How to Customize Default Replies on Apple Watch

With watchOS 2, Apple added some features to the Mail app that make it possible for you to actually respond to email right from Apple Watch. Similar to responding to text messages on Apple Watch, users can now use voice dictation, send an emoji, or respond with a preset default reply.

Additionally, Facebook recently updated its Messenger app to work on Apple Watch. So, now you can read and reply to chats with Facebook contacts.

Apple provides room for about 20 default replies for Messages and about a dozen for Mail. Facebook provides six. You are not confined to the premade responses, however, and you can customize them to say whatever you’d like.

We’ve got a quick tutorial explaining how to customize your quick responses to fit your personality. The steps are very similar for customizing default responses in all three apps.

Messages

1. On iPhone, open the Apple Watch app and navigate to the My Watch tab.
2. Select Messages from the menu.
3. Tap “Default Replies.”
4. Tap a premade response and replace it with your own.

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Apple Watch Now Available From B&H Photo

B&H Photo is now offering several different models of the Apple Watch, both online and in its retail store located in New York. Like other third party retailers that sell the Apple Watch, B&H Photo is only offering select Apple Watch stainless steel and Apple Watch Sport models.

With the Apple Watch in retail stores like Target, Best Buy, and B&H Photo, we may soon start seeing small discounts on the device. Each of these sites offers several other Apple products and they often have sales and deals available. With Black Friday approaching, it’s possible there could be Apple Watch models available at lower prices.

The site is selling four different varieties of the stainless steel Apple Watch, offering the Black Stainless Steel model with a Black Sport Band in 38 and 42mm configurations and the Silver Stainless Steel model in 38 and 42mm configurations with a Product (RED) Sport Band, the Milanese Loop, and the White Sport Band.

Several varieties of the Apple Watch Sport are available, including Silver, Space Gray, Gold, and Rose Gold models with recent Apple Watch Sport Bands in colors like Midnight Blue, Antique White, Stone, Blue, and Lavender. B&H Photo is also selling Apple Watch charging cables and offering standalone Apple Watch bands.

Since August, Apple Watch availability has expanded to Best Buy, Target, and Sprint and T-Mobile locations.

How to Personalize Your Watch Face and Complications in watchOS 2

watchOS 2, the first major update to the Apple Watch’s operating system, was released in September, just five months after the device’s debut. If you didn’t face any download issues getting watchOS 2 on your Apple Watch, you are well on your way towards looking for the new features the update brings.

One major change we’d been anticipating for months is the ability to personalize watch faces with the photos we’ve taken, and third-party complications are another fantastic addition that will add more variety and more functionality to the look of the Apple Watch. A third addition, time-lapse video watch faces, is sure to wow your friends and will give you some dynamic scenery to look at each time you raise your wrist.

To help you get started, we’ve created this how-to guide to show you how to set up each of the new watch face features.

This guide assumes you know how to customize your Apple Watch’s watch face. If you don’t already know the process, head over to our how-to guide on that topic for reference.

Photos Watch Faces

Adding photos to your watch face only takes a few minutes to set up. In watchOS 2, you can either select a specific photo to display all of the time, or choose a photo album to see a different image every time you wake your watch.
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How to Use Time Travel on Apple Watch in watchOS 2

With the recent update to watchOS 2, Apple added a new feature called Time Travel, which lets you turn back (or forward) time to display certain information from a different date and time.

It works with complications on the watch face, like weather, calendar events, sunrise and sunset, stocks, and more. Depending on what you have displayed on your watch face, you’ll see different information.

Understanding Time Travel can be a bit confusing for some, so we’ll explain it more in detail, with some highlights on what different watch faces can do.

Before using Time Travel, be sure to set your complications the way you want them. Now that Apple allows third-party complications, the options are even better.

This feature works best with such watch faces as Utility, Modular, Simple, Color, and Chronograph because those faces have the most customizable complication options.
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Apple Watch Launching in Brazil and Colombia on October 16

Apple’s Brazilian and Colombian websites have been updated to note that the Apple Watch will be launching in those countries on Friday, October 16.

The October 16th launch of the Apple Watch in Brazil and Colombia will mark the seventh Apple Watch launch wave. The sixth launch wave will take place next Friday, with the Apple Watch expanding to Belgium, Finland, Norway, Luxembourg and Poland.

• April 24: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, U.K. and U.S.
• June 26: Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and Taiwan
• July 17: The Netherlands, Sweden, and Thailand
• July 31: New Zealand, Russia, and Turkey
• September 25: Austria, Denmark, and Ireland
• October 9: Belgium, Finland, Norway, Luxembourg, and Poland
• October 16: Brazil and Colombia

In Brazil, pricing for the Apple Watch Sport will start at 2.899,00 reals for the 38mm model, which is equivalent to approximately $733.70. Apple Watch prices in Colombia are not yet available on the website.

(Thanks, Lucas!)

Teen Receives Call From Tim Cook, iPhone, and Apple Internship After Apple Watch Saves His Life

Apple has been putting a significant focus on health-related topics in recent months, led by the Apple Watch’s health and fitness sensors and associated app functionality. In fact, just a few weeks ago at its “Hey Siri” media event, the company showed off some Apple Watch apps that could help doctors keep track of patients and even read the heartbeat of a baby still in its mother’s womb.

Now, the Apple Watch is becoming known as a lifesaver, as well, with a story emerging over the weekend about a teenage football player’s abnormal after-practice heartrate and his Apple Watch’s tracking that led him to determine something was seriously wrong.

Paul Houle Jr., a 17-year-old Tabor Academy senior in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, discovered after practice one day that he had pain in his chest and back when taking deep breaths, along with a rapid heart rate.

