The improvements in watchOS 3 over watchOS 2 are still, to me, the most exciting thing happening with Apple this summer. I would have skipped the iOS 10 beta altogether if not for the fact that I simply couldn’t wait to get watchOS 3 on my Apple Watch. The difference in day-to-day practice is staggering. That doesn’t mean that watchOS 3 is perfect, of course. There are still two little things bugging me that I wish Apple would address. First, the Activity rings. It’s great that there…

I’ve heard mixed reviews on the new iOS 10 beta’s music app. Long-time readers will no doubt remember that I gave up playing music on my iPhone altogether a while back, due to the Music app being completely incongruous with the way I listen to music, not to mention constant issues with songs not downloading, going missing, etc. So I’ve been happily using my old iPod Classic for a while now. And that’s going great, actually. The old iPod is still working. But I’m a…

I don’t think that Apple’s design for the app is completely wrong, I just think they need to modify it a bit. First, I’d move the Custom timer option to the top. Even if there are common timers you set, I would wager that most people want to set a custom one most of the time. I could be wrong, but if I’m not, this would make most people’s default interaction a little easier. Next, I’d allow users to customize what their pre-set timers…

Minutes before the WWDC keynote last week, I posted this on Twitter, in reaction to the already growing cynicism (the show hadn’t even started yet) in my timeline about what was to be announced. Apple didn’t get you a pony. Get that into your head now, and you’ll enjoy the keynote so much more. — jcieplinski (@jcieplinski) June 13, 2016 Listening to the Apple community gripe about what they perceive to be too little excitement in keynote announcements drives me insane. People either perceive some announcements to be…

A previously undocumented requirement asks for a passcode in a very particular set of circumstances: When the iPhone or iPad hasn’t been unlocked with its passcode in the previous six days, and Touch ID hasn’t been used to unlock it within the last eight hours. It’s a rolling timeout, so each time Touch ID unlocks a device, a new eight-hour timer starts to tick down until the passcode is required. If you wondered why you were being seemingly randomly prompted for your passcode (or more complicated password)…