raw meat into a piranha tank.The raw meat was a report by a company called Slice Intelligence, claiming that Apple Watch sales were off a whopping 90% from launch week. The piranha were a few hundred news services and blogs who’d apparently been starved for weeks.Sometimes I wonder if people understand how organizations like Slice work. They make money by selling their services to client companies, and they attract new business by sending out press releases that become “news.” The more shocking the story, the more PR...

Nick Lee, a dedicated programmer with access to WatchOS 2.0, has ported Mac OS 7.5.5 to his wrist. That’s right: the OS you used in the 1990s to make your ‘zine can now boot – albeit slowly – on your Apple Watch. He used Mini VMac, an “early Mac emulator,” and recompiled it for the Watch. Can the Watch actually run these sorts of programs well? Sure. The Watch’s S1 chip is roughly equivalent to the iPhone 4S’s A5 chip which, as we well know, is plenty fast. “MacOS System 7.5.x shipped on ~100MHz PowerPC chips with ~24MB of RAM,...

The first time I seriously tried to use the Apple Watch was to board a plane on a recent cross-country trip. The experience showed the promise of wearable devices, but it also revealed there are challenges to solve before smartwatches are worth buying for anyone other than tech enthusiasts eager to try the latest gadget. I previously read that I’d be able to call up my boarding pass on the Apple Watch, so I opened the United Airlines app by tapping its logo in the app menu. But the process was a bit more complicated than I thought. The app...

Prior to the Apple Watch’s launch, many were already predicting that the device would be the answer to wearables and be the device that would change the landscape of the wearables industry. Initial reviews are a bit mixed but it is Apple’s first-gen smartwatch so there are bound to be some areas that could be improved upon. However if the figures provided by analysts are accurate, it seems that there are many who are interested in the device regardless of the reviews. According to the latest numbers from Global Equities Research, they have estimated that Apple has received 7 million...

The UBS analyst who recently said Apple had "somewhat botched" the Apple Watch launch sees China playing a major role in driving sales for the new device. The insight comes from a new research note based on a UBS survey of 9,000 consumers in six countries released on Monday. "It's finding that Apple continues to be extremely strong, the stickiness is very clear, and it's China, China, China," Steve Milunovich told "Squawk on the Street." "We're finding that Apple's retention rate is very strong in China, and we're also finding that actually Apple Watch interest is highest in China relative...

Gov. Jeb Bush hates the Affordable Care Act so much, he’d rather use the health apps on the Apple Watch instead. “I think we should repeal Obamacare,” Bush said to a clapping crowd at Arizona’s Tempe Brewery. Then he pointed to his Apple Watch. “On this device in five years will be applications that will allow me to manage my healthcare in ways that, five years ago, were not even possible.” Bush went on to describe how he believes that, in five years, his Apple Watch will be able to alert him when he’s eaten too many butterscotch sundaes, as...

Anyone who steals an Apple Watch can -- in about 20 seconds -- simply reset it and make it their own. That's because the way Apple designed the Apple Watch makes it surprisingly easy to override your passcode and completely wipe it clean. You can set up a passcode on the Apple Watch. But -- get ready for this -- anyone can just hold down the "Power Off" button, then select and erase all the data on the Watch. By contrast, the iPhone has certain features that make it less desirable for criminals. If you set it up just right,...

Apple's Watch launched two weeks ago to some incredible hype (read our review!), and while it almost seemed impossible to not know every single little thing about Cupertino's latest gadget, the company has just one more trick up its sleeve. On one side of the watch face (beneath were you insert the interchangeable straps) is a hidden door that exposes a 6-pin port. It's assumed that this could be used for diagnostic purposes, but with an Apple Watch in hand, company Reserve Strap was able to verify that it could also be used for charging. This is both huge and...

Apple Watch is a wearable device that always used by us at least in working hours, around 10-12 hours in average, could be more or less. Some users complained about skin irritation and allergic reaction caused by Apple Watch when they’re wearing the device. It’s not caused by material manufacturing fault which is chosen by Apple for the Apple Watch itself. Apple has done a research and test toward all Straps material of Apple Watch. Apple said:

Interest in the Apple Watch is "tepid," says UBS analyst Steven Milunovich. Milunovich is lowering his estimates for Apple Watch sales in fiscal year 2016 based on "global search activity." He is predicting Apple sells 31 million Apple Watches, down from a previous estimate of 41 million. Apple's fiscal year starts in October. So, calendar Q4 is fiscal Q1 for Apple. Here's Milunovich explaining his thinking: Our latest Apple Watch Monitor continues to find lackluster interest as measured by global search activity. Watch supply has been limited, but our change is based on demand. We look for 11mn Watches to...

A key component of the Apple Watch made by one of two suppliers was found to be defective, prompting Apple Inc. to limit the availability of the highly anticipated new product, according to people familiar with the matter. The part involved is the so-called taptic engine, designed by Apple AAPL, -0.61% to produce the sensation of being tapped on the wrist. After mass production began in February, reliability testing revealed that some taptic engines supplied by AAC Technologies Holdings Inc., of Shenzhen, China, started to break down over time, the people familiar with the matter said. One of those people...

SYDNEY - Early adopters of the Apple Watch are complaining that a number of its key functions are disrupted by their tattoos. Users of the watch, which went on sale last week, took to social media on Thursday under the hashtag #tattoogate to air their frustration with the flaw from Apple's renowned design house. One anonymous user on Reddit, an entertainment, social networking, and user-generated news website, said the device's locking mechanism, which should disengage when the watch detects it is being worn, failed to work on decorated skin. "My hand isn't tattooed and the Watch stayed unlocked. Once I...