Apple Releases watchOS 7; Bringing Sleep & Handwashing Tracking, New Faces,
Complication Enhancements, & More
Apple has today released watchOS 7, bringing a new Sleep app, new watch faces,
the ability to use more than one complication from an app on the same face,
face configuration sharing, handwashing tracking, Family Setup, and more. Here
are the highlights.
Sleep App
Sleep is one of the most important aspects of your health. With watchOS 7,
Apple Watch now uses its accelerometer to notice the subtle movements
associated with breathing and differentiate between sleeping and waking states.
This data is used to generate a sleep analysis chart showing how much youâve
slept in the past week.
Beyond tracking your sleep patterns,
<https://www.apple.com/watchos/watchos-preview/> Apple say that watchOS 7 and
its new Sleep app bring a number of tools and options that allow you to create
a schedule and a bedtime routine so you can meet your sleep goals.
Alerts
Get bedtime reminders and more wake up sounds.
Wind Down
Wound up? Wind Down assists you in establishing a bedtime routine with
shortcuts that help you relax, like opening a meditation app and dimming your
lights.
Wake Up
Start your morning with a weather report and your battery level. If you get up
before your alarm, youâll be asked if you want to turn it off.
Charge & recharge
If your battery is below 30 percent near bedtime, youâll get a reminder to
charge. If you charge after waking up, youâll get an iPhone notification when
youâre at 100 percent.
Sleep in the Health app
On iPhone, you can manage your sleep schedule, view sleep trends over time, and
see how consistently youâre meeting your sleep goals.
Additionally, when you go to bed, your Apple Watch can automatically turn on Do
Not Disturb and prevent your screen from waking.
Watch Faces & Complications
As is usual for each major watchOS release, there are new and enhanced watch
faces.
New watch faces in watchOS 7 are:
* The GMT face shows multiple time zones at once, while also taking into
account your physical location. 12-hour time is displayed on the inner dial
with local time, while the outer dial displays 24-hour time.
* The Count Up face lets you start tracking elapsed time by tapping the
bezel.
* The Chronograph Pro face features multiple time scales (60, 30, 6, or 3
seconds) along with a tachymeter to measure speed based on time travel over a
set distance.
* The Typograph face displays numerals in three custom type styles
(custom, modern, and rounded) and four different scripts (Arabic, Arabic Indic,
Devanagari, and Roman).
* The Art face features artistic animated designs created by artist Jeff
McFetridge and which have the time overlaid.
* The Memoji face brings animated Memoji to the Apple Watch that react to
touch.
* The Stripes face features different striped patterns in a variety of
colors for supporting sports teams, matching what you're wearing, and more. You
can choose the number of stripes, the number of colors, and rotate the stripes
in any angle.
According to Apple, the Stripes, Typograph, Memoji, GMT, Chronograph Pro, and
Count Up watch faces are limited to the Series 4, Series 5, and Series 6 Apple
Watch models, along with the Apple Watch SE.
We've yet to test these faces to determine how well they perform with VoiceOver.
One other change is that the XâLarge face gets rich complications, which is
likely to be welcomed by low vision users.
Watch face complications get a major upgrade in watchOS 7. You can now set more
than one complication per app, so developers are able to offer more than just a
single option. For example, a weather app could offer complications for
temperature, conditions, precip, UV index, and wind speed, all of which could
be used on the same watch face.
You can now share watch face configurations youâve created by texting,
emailing, or posting a link online. Or, use watch faces shared by other Apple
Watch users or developers. If you don't have one or more of the watch apps
installed that supplies complications for the shared face, you will be prompted
to install it.
Additionally, a curated selection of custom watch face configurations will be
available from the App Store.
Handwashing
Keeping your hands clean has never been more important. With watchOS 7, Apple
Watch uses its motion sensors and microphone to automatically detect
handwashing. If your watch detects that youâve stopped washing your hands
early, it will encourage you to continue for the full 20 seconds that is
recommended by global health organizations. Apple Watch can also remind you to
wash your hands when you get home.
