WatchOS 11 gets more well deserved criticism.

First it was Zac from 9to5Mac, and now John from Daring Fireball sharing my pain with their Apple Watch frustrations.

Here’s John’s Apple Watch Report Card:

APPLE WATCH: C (LAST YEAR: B)

Series 10 watches feature a new display that supports once-per-second updates while in energy-saving always-on mode. So the seconds hand on an analog face can “tick” once per second even when the display isn’t fully on. But Apple only enabled this ticking seconds indicator on two watch faces, both new to WatchOS 11: Flux and Reflections. Setting aside the fact that I personally don’t like either of those faces (Flux in particular seems deliberately obtuse), this is ridiculous. WatchOS 11 offers, by my quick count, at least 33 different watch faces that offer a non-digital seconds hand or indicator. And only 2 of them support the new 1Hz refresh rate? That’s bullshit. And it wasn’t just a launch thing, because here we are in February, with WatchOS 11.3, and zero additional watch faces have been updated to support it. This is not how a serious watchmaker treats its watches. I will admit to caring far more about always-on seconds hands than most people, but this isn’t how a serious watchmaker deals with technical breakthroughs like this new display with a 1Hz refresh rate. Not just most, but every single watch face should have been updated to support ticking seconds. Apple Watch is turning more into a fitness tracker that happens to show the time, and away from serving as a proper watch.

Also: no Ultra 3 this year. The year-old Ultra 2 did gain a very nice black titanium color option, but that’s it. Kind of weird for a watch that starts at $800 — and that seems quite popular — to skip a year of silicon improvements.

I really hope watchOS 12 fixes all previous watch faces and complications that are compatible with the 1Hz refresh rate, if not sooner.

As for the Ultra 2, marketing wise they get an A for selling the same watch at the same price with a worse color that everyone seems to love even though it rubs off worse than Jet Black.

Adam Savage reviews the AirPods Pro 2 as a hearing aid.

​​A nice review by Adam Savage, former MythBuster. Calling it a review is doing it injustice as he really goes into his personal life and how hearing aids in general have even changed his marriage dynamics. Didn’t know he wore hearing aids, but his enthusiasm for Apple products and his real world experience really shows how useful the AirPods Pro 2 are.

Some highlights:

I think Apple turning the AirPod Pros into a substitute hearing aid is one of the best sub-features I've seen out of this consumer product in a long time. Having been a very public hearing aid wearer for 15 years, I have been sent a lot of people’s versions of earbud-hearing-aids and I’ll, I’m not naming any names but everything I have tried sucked. Everything I have tried had a very bad user experience in the calibration, in the testing, in the integration. These (the AirPods Pro 2) were really really just as advertised by Apple, straightforward, simple to understand, fast to execute, and awesome to use…

If you have people in your life who need hearing aids, this might be a great gateway drug to hearing aids, given that it is a lot less expensive and it carries a lot less of the, stigma of hearing aids. One of the rhetorical flourishes I gave people a few years ago that a lot of folks have told me worked on people in their lives, is to explain that no one who ever got hearing aids thought to themselves, “well that was a bad idea.”

Is the Series 3 Apple Watch still usable in 2025?

I’ve been using the Series 3 Apple Watch for about three weeks now. Actually, I’ve been using three different Series 3 watches, and it’s quite interesting how even after 7 generations, the Series 3 still holds up.

But it definitely is not perfect.

The Series 3 came out back in September 2017 and is still supported by Apple when it comes to hardware repairs. Software wise, the last update it supported was watchOS 8.8.1. 

The best way to talk about the Series 3 is to go all out and compare it with the Series 10 to give you a fair comparison between old and new technology.

Initial boot up

This is probably the one thing that really lets you know this is a 7 year old watch. 

I did a boot test to see what was the difference in speed, but I discovered a better test, which was to see how quickly it can ping my iPhone after bootup. This way it tests how quickly the watch connects to my iPhone, which is its lifesource.

From initial boot to pinging my Apple Watch, the Series 10 was able to do it in 1 minute. 

The Series 3 took 8 minutes and 50 seconds.

I know this is not a good start, but I promise it gets better.