“After practice I went and took a nap, my heart rate was still at 145.” He went to the hospital, where he learned he had heart, liver and kidney failure, which could have been fatal if not for his watch.

“If my Apple Watch hadn’t shown me it was 145, I would have done nothing about it.”

Houle was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a condition that occurs after intense exercise results in the leaking of enzymes and proteins into the blood from muscle cells. Some cases can lead to kidney failure and can be fatal and when Houle arrived at the hospital he was suffering from simultaneous heart, liver, and kidney failure.

Although initially a skeptic of the Apple Watch, Houle’s father is now a convert and has recently purchased Apple Watches for both himself and his wife, thankful for the lifesaving intervention of Apple’s product in his son’s life.

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Since Houle’s story surfaced late last week, word of the ordeal reached Apple CEO Tim Cook, who contacted Houle with a personal phone call a few days after his diagnosis and recovery. “I got a phone call from a California number,” said Houle. “And he said ‘Hello, my name is Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.’” Cook proceeded to offer the Cape Cod teenager a brand-new iPhone and a summer internship at the company’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino next year.

Apple Releases WatchOS 2 With Native App Support, New Watch Faces, Nightstand Mode, and More

Apple today released watchOS 2 to the public, making the first major update to the watchOS software available to all Apple Watch owners. The update requires iOS 9 and can be downloaded over-the-air through the Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General –> Software Update.

watchOS 2 was originally scheduled to launch on Wednesday, September 16 alongside iOS 9, but Apple delayed the launch in order to address a major bug that was found shortly before the software was set to debut.

As the first significant update to watchOS, watchOS 2 introduces a lot of new features to the Apple Watch, mainly through new developer tools. watchOS 2 brings native apps that run on the watch itself instead of the iPhone, and it lets developers access several sensors and hardware features including the Taptic Engine, heart rate monitor, microphone, and accelerometer.

The new time-lapse watch faces in watchOS 2
Along with these features for developers, which will lead to more complex and full-featured third-party apps that run much more smoothly, watchOS 2 also includes new watch faces (photo album and time-lapse), third-party Complications, a tweak that makes the screen stay on for up to 70 seconds when activated, and Activation Lock.

There’s also a new Time Travel feature for viewing past and upcoming events in a watch face Complication, and a Nightstand mode that’s activated when the watch is charging, displaying the time.

Nightstand mode
More details on what’s new in watchOS 2 can be found in our dedicated watchOS 2 roundup, which includes all of the features the update brings, big and small. Discussion on new features in watchOS 2 is also taking place in our dedicated Apple Watch forum, and we encourage all of our readers to join in with new discoveries and questions about the update.

Apple Watch Sales Expand to Additional Resellers

Apple Watch sales are expanding to additional authorized resellers in a trio of countries this month, including The Good Guys in Australia, Stormfront in the United Kingdom and Media Markt and Saturn in Germany (via iFun.de).

The Good Guys, Media Markt and Saturn have begun selling the Apple Watch as of this week, while Stormfront is expected to start selling the wrist-worn device next week. Each retailer will sell the Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch.

Apple Watch was initially sold exclusively through the Apple Store, Apple Online Store and select fashion boutiques such as Galeries Lafayette in France and Selfridges in the U.K., but Apple has been rolling out the wrist-worn device to Best Buy and other authorized resellers over the past few months.

List of Apple Watch Authorized Resellers:

• Best Buy (U.S and Canada)
  
• Currys and PCWorld (U.K.)
  
• John Lewis (U.K.)
  
• Stormfront (U.K.)
  
• Harvey Norman (Australia)
  
• JB Hi-Fi (Australia)
  
• The Good Guys (Australia)
  
• Myer (Australia)
  
• Fnac (France)
  
• Compustore (Germany)
  
• Gravis (Germany)
  
• Media Markt (Germany)
  
• Saturn (Germany)

The above list will be updated as more Apple Watch authorized resellers are announced.

Apple Watch Expands to John Lewis and Currys Stores in the United Kingdom

After being sold at a few high-end boutiques around the United Kingdom in the Spring, it was recently announced that the Apple Watch would begin hitting some more mainstream UK-based department stores, including John Lewis (via Wareable) and Currys. Besides the high-end locations, prior to this announcement the only place for UK customers to purchase an Apple Watch was in an Apple Store.

Currys’ impending sale of the Apple Watch was discovered in late August, but no specific date was known at the time. With the announcement of the Apple Watch coming to John Lewis department stores, it appears that Apple’s new wearable will launch at both locations on the same day, September 18. Thirty-seven of John Lewis’ forty-four stores in the UK will be getting the Apple Watch, with four more confirming availability by Christmas.

“We believe Apple Watch will be one of the most sought after gifts this Christmas,” said Will Jones, head of buying communication technology at John Lewis. We expect a couple more British retailers to follow but Apple isn’t going to rush to remove the air of exclusivity around the Watch it is still just about maintaining.

Currys is a bit more proliferated in the UK than John Lewis, with 295 superstores and 73 high street stores located in both the United Kingdom and Ireland. Both John Lewis and Currys will also provide online support for Apple Watch sales, with Currys letting customers put in a pre-order for the device on their website right now. As of writing, the John Lewis website just has a simple placeholder page with information for customers about the new device.

The expansion of the Apple Watch has been growing since its launch in April, with Best Buy stores now widely selling the device — and even AppleCare and a few of its accessories — in the United States and Canada. Fnac locations in France also began selling the Apple Watch in late August. The recent confirmation of John Lewis and Currys locations joining in the support of selling the wearable device on September 18 will come just two days after the release of watchOS 2, as well.