When Apple holds its next big product announcement event on Monday, September 9, the entire technology community will be curious to see the new features added to the iPhone. Me too, but I'm just as interested in learning about the new Apple Watch. It was ten years ago—September 9, 2014—when Apple announced the original Apple Watch. That was just a preview, and the first Apple Watch model did not go on sale until April 24, 2015. Nevertheless, since the next model is expected to be called the Apple Watch 10, and considering that it has been ten years since the first announcement, there has been speculation for the past year that Apple might do something special with this next version of the Apple Watch. Hartley Charlton of MacRumors looked at most of the rumors of what the Apple Watch 10 might include and created a comparison table with the Apple Watch 9. One rumor is that the Apple Watch 10 will add hypertension detection and sleep apnea detection—although there is a competing rumor that Apple cannot add these features as long as it remains in litigation with Masimo Corporation over patented pulse oximetry technology. (That lawsuit is currently set for trial on October 21, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1:22-CV-01378,) Another rumor is that both sizes of the Apple Watch will get a bigger case and screen, with the larger Apple Watch, which now has a 45mm case, increasing in size to perhaps as large as a 49mm case—the same size as the current Apple Watch Ultra—with a display size of 2.04 inches, which would be just a hair larger than the Apple Watch Ultra 2's 1.91-inch display. And while Charlton predicts that the next Apple Watch will be thicker (higher on your wrist), I've also heard rumors that the next Apple Watch will be thinner. For someone who considers the Ultra just a little too big but who wants a larger screen and more battery life, the Apple Watch 10 could be the "just right" size. On the other hand, if both models of the Apple Watch 10 have larger cases, people who prefer a small Apple Watch may not be as happy. Of course, some or all of these rumors could be wrong, and we will learn the truth in just a few days. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Thank you for all of the early donations to St. Jude! There is still plenty of time to participate. Simply click here and then click the big green button. Easy peasy.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors discusses some of the things that we do not know about the Apple announcement on Monday.
- When iOS 18 is released in September, it will include some big changes to the Photos app. Andrew O'Hara of AppleInsider describes what is new.
- The action button on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will be able to do much more in iOS 18, as Austin Meyers of Gadget Hacks explains.
- A major change in iPadOS 18 will be Smart Script, a technology that can improve your handwriting, fix handwritten spelling mistakes, and more. John Voorhees of MacStories tested this feature in the beta version of iPadOS 18, and he was very impressed with the results.
- Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac reviews the Eve Outdoor Cam, a HomeKit-compatible home security camera with a floodlight that replaces an outdoor light that is already installed at your home. It is normally $250, but you can currently get it for just over $200 on Amazon.
- Adam Engst of TidBITS reminds of that trackpad mode on the iPhone and iPad is incredibly useful for repositining the cursor.
- According to Charles Martin of AppleInsider, a man who the local news called "the James Bond of plastic recycling" was curious about the City of Houston's claim that all plastic was accepted in the recycling program. So he put an AirTag in his plastic to track where it ended up and eventually learned that the city had collected 250 tons of plastic since 2022 but none of it had been recycled yet.
- If you need more AirTags to track your plastic recycyling or anything else, a four-pack has a retail price of $99 and can routinely be purchased on Amazon for $80 to $85, but the cheapest that I have ever seen a four-pack offered for is $75, and it is at that price right now. Amazon is currently selling the four-pack for $74.99.
- Speaking of finding things, Roman Loyola of Macworld notes that Twelve South has developed a new wall charger called the PlugBug that includes support for Find My. Thus, if you don't remember where you left your charger, you can use the Find My app to track it down.
- David Piere of The Verge discusses how far Apple Pay has come since Apple introduced it ten years ago and also discusses how it may change in the future.
- If you want to listen to some music but don't know what to pick, Apple Music can now pick music for you based upon your mood. As reported by Joe Rossignol of MacRumors, tap the Home tab, scroll down to Find Your Mood, and then select a mix based on your mood: feel good, energy, relax, focus, and feeling blue.
- As we start football season, John Gruber of Daring Fireball discusses Apple's announcement that the Apple Sports app will not only give you football stores but will also support Live Activities on the iPhone and Apple Watch. As you can see from the sample images in Apple's press release, this will provide you with a quick and easy way to track the score in a game.
- If you want to watch MLS soccer and you subscribe to Apple TV+, Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac reports that you can now do so for free for the rest of this season, which ends October 19. Just remember to cancel the subscription if you don't want it to renew (and charge you) next year.
- I have two recommendations for shows that I enjoyed watching on Apple TV+. First, I finished the mini-series called The Lady in the Lake. Natalie Portman and Maddie Schwartz are incredible actresses in this crime mystery that takes place in Baltimore in the 1960s. Lots of twists and turns.
- Second, I watched the Director's Cut version of Napoleon. It was a visual feast on the large virtual screen of my Apple Vision Pro, with amazing battle scenes and great views of Paris in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Perhaps the plot could have been better, but I still enjoyed it, and I especially enjoyed all of the scenes with Josephine (which I understand is a big part of the extended version of the movie).
- There is a fun interview of George Clooney and Brad Pitt by Zach Baron for GQ in which they talk about their upcoming Apple TV+ movie Wolfs (which debuts on September 27) and much more.
- And finally, here is some advice if you are trying to decide whether to watch The Lady in the Lake on Apple TV+. Rather than watch the trailer, which has some light spoilers, I recommend that you watch this short video called An Inside Look. It features short snippets from the show and clips of interviews with the actors and others and it gives you a sense of the feel of the show without any spoilers. If this video looks intriguing to you, then you should check out the show.