Size comparison

I obtained 3 different models, all at the larger 42mm size. This is the size to get, since the screen is still the original square shape that was not edge to edge. The 38mm is just too small for visibility. The funny thing is, the larger Series 3 body at 42mm is the same size as the smaller Series 10 at 42mm. What was once the bigger Apple Watch is now the size of the smaller watch.

Go big or go home.

Series 3 42mm dimensions: 42mm by 36.4mm

Series 10 42mm dimensions: 42mm by 36mm

When you look at Watch faces that are mainly black and hide the bezels, the difference between these 42mm models isn’t really that big, making the Series 3 still very legible and modern. The only time you notice the smaller screen is when you have a watch face that shows the whole screen, such as Timelapse or Photos. The Series 3 does not have any other full screen watch faces, rightfully so.

Band compatibility

Even though both watches are 42mm, they don’t support the same watch bands. A new 42mm band is smaller than the old 42mm band. It sounds confusing since the number is the same, but this is the one time the math doesn’t add up. There is a good infographic from an eBay store that shows which bands are compatible, or you can read my nitty gritty about band compatibility.

Even though the Series 3 and Series 10 have the same length and width, the Series 3 is 1.7mm thicker than the Series 10. That thickness might change what hole you use to fasten your band, and can even affect compatibility with the Solo and Braided Solo Loop that come in fixed sizes. I haven’t tested the Solo and Braided Solo Loops on my Series 3, but here is what Apple says when you click on compatibility details:

The Solo Loop and Braided Solo Loop bands are only compatible with Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 4 or later, and Apple Watch Ultra or later.

Hardware differences

The basic recipe is still here between the Series 3 and Series 10. The Series 3 has the same Side Button and Digital Crown, but you don’t have any haptics when you rotate the Digital Crown. The Side Button is protruding instead of being flush like the Series 10. As a matter of fact, the Series 3 was the last watch to have the protruding Side Button.

The square shape of the Series 3 is more obvious and Apple has addressed the squareness by chipping away at the corners over the years, making it rounder than it has ever been on the Series 10. I can see why Apple initially got a lot of criticism for releasing a square shaped watch when all the watch faces were round. 

Apple has double-downed on roundness for each generation of the Apple Watch.

Even though the shape has changed over the last 7 years, there is no denying that it is still an Apple Watch at first glance.

Within the Series 3 itself, there are some differences when it comes to hardware, mainly the screen and how it rests on the body. The Series 3 was the second time Apple released a Ceramic Edition model, coming in both White and Gray Ceramic. It is the only Apple Watch that came in Gray Ceramic, which tells me it probably didn’t sell well and why I was able to get one on eBay for $105.

The Ceramic models have a distinct lip or “shelf” between the display and the body, resulting in a break in the fluid feeling when you slide your finger off the screen and onto the body. This was a limitation of the Ceramic manufacturing process because even the entry-level aluminum and mid-tier stainless steel models had the seamless feel and look between screen and body. As beautiful as the Ceramic Edition is, it’s a shame they couldn’t make it as seamless considering the original $1,299 price tag.

Notice the bigger “shelf” on the Ceramic models vs the Rose Gold Aluminum.

Battery

The main issue with the Series 3 would probably be battery life since after 7 years, the battery might be shot. I acquired 3 watches, and their respective battery health was 95%, 99%, and 77%. Ironically the one with 77% looked like it was replaced since it had some residual glue on the Gray Ceramic bezel, while the other two show no signs of battery replacement. I know my White Ceramic model does have an original battery, but I’ll explain how later.

Either way, the battery life is great. Since the Series 3 does not have an Always-On Display, it still manages to get its 18 hour battery life, and even more. Even my Gray Ceramic one that has 77% Battery Health went from 94% to 17% in 23 hours, with a 4-hour period where I didn’t wear the watch. The watch then went to 10% within the next 10 minutes reflecting the bad battery health. I wouldn’t trust the battery life under 20% for a battery this old, but you can still get 18 hours out of it.

There is no low power mode, so you don’t get the benefit of increasing your battery life up to 36 hours.

