Wearable Computing & Fashion News - Page 1

Buying an Apple Watch Ultra 2 just got cheaper in China after Apple started to allow people to buy a refurbished model via its website. Apple regularly offers refurbished products but this is the first time that the Apple Watch Ultra 2 has been offered in this way outside of the United States. It now seems more likely than ever that the refurbished Apple Watch Ultra 2 will start to go on sale in other countries around the world sooner rather than later.

Buying a refurbished Apple Watch Ultra 2 will save you around 15% off the price of a new one, according to MacRumors which was the first to report on the new buying option. The refurbished products do tend to come and go in terms of stocks however, so make sure to place your order for a refurbished Apple Watch Ultra 2 if you want to be sure of getting one soon.

Apple's refurbished products have all been thoroughly checked and cleaned and come with the usual 12-month warranty and 14-day return window. They also offer people the chance to take out AppleCare+ for additional coverage while all wearables come with all of the usual accessories and are fully functional. Buying a refurbished product from Apple is definitely a batter option than buying refurbished elsewhere unless you can get a particularly good deal.

If you own an Apple Watch you'll already be very familiar with its various features, especially if you're someone who enjoys physical activities like walking or running. It's a wearable that has long been a go-to for people who want to maintain, or improve, their fitness. As part of that the Apple Watch collects a ton of data on the wearer's activity and movements and that means that it can be uniquely placed to offer insight into fitness data.

As part of that, new data shared by the Apple Heart and Movement Study offers some insights into the training habits of people who are working towards being able to run a marathon, a common thing that people aim for when they are trying to improve their fitness. The study looks into how Apple Watch wearers use their wearable when walking and running. It does that based on data collected from November 2019 through January 1, 2024, across almost 198,000 people who recorded at least a single walking workout and more than 99,000 people with at least a single running workout.

Of those people, more than 50% of the people who recorded either exercise achieved a 5K (3.1 miles) distance or more at least once. The study goes on to wonder that if all the running and walking workouts were added together in a given period, how long would it take to reach the 26.2-mile marathon point?

If you own an Apple watch Series 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2 you might have been suffering from so-called ghost touches since the models launched back in September of 2023. But now Apple has a fix, and it also seems that the problem is affecting more devices than was first thought.

While it was thought that the ghost touch problem was limited to Apple's latest wearables, the company has now apparently admitted that the issue is affecting those who own Apple Watch Series 7, Apple Watch Series 8, and Apple Watch Ultra devices as well. That's according to information shared in a memo that was sent to Apple Authorized Service Providers.

Those service providers have been told that they should not replace the watches of those who report the ghost touch issue, but should instead tell users to try a forced restart of their devices instead. That force restart involves pressing and holding the side button and Digital Crown at the same time for 10 seconds or until the watch restarts. Apple also says that affected Apple Watch owners should be told to make sure that they are running the latest versions of watchOS, perhaps suggesting that the company intends to release a software fix for the issue at a later date.

If you're planning to pick up a new Apple Watch this year it might be worth your while waiting for the new model this September after a new report claimed that Apple intends to bring a new OLED display upgrade to bear.

The report, courtesy of The Elec, claims that Apple will use a new low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) thin-film transistor (TFT) technology for the upcoming Apple Watch. The wearable has previously been tipped to be called the Apple Watch X, with Apple celebrating the wearable's 10th birthday as it did with the iPhone and the iPhone X.

According to the report, the new display technology uses a method of applying oxide on the driving TFT and switching transistors behind each pixel. Those switching transistors control the voltage that is applied to each cell, giving Apple more control over the amount of light that passes through each of the Apple Watch display's pixels. Current Apple Watches only use LPTO TFT on a few switching transistors.

The Apple Watch had long been rumored to be planned to gain a new microLED display at some point and while that might still happen, a new report note claims that Apple's in-house team has been wound down in recent weeks which also means that there are being job cuts. It's reported that the cost and complexity of the development of the technology was simply too great, with Apple now having chosen to reorganize the teams that worked on engineering the displays. Several dozen roles in the United States and Asia are said to have been eliminated.

