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Over three months after Apple introduced it at WWDC 2024, watchOS 11 is officially here. The 2024 Apple Watch update, which adds the new Vitals app, widget improvements and sleep apnea detection, is now available to install on your smartwatch. Apples sleep apnea detection feature, which the company highlighted in its Apple Watch Series 10 reveal, will also work with a couple of year-old models. If you own the Apple Watch Series 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2, you can try the feature before the new model makes it into customers hands later this week. Sleep apnea detection will send you an alert if the watchs sensors detect overnight breathing disturbances. The health feature, similar to one Samsung included with the Galaxy Watch 7 earlier this year, received FDA approval last week. watchOS 11 also introduces a new Vitals app, further beefing up Apples health-tracking features on its wearable. For those who wear their Apple Watch to bed for sleep tracking (and a handy alarm in the morning), Vitals collects your overnight data in one place. The app establishes baselines for your health metrics. It lets you know if any fall outside your typical range, potentially handy for spotting irregularities like oncoming illnesses or tracking the effects of alcohol use. Similarly, the new Training Load feature measures the intensity of your workouts over time. After establishing an intensity baseline over 28 days, it shows how hard youre pushing yourself in your workouts comparing it with your standard averages. At launch, it supports 17 workout types, including walks, runs, cycling, rowing, swings and more. Youll find your Training Load in the Activity app on your Apple Watch and the Fitness app on your iPhone. Apple Apple added a long-requested feature this year: the ability to pause and customize Activity ring goals. It hardly makes sense to keep pushing yourself (at your watchs prodding) if youre sick or need rest. The wearable now lets you take a break for a day, week, month or more without losing your award streaks. In addition, you can set different Activity ring goals for each day of the week and customize the data you care about most in the iOS 18 Fitness app. The Apple Watchs Smart Stack (the pile of widgets you see when you scroll down from your watch face) now shows widgets automatically based on context. (For example, rain alerts.) In addition, Live Activities, which arrived on the iPhone two years ago, is also coming to the Apple Watch in the new update. Youll find Live Activities for things like sports scores you track or an arriving Uber in the watchOS 11 Smart Stack. Check In is a new feature that lets you notify a friend when you reach your destination. You can begin a Check In from the watchOS Messages app by tapping the plus button next to the text field, choosing Check In and entering where youre going and when you expect to arrive. Similarly, when exercising, you can start a Check In from the workouts app: Swipe right from the workout screen and choose Check In from the controls. You can then pick a contact to share your exercise routine with. Other features include new pregnancy tracking in the Cycles app and a Double Tap API that lets third-party developers incorporate hands-free controls. To download watchOS 11, youll first need to install iOS 18 on your paired iPhone. After that, open the Watch app on your phone, then head to General > Software Update. It should then prompt you to update to the 2024 software.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/watchos-11-is-out-now-with-new-sleep-apnea-feature-182103629.html?src=rss
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Its been around three years since Tile has offered a serious refresh for its popular line of Bluetooth trackers. Since that time, the company was bought by Life360 and Apple began dominating the field with its AirTag trackers. Now, Tile is back with four new trackers to help people find stuff. The Bluetooth range has been extended across the full lineup, but the big news here is the SOS alert button. The system will send out a notification and user location to designated emergency contacts when pressing the button three times. This feature is available to anyone with a free Life360 account, but a premium membership will allow users to send notifications to emergency dispatch services. The Tile Mate ($25) is the standard everything tracker with a built-in key ring. This makes it a good choice for keys, backpacks, purses and anything else that can accommodate a key ring. The Bluetooth range is around 350 feet and it features an IP68 water resistance rating and a non-replaceable battery that lasts three years. Orders are open right now. The Tile Pro ($35) is an amped-up version of the Mate. It looks the same, but it boasts a longer range, up to 500 feet, and a louder ring. The battery is also user-replaceable. This one wont be available until October. The Tile Slim ($30) is designed primarily for wallets, luggage and other items with plenty of nooks and crannies. The range maxes out at 350 feet and each tracker includes a non-replaceable battery that lasts three years. The Tile Sticker ($25) is being advertised as the smallest Bluetooth tracker on the market and its absolutely tiny. It also includes a sticker that adheres to items. This makes it a great choice for TV remotes and headphones. The range maxes out at 250 feet. Both the Slim and Sticker are available to order right now. Tile There are, as previously mentioned, snazzy new colors to choose from. The Tile Mate and Slim come in six colors, including black, white, blue, pink, green and yellow. The Tile Pro will be available in both black and white, while the Sticker is only available in black. Its worth noting that Tile experienced a hack a couple of months back in which customer information was accessed. Theres nothing in the promotional materials to indicate that these new trackers have been outfitted with updated security measures to prevent that kind of thing from happening again. We reached out to the company to inquire about potential safety tech and will update this post if we learn anything notable.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/tile-introduces-its-first-new-bluetooth-trackers-in-years-173100389.html?src=rss
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Prior to iOS 18's arrival, Apple released a firmware update for the AirPods Pro 2 that will deliver new features the company announced at WWDC in June. Now that the latest version of the mobile OS is available, your iPhone can fully employ the new tools, which include Siri Interactions, Voice Isolation and more. Your AirPods Pro 2 should have already installed the update and be ready to go when you upgrade to iOS 18, so here's what to expect when you use the new features. Siri Interactions Siri Interactions allow you to interact with your phone at times when you can't or don't want to speak or reach for your phone. Machine learning on the H2 chip and transformer models on a source device (iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch) can detect when you nod affirmatively or shake your head. This can be used any time Siri asks a yes or no question, like accepting or rejecting calls, responding to or dismissing messages and engaging with or dismissing notifications. So far, Siri Interactions have worked as described for me. I like that the tech recognizes smaller head movements, so you don't have to exaggerate them to get the system to respond. I've found the feature most helpful for incoming calls and texts, especially when my hands or full or when I'm in a setting where I can't immediately speak. Voice Isolation Voice Isolation is a new feature that taps the AirPods Pro 2 H2 chip and the source device (iPhone, iPad or Mac) for advanced machine learning to enhance how you sound on calls. The tech isolates your voice so it can effectively cancel significant amounts of background noise, and for some distractions, it will eliminate them entirely. During my tests, Voice Isolation totally blocked a noisy fan and running water. It's truly impressive how the roar that's otherwise obvious on a call is completely absent when this is enabled. It's also great that the tool works its magic with minimal impact to overall voice quality. Billy Steele/Engadget The feature is enabled automatically in your microphone settings, where you'll find options for Automatic, Standard and Voice Isolation. Here, you can activate Voice Isolation while you're on a call if you don't want the system to handle things on its own. The tool will also be supported in FaceTime and any third-party apps that use CallKit. Those include WebEx, Zoom, WhatsApp and many more. As a reminder, Siri Interactions and Voice Isolation are also available on the AirPods 4. Gaming features and Personalized Volume In addition to those two headliners, the update equips the AirPods Pro 2 with "the best wireless audio latency Apple has ever delivered for mobile gaming." What's more, gamers can expect improved voice quality, thanks to 16-bit, 48kHz audio when chatting during sessions. Apple says it also improved Personalized Volume on the AirPods Pro 2, but didn't go into specifics there. Personalized Volume is the tool that adjusts the media levels on your AirPods Pro 2nd based on changes in environmental conditions and your volume preferences. Apple says that the feature learns your listening preferences over time to fine-tune adjustments as they're needed. Hearing Aid and Hearing Test aren't in this update One of the biggest announcements from the iPhone 16 event was Apple's plan to turn the AirPods Pro 2 into a set of over-the-counter hearing aids for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. While the company has received FDA approval for the first software-based hearing aid solution that will be available without a prescription, the feature and the accompanying Hearing Test aren't ready just yet. Apple is planning to release the suite of hearing features as part of an update sometime this fall. How to download the AirPods Pro 2 update The AirPods Pro 2 update is available for free over the air from your iPhone. You can check the version number under the AirPods settings when the earbuds are connected to an iOS device. You'll want to look for 7A294 to be sure you're running the latest version. If not, you can trigger the update by listening to music for around 30 seconds and then putting the AirPods Pro back in the case. If you notice that the earbuds don't immediately disconnect on the Bluetooth menu, that means the update is happening, so keep the case closed and near your phone until it completes. AirPods Pro will disconnect when the process is over. You'll need to make sure your iPhone is updated to iOS 18 as well. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/airpods-pro-2s-new-features-have-arrived-heres-what-to-expect-172023882.html?src=rss
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