Performance

Although the watch does lag at times, it is more than bearable because at the end of the day, it is a watch, not your main computing device. You’re not going to edit video or compile code on these. When responding to messages, checking the weather, or setting alarms, everything is slower than a Series 9 or Series 10, but it gets the job done in reasonable time. After a few hours, you even forget about how “slow” it is since you get used to it.

In some ways, the software is actually smoother, which is one of the reasons why I got this watch. When you swipe to switch watch faces, you don’t have to wait for the time to adjust like you do on the latest Apple watches. The time is always what it is instead of the hour and minute hands having to swoop into place. Your complications are always up to date, which also makes the experience more Apple-like. This is due to the simpler interface of watchOS 8 vs the huge overhaul watchOS went through starting with watchOS 10. The older, more simpler software keeps the 7 year old Series 3 nimble enough. With watchOS 10, swiping the watch faces became more stuttery and buggy, and dare I say, more Android-like.

Most 3rd party apps that I use are simple apps that don’t require much processing power. They run in the background as complications. If you use any heavy apps that require a lot of processing power, it probably won’t run well (if at all) on the Series 3.

Still Feature Rich

It might not have all the bells and whistles of the Series 10, but you still get the following benefits:

• High and low heart rate notifications

• Irregular rhythm notifications

• Low cardio fitness notifications

• Sleep tracking

• Cycle Tracking

• Noise Monitoring

• Ping your iPhone

• Ping your watch with your iPhone

• Water resistance (tested and still intact after 7 years(!), but YMMV)

• LTE 

Features that are absent:

• HomeKit compatibility (the new Matter Standard probably broke this.)

• Fall detection

• Always On Display

• Can’t assign watch faces to focus modes

• Fast charging

• Digital Crown haptics

• Emergency SOS

• Vitals App

Quirks

There are ways around some of the limitations of the Series 3. For the always-on display, you can still rotate the digital crown to slowly wake up the display to glance at the time (also available on current watches). You also don’t have to worry about whether your display is “always on” vs actually on, because it is either ON or OFF. No confusion there.

You also get the original modular watch face, which was updated in future revision of watchOS. The original modular watch face was unique in letting you change the color of the digital clock with your color choice, whereas the new modular only gives you black and white options for time, depending on the color you choose.

The original Modular watch face with a color-changing digital clock.

Your watch faces are limited compared to the Series 10 which has many more full screen options, but you do get the following discontinued watch faces on the Series 3:

1. Explorer

2. Siri

3. Numerals

4. Chronograph

Of these 4 options, the Explorer watch face is my favorite, giving you red watch hands as an option. It’s also Jony Ive’s favorite watch face.

Source: Hodinkee

An important quirk of the Series 3? It lets you know immediately when your iPhone is out of range with a crossed-out, red iPhone on your screen, so you don’t ever get too far from your iPhone.

Why did I buy 3 of them?

I didn’t mean to buy three of these, it just happened.

I bought a cheap Rose Gold option as a testing device that had 95% battery health, but once I realized how useful the Series 3 is, I decided to go premium and get both Ceramic editions on eBay.

The Ceramic does add a lot of class, and I was fortunate to get the exclusive ceramic Sport Bands bundled with the watch that included a ceramic pin instead of a stainless steel pin.

I could have skipped on the Gray Ceramic as the White Ceramic is definitely more beautiful, but at the cheap price that I got it for, it’s worth holding onto. It really shines in the light versus dark environments.

These watches are old, and you can find great deals on them. The Rose Gold 42mm was $65 with 95% battery health. The Gray Ceramic was $105 with 77% battery health, but if I send it to Apple to get it replaced for $79, I’m looking at around $200 all-in for a fully healthy watch that once retailed for $1349.

Lastly, I found a unicorn Series 3, 42mm White Ceramic that was barely used by the original owner, and it included the box with all the accessories for around $350. It had 99% battery health, and the band that was “used” was barely used.

Left to right: Rose Gold, White Ceramic, Gray Ceramic.

Who should buy the Series 3?

If you just need a reliable Apple Watch and want the best bang for your buck, don’t buy the Series 3. You can easily get a much better experience and an always-on display for around the same price with a Series 5, especially if you are not concerned about buying a flawless watch. Just make sure to check the battery health before purchasing.