The move to microLED technology would have allowed Apple Watches to feature brighter and more vibrant displays, but that now seems to be a feature for much further down the line. There was also the assumption that microLED technology would expand to other products in Apple's lineup, but again, that now seems to have been put on the back burner.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that the move to cancel the project came around the same time that Apple also chose to ditch its plans to launch an autonomous car. It's said that, in both cases, Apple is giving affected people the chance to locate new jobs within the company while those who cannot find a new job will be laid off and provided severance.

If you're in the market for a new smartwatch in 2024 you might have an unexpected option to consider if a new report is any indication. The report claims that while we already knew that there would likely be two new Samsung Galaxy Watch models to look forward to, there might actually be a secret third option in the mix.

That's according to a post on X by the known tipster @kro_roe that was spotted and then picked up by 9to5Google. Details are extremely hard to come by right now, but the report claims that there will be three models of Galaxy Watch 7 to choose from rather than the more familiar two.

As the 9to5Google report notes, there had already been reports of an additional square display-equipped version being launched to go with the normal Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch 7 Pro, but at this point, it's difficult to be sure what Samsung's plans really are.

The Apple Watch's primary mode of interaction is of course touching its display while Siri is also an option for those who aren't infuriated every time they use it. But when Apple released watchOS 10 and the new Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra last year it also added a new option: gestures. The Double Tap gesture allows people to tap their fingers together to interact with on-screen menus in much the same way they can when using the Apple Vision Pro, but it seems that Apple isn't finished. New gestures could be on the way.

That's according to a new report that points to an Apple patent that offers an array of different types of gestures that could potentially be used to interact with the Apple Watch without having to touch it. That could be hugely beneficial for a variety of reasons including a really simple one - using your Apple Watch when it's cold and you're wearing gloves.

In the case of this new patent, Apple includes a few different options including a flat palm with fingers outstretched and then moving the fingers from side to side horizontally. Apple hints that such a gesture could be used to answer calls or reply to messages, while another example is a clenched fist that could also trigger specific features or menus. Other examples of gestures mentioned include rotating the hand and holding it in a specific position while it's possible that Apple could generate more gestures in the future.

Apple has long been rumored to want to switch a future Apple Watch Ultra to new microLED display technology but recent reports again suggest that the company might be having issues in finding a supplier for those displays.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, a company that produces manufacturing equipment Kulicke & Soffa reported that one of its "strategic customers" has now canceled a project related to the "advanced display" market. While there was no clarification on who the customer is or what the display would be, display analyst Ross Young suggests that this is related to Apple's future Apple Watch Ultra plans.

The project, previously called Project W, the project was thought to be related to a microLED watch and as a result of the cancelation, it's said there will be up to £140 million in surcharges.

The current Apple Watch situation is a bit of a mess if you are planning on buying one in the United States, and it shows little sign of improving any time soon. But there does appear to be scope for that to happen in the future, according to a new report.

As a reminder, the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 are currently prohibited from being sold with working blood oxygen sensors as a result of a ruling that confirmed Apple infringed upon a Masimo patent in relation to the technology those wearables use. Apple was forced to disable the feature at the turn of the year, although an appeal has been lodged. Now, it appears that those who buy an Apple Watch with the blood oxygen sensor technology disabled may well be able to get it reenabled at a later date should Apple's appeal be successful.

That's according to an IP Fray report which notes that new documentation has been published which explains exactly how Apple removed the feature from the Apple Watches being sold today. According to that report, Apple disables the blood oxygen sensor at the point when the wearable is paired with an iPhone but after Masimo tested the software lock it found that it was able to bypass it on a jailbroken device. And while not everyone has a jailbroken iPhone, the fact that the software lock could be bypassed suggests that there could be hope for the future.

Some Apple Watch owners have been complaining of so-called phantom display taps no their Apple Watches for some time now, with people saying that apps have been responding as if they touched the display with their fingers. For those who experienced the issue, the results could be dramatic with calls being placed when they aren't needed, messages sent accidentally, and more. Now, there might be some light at the end of the tunnel for those who have been waiting for Apple to issue a fix.

That fix might be part of the watchOS 10.4 software update that Apple rolled out yesterday with Apple's release notes ecpficially calling out the problem. Apple says that the watchOS 10.4 software update fixes an issue that caused some users to experience what it calls false touches and those suffering with the problem will no doubt hope that Apple is true to its word here.

The watchOS 10.4 software update brings with it a handful of other improvements including a fix for a bug that caused some contacts not to sync to Apple Watches for some users.