Family Setup
Family Setup lets you pair watches for your children and older family members
to your iPhone, meaning that they don't need to have an iPhone of their own.
They will have their own phone number and you can manage their Apple Watch on
your iPhone.
Parental controls allow you to approve contacts and downloaded apps. And you
can schedule Schooltime mode to limit Apple Watch features. You can also use
the Find My app to track their location and receive alerts when they leave or
arrive at designated locations.
With Apple Cash Family, you can send money to your children to spend with Apple
Pay on their Apple Watch.
Other Notable Changes
* The Activity app has been renamed to Fitness, and you can now track
your fitness metrics for Dance, Functional Strength Training, Core Training,
and even your post-workout Cooldown.
* Activity rings have been rethought for kids, tracking Move minutes
instead of active calories. Running, walking, and cycling workouts also
calculate metrics like distance and pace more accurately for kids.
* You can now get spoken translations for 10 languages from Siri on your
Apple Watch. Simply ask something like âhow do you say good morning in
French?â
* Shortcuts can now be run from Apple Watch - there's a new Shortcuts app
and shortcuts can also be added to watch faces as complications.
* Dictation is now processed on Apple Watch, which should make it faster
and more reliable.
* You can now customize Stand hours and Exercise minutes.
And What About Accessibility?
There are some new features and enhancements coming to Apple Watch for blind &
low vision users in watchOS 7:
* The VoiceOver rotor is now available on Apple Watch, although with much
fewer options than on other platforms.
* It is now possible to pair a braille display with an Apple Watch.
* Turning on VoiceOver is now presented as an option when setting up
Apple Watch.
* Haptic feedback is now provided when performing a VoiceOver gesture.
We have only been able to carry out some extremely limited testing of watchOS 7
ahead of todayâs public release, so have not yet been able to explore in full
the new features and changes mentioned above. Our early impression is that they
appear to work well with VoiceOver, and at this time we are unaware of any new
issues for blind or low vision Apple Watch users.
It is possible that there are further changes in watchOS 7 which will affect
blind or low vision users.
How to Update to watchOS 7
watchOS 7 requires iPhone 6s or later with iOS 14 or later and one of the
following Apple Watch models:
* Apple Watch Series 3
* Apple Watch Series 4
* Apple Watch Series 5
* Apple Watch SE
* Apple Watch Series 6
Not all features are available on all devices.
watchOS 7 is available by going to the Watch app on your iPhone and navigating
to General> Software Update. To install the update, your Watch must be
connected to its charger and have at least 50% battery power.
More information on how to update the software on your Apple Watch is available
on <https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204641> this Apple Support page
Apple Releases tvOS 14
Apple has today released tvOS 14, bringing what at best can be described as
small, incremental changes for the Apple TV.
For gamers, tvOS 14 brings quick game resume with multi-user support, similar
to features on the PS4 and Xbox One, that let you jump right back into a game
where you left off, and new support for the Xbox Elite Series 2 and Xbox
Adaptive Controllers.
Picture-in-picture support has been expanded as well. Now users can use fitness
apps while watching live TV or use picture-in-picture videos shared across
AirPlay.
The only other notable changes in tvOS 14 are support for 4K YouTube videos, a
new Home app for HomeKit, and AirPods audio sharing.
We have not been able to test tvOS 14 ahead of its public release, so have not
yet been able to explore its new features or check for any changes which will
affect blind or low vision users.
To install tvOS 14 on Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD, go to the Settings channel,
then look for the System section near the bottom. From here, look for Software
Updates under Maintenance, then select Update Software and Download and Install.
More information on how to update the software on your Apple TV is available on
<https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202716> this Apple Support page
Submitted by AppleVis
===========================================================
The fb-exchange mailing list
Manage account, subscribe or unsubscribe:
//www.freelists.org/list/fb-exchange
Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/fb-exchange ;
Administrative contact: insight@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
===========================================================