If you’re someone who appreciates Apple and are an Apple enthusiast, it would be worth buying a nice Series 3 watch since you get the best version of the original design. The original Apple Watch (known in the tech circle as the Series 0), Series 2, and Series 3 shared the same industrial design before it was changed for the Series 4.

Owning a Series 3 will be owning a piece of Apple history that is still usable today. You can get premium models for a great price on eBay, and since Apple still supports the Series 3, you can easily get screens and batteries replaced.

Jet Black Apple Watch durability after hitting the floor…hard.

Welp…it happened.

I have been babying my Jet Black Apple Watch after my initial troubles that I had with it.

This time it was my fault.

It was just sitting there, with its beautiful shiny piano black contrasting with the brushed sheen of the Space Black link bracelet. I grabbed it to put it on, and down it fell on the tiled floor.

It all happened so fast.

No bouncing around either, just a hard thud due to the weight of the link bracelet pulling it down.

I grabbed it and didn’t see any obvious signs of damage on the front body or the screen, but there is a blemish at the point of impact near the rear of the bottom right corner.

It’s actually not that noticeable even when directly looking at it. I just shined a light to point it out.

If you zoom in this much, everything looks worse than it is.

The body of the watch did not dent, and if I feel and rub my fingers on the point of impact, I can’t feel any roughness. The Digital Crown also feels the same and presses and spins just fine.

Aluminum is more prone to bending than Stainless Steel and Titanium, but since the watch is rounded off, it is less likely to dent since it “slips” on impact. I remember dropping my iPhone 12 mini back when I had it, and the dent was visible and feelable since it was a squared off device.

This impact might be for the best because now, I don’t have to baby it anymore. It’s like that vintage car you want that has 5 miles on it, and you don’t want to mess it up by driving it. This scratch just added 100,000 miles to my watch, so now I can daily it worry free.

I’m just glad it’s not on the front of the watch where it would be staring at me all the time.

Apple’s Watch faces are broken.

Zac Hall from 9to5Mac rants about the Always-On Display with ticking seconds hand on the Series 10:

It’s the only model that displays seconds on the watch face in always-on mode. There’s just one catch: only three watch faces support this hardware feature. Now, that number has grown — to a whopping four.

Zac’s a lot more kind that I am about this lack of consistency in hardware support, but I’m glad someone else is talking about this. I hope he’s wrong (so does he) about Apple’s strategy moving forward with the watch face support:

The good news is that Apple’s new Unity Rhythm face in watchOS 11.3 supports always-on seconds, just like Reflections.

The bad news? This sums up Apple’s watch face game plan: introduce a few new watch faces annually that feature always-on seconds, while simultaneously removing some less popular watch faces that lack this feature.

Ideally, this is incorrect, and watchOS 12 updates all watch faces to support always-on seconds. A standard analog watch face with numerals, like Utility or California, should support always-on seconds — especially if Apple isn’t going to update each face. Every watch face should support the hardware’s capabilities though.

To complicate things further (pun intended), there are a lot of Time based complications that also would benefit from the Always-On Display with ticking seconds hand, but I can live without those for now.

Apple Watch Chronograph Pro Face - Unique colors you didn’t know about

Update 2/6/25 @ 5:59PM - this article also applies to the Count Up Watch Face.

Since the beginning of Apple Watch, Apple releases new colors for Apple Watch face customization during different seasons.

Out of the 130+ custom colors to choose from, there are only 4 colors that standout to give you a unique and more professional watch face experience.

Let’s look at the Chronograph Pro watch face.

By default, this watch face gives you 19 dark watch faces that show a single color. The dark watch faces are neat, but they are very one-dimensional with a single color dominating the complications, the main dial, and the sub-dial hands.

Following the 19 dark watch faces, you are greeted with 12 professional looking multi-color watch faces.

There are 140 custom color watch faces you can add, but only 4 of them have that professional multi-color look.

Take a look for yourself:

It’s not as obvious as the California Watch face, but you can see it.

These four bonus colors are: Clover, Starlight, Red, and Abyss Blue.

You can find them under the Fall 2021 season. 

English Lavender and Dark Cherry are also in the Fall 2021 Season, but they don’t get the special treatment.

Not sure if this was meant to be, but I’m all for the multi-color effect. You get a more professional looking watch face with more contrast similar to the 12 watch faces Apple gives you by default. All the corner widgets are gray, and you get orange sub-dial hands on white or black sub-dials. That orange sub-dial hand color? Very close if not the same as the iPhone Mute Switch.

These four colors are distinct from their closest resembling professional watch faces and have their own unique look:

Evergreen (default) vs Clover.

Watermelon (default) vs Red.

Navy Blue (default) vs Abyss Blue.

Among all these default colors, the custom Starlight color has its own unique look. Starlight and Light Titanium are the only two faces that have white sub-dials with black hands.

My theory for why these four colors are special? In Fall 2021, the Series 7 aluminum models came in four special colors: Green, Starlight, (PRODUCT) RED, and Blue.

They also came in the standard Space Gray which was called Midnight, but no one cares.

There are many shades of red to choose from, but the red from Fall 2021 definitely resembles (PRODUCT) RED. I think Apple wanted matching watch face colors with the debut of these new colors and the newly remodeled edge-to-edge screen on the Series 7.

If you really enjoy the 12 default multi-color watch faces Apple gives you, now you have 4 more to enjoy. If Craig Federighi thinks this watch face is cool, it’s cool.

Check out the same colors on other watch faces to see their unique look, with a special surprise on the Meridian Watch Face.

California Watch Face

Meridian Watch Face

Typograph Watch Face

Apple Watch California Face - Unique colors you didn’t know about

Update 2/4/25 @ 6:47PM - this article also applies to the Typograph Watch Face.

Since the beginning of Apple Watch, Apple releases new colors for Apple Watch face customization during different seasons.

Out of the 130+ custom colors to choose from, there are only 4 colors that standout to give you a unique and more professional watch face experience.

Let’s look at the California watch face.

This watch face gives you 21 black watch faces…

followed by 14 full-screen color watch faces.

If you add every custom color as an option, you get over 130 extra black watch faces to choose from, but only 4 of them give you a full-screen color effect. 

Take a look for yourself:

How long did it take me to screenshot all these faces? Follow the time…

These four colors are: Clover, Starlight, Red, and Abyss Blue.

These colors are located under the Fall 2021 season. 

English Lavender and Dark Cherry are also in the Fall 2021 Season, but they don’t get the special treatment.

Not sure if this was meant to be, but I’m all for the full screen effect. These four colors seem to be coded in watchOS like the 14 default full-screen colors even though they’re custom colors.

These four colors are distinct from their closest resembling default watch faces and have their own unique look:

Evergreen (default) vs Clover.

Watermelon (default) vs Red.

Navy Blue (default) vs Abyss Blue.

Among all these default colors, the custom Starlight color falls somewhere in between Gold and Light Titanium.

The only reason why I think these 4 colors are special is because besides Midnight (which is just fancy for Space Gray, a default color since the Apple Watch’s inception), the Series 7 aluminum models came in Green, Starlight, (PRODUCT) RED, and Blue. There are many shades of red to choose from, but the red from Fall 2021 resembles (PRODUCT) RED. I think Apple wanted matching watch face colors with the debut of these new colors and the newly remodeled edge-to-edge screen on the Series 7.

Most of the 130+ optional colors are tiny hexadecimal variations from the standard colors, but these 4 colors legitimately give you a fresh look at the California watch face.

Check out the same colors on other watch faces to see their unique look, with a special surprise on the Meridian Watch Face.

Chronograph Pro Watch Face

Meridian Watch Face

Typograph Watch Face

The Vision Pro’s future lies in healthcare.

Wesley Hilliard from AppleInsider:

Sharp HealthCare purchased 30 Apple Vision Pros and started a Spatial Computing Center of Excellence in February 2024. One year later, they are hosting a summit to share what doctors have learned about using the headset in healthcare.

The Sharp HealthCare summit enables 300 doctors from 10 countries around the world to share how they've implemented Apple Vision Pro in their workflows. Adoption by doctors has been quite surprising, as enterprise, especially the medical field, tend to be quite slow at bringing new technologies into their work.

The Vision Pro has three main problems for mass-market appeal:

1. Cost

2. Comfort

3. Portability

For healthcare, the Vision Pro actually solves these problems:

As for the $3,500 price, the doctors say it pales in comparison to the $20,000 monitors used in the operating room. And the price coming down will only help drive adoption.

Comfort and portability are also huge benefits according to a surgeon interviewed by Fast Company:

“We were looking around the operating room,” he remembers. “We have a lot of monitors, a lot of clutter. We were like, ‘There’s got to be a better way to do this.’”

It wasn’t just about tidiness. ”For [a] monitor to be in the ideal position for surgery, it really should just be directly in front of your head without having to turn your neck or adjust your body,” explains Dr. Broderick. “But often in laparoscopy, you have to adjust your body, turn your neck, and be in uncomfortable positions. And with repeated use like that, it can lead to tight muscles, neck injury, back injury.”

The doctors’ frustration with this situation happened to come to a boil at an opportune time. On February 2, Apple released the Apple Vision Pro, its first headset. A major element of the device’s spatial computing experience was the ability to float multiple virtual screens of any size in real-world surroundings, unconstructed by the bulky inconvenience of physical displays. Dr. Broderick’s team got its hands on a loaner Vision Pro and worked with UCSD Health chief clinical and innovation officer Christopher Broadhurst to assemble a system capable of streaming video feeds and overlaying them on the live view of a surgery in progress, greatly reducing the need to crane necks.

In short order, the idea became a trial that involved real patients and is currently undergoing peer review. “We’ve done over 50 cases and have had great success thus far,” says Dr. Broderick.

Did Apple fix its Drug Interaction Checker for Pregnancy?

I have tried out Apple's Drug Interaction Checker once again, a year and a half since the last time I looked at it. I had 4 complaints about the Interaction Checker when I first tested it:

1. Two drugs in the same category that are taken together do not bring any warnings to consult your Healthcare Team, even though they can cause severe problems.

2. Two of the literal same drugs, with one being the brand and the other being generic, when taken together do not bring any warnings to consult your Healthcare Team, even though taking the same medication twice can cause problems.

3. The Medications section does not give you warnings if you are pregnant and are taking dangerous medications.

4. The Medications section does not give you warnings if you are pregnant and drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, or use cannabis.

Has Apple fixed these issues? 

They have not fixed problems 1 and 2, which you can read about in more detail.

Problem 4 is also not fixed. You do not get any warnings about pregnancy or lactation when you tell the Health app that you’re consuming alcohol, cannabis, or tobacco, even though these are all red flags.

Problem 3 has been fixed. I am glad to say that the Cycle Tracking section, which includes pregnancy, "talks" to the Medications section and gives you the proper warnings about your medications if you are pregnant.

Here was the list of drugs I used to test out the Health App (same as last year):

1. Crestor (generic name is rosuvastatin) - cholesterol medicine.

2. Zocor (generic name is simvastatin) - this is the same drug category as above, used for cholesterol medicine.

3. Simvastatin - literally the same drug as Zocor.

4. Rifampin - used for treating tuberculosis.

5. Lisinopril - blood pressure medication. 

6. Accutane - for severe acne.

7. Chantix - for smoking cessation.

8. Promethazine VC with Codeine - used to treat cold, stuffiness, and allergy symptoms.

Now when you go to the Medications section in the Health App, you get critical alerts right at the top:

If you scroll to the bottom, you will see a new "Medication Information" section that lists your Drug Interactions, as well as Pregnancy and Lactation warnings.

If we go into the Pregnancy warnings, we get very useful information for each drug that is problematic. There are 4 other alerts mentioned, but are not as critical and don't have the yellow banner.

Critical alerts are highlighted in yellow to catch your attention.

Even though these drugs are not highlighted in yellow like the critical alerts, the information here is still important.

Lactation warnings also are available, which is great and gives people more time to consult with their Healthcare Team.

None of this information was available last year, so Apple did a great job of integrating medication alerts with a woman’s pregnancy and lactation status.

They still need to fix the other 3 issues I mentioned, and treat alcohol, cannabis, and tobacco as drugs instead of “medication factors,” which is their legal classification.

CVS allows you to use your iPhone to unