Apple Releases watchOS 5.0.1 Update for Apple Watch With Activity Ring Fix

Apple today released a new software update for the Apple Watch, upgrading watchOS 5 to watchOS 5.0.1. The new watchOS 5.0.1 release comes 10 days after Apple released the watchOS 5 update.

watchOS 5.0.1 can be downloaded for free through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General -> Software Update.

To install the new software, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it needs to be placed on a charger, and it needs to be in range of the iPhone.

The watchOS 5.0.1 update is minor in scale and focuses on fixing bugs that have been discovered since the watchOS 5 update. According to Apple’s release notes, watchOS 5.0.1 addresses an issue that caused a “small number of users” to see increased exercise minutes, fixes a bug that caused some users not to receive stand credit in the afternoon, and solves a problem that could prevent the Apple Watch from charging.

watchOS 5, the latest major watchOS update, brought a slew of new features to the operating system. It includes Activity Competitions for challenging friends, a Walkie-Talkie mode with real-time push-to-talk communication, support for Siri shortcuts, new watch faces, and tons more.

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For details on everything new in watchOS 5, make sure to check ourtour watchOS 5 roundup.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 5Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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The cheap Realme 2 Pro offers 8GB of RAM and A.I. camera trickery

Despite being the youngest smartphone company on the block, only springing out of Oppo on August 3 on this year, Realme has wasted absolutely no time in putting out as many phones as possible, launching the Realme 1 and the Realme 2 in just a matter of months.

Realme isn’t pausing to take a breath yet, as it’s now launching the Realme 2 Pro — a new offering with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, full 1080p resolution, and A.I.-powered camera trickery. Here’s everything you need to know.

Design and display

You won’t find any outdated looks here — the Realme 2 Pro follows the global smartphone trend of reducing bezels in favor of a larger screen. The front of the device is dominated by a 6.3-inch display surrounded by exceptionally thin bezels for an extremely high screen-to-body ratio of 90.8 percent. There’s a very slight notch at the top of the screen, where the bezels slope inwards in a teardrop shape to accommodate the front-facing camera — which Realme calls the “Dewdrop Full Screen”.

Flip the phone over and you’ll find two camera lenses arranged horizontally on the top left, with a fingerprint sensor found centered beneath the camera. The back panel of the phone itself has been ergonomically shaped to fit the hand better, and should improve grip on the device. It comes in three varieties: Blue Ocean, Black Sea, and Ice Lake.

Specs and battery

The Realme 2 Pro comes with some solid midrange specs, including a strangely varied amount of RAM.

Key Specs

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 660

Memory: 4/6/8GB

Storage: 64/128GB

MicroSD storage: Up to 256GB

Screen size: 6.3 inches

Resolution: 2340 x 1080

Battery: 3,500mAh

Operating system: Android 8.1 Oreo (under ColorOS)

Users will be able to pick between several different models of the Realme 2 Pro. The base model contains 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, the next model upgrades the RAM to 6GB while retaining 64GB of onboard storage, and the top model contains 8GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage. That’s an awful lot of RAM for a midrange phone, so hopefully the Realme 2 Pro will run extremely smoothly as a result. Users will also be able to upgrade that storage by up to 256GB, thanks to MicroSD card support.

Regardless of the amount of RAM and storage, each Realme 2 Pro will come powered by the respectable Snapdragon 660 processor — the same chip we saw in the BlackBerry Key2. That efficient processor should keep the phone running smoothly and for a while, thanks to the hefty 3,500mAh battery. That battery also works with an artificial intelligence to conserve battery when a user isn’t using their phone, maintaining battery levels through an A.I. sleep mode.

Software and special features

The Realme 2 Pro is equipped with Android 8.1 Oreo running underneath the ColorOS 5.2 custom skin. We’ve seen Oppo’s ColorOS in other phones before, including the Find X and the Realme 2, and we’re not massive fans of this particular Android skin. Whether or not Realme has managed to tame some of the operating system’s eccentricities will likely be key to this phone’s performance.

Outside of the OS itself, the Realme 2 Pro’s features read off well. There’s support for facial unlocks, AR music stickers, and improved sound quality, as well as support for the Google Assistant, Smart Scan, and a gaming mode that promises to boost user experience within games.

Camera

You’ll find two camera lenses around the back of the Realme 2 Pro — a 16-megapixel main lens, paired up with a 6-megapixel lens that gives the DSLR-like “bokeh” background blur that we’ve all come to know and love. This portrait mode supports five different lighting effects, but also comes with A.I.-powered assistance to help you take the perfect shot. This A.I. is able to recognize backgrounds and do some automatic post-processing after the shot, removing noise and altering the exposure levels.

Switch around the front and there’s a monster hiding in the dewdrop. The Realme 2 Pro is equipped with a massive 16-megapixel front-facing lens with an f/2.0 aperture. Realme is particularly proud of the Realme 2 Pro’s selfie shooter, and boasts it can recognize up to 296 facial identification points, and offer 8 million beautification options for your selfies.

Release date and price

The Realme 2 Pro costs 13,990 Indian rupees (roughly $194) for the 4GB/64GB model, 15,990 Indian rupees (roughly $220) for the 6GB/64GB model, and 17,990 Indian rupees (roughly $250) for the 8GB/128GB model. For this level of smartphone, that’s pretty darn cheap.

Interested? Bad luck for the moment — while Realme has global ambitions, the Realme 2 Pro is currently only available in India.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Surface Studio 2 benchmarks show a system with unimpressive hardware

Benchmark results that are purportedly from Microsoft’s second-generation Surface Studio have appeared on the Geekbench website, and though the scores it achieved are notably higher than those put out by the original Surface Studio, they don’t exactly blow them away. That could be because the hardware configuration isn’t exactly class-leading.

The original Surface Studio debuted in 2016 and was designed to be a compact all-in-one with touchscreen functionality that enabled hands-on design work and the use of its innovative Surface Dial tool. It was an expensive, but impressive piece of kit with a unique use case that meant it was practically unrivaled in terms of performance and interactivity. The Surface Studio 2, however, doesn’t appear to do much more than that, as per MSPowerUser.

Despite Intel having released two generations of CPUs since the original Surface Studio was unveiled — and being on the verge of debuting another — the Surface Studio 2 benchmark results suggest it’s using an Intel Core i7-7820HQ. That’s a more powerful CPU than the 6820HQ found in the original Surface studio, but not by much. An eighth-generation alternative would have been preferable.

The RAM speed is reported as 1,200MHz, though that is likely a halving of the double-data-rate (DDR) RAM, and therefore operates at a respectable 2,400MHz. But that’s only a couple of hundred megahertz faster than the original Surface Studio — although it does appear to come with 32GB, rather than the typical 16GB of the first-generation all-in-one.

This results in performance that is in some cases less than 10 percent greater than that of its predecessor. Where the Surface Studio scored 4,225 and 14,417 points in single and multi-core tests, respectively, the Surface Studio 2 managed just 4,680 and 15,915. Most individual tests detailed on the results pages paint a similar picture, although some scores like crypto score are improved by even less of a margin.

It’s worth noting, though, that there have been a number of Surface Studio 2 benchmarks over the past few weeks, with slightly different configurations, such as faster and less RAM. That impacts performance a little, with some scoring slightly higher thanks to that speed bump.

None of this tells us much about what graphics hardware the Surface Studio 2 is running. The original all-in-one came with options up to an Nvidia 980M. We would hope at least Pascal 10th-generation hardware is present in the new build, as that could provide a nice performance improvement in graphically taxing settings.

Although these results might not be the most exciting for those interested in buying a Surface Studio 2, we’ll get to learn more in the very near future, with Microsoft expected to unveil a lot of new Surface hardware at its upcoming October 2 show.

Editors’ Recommendations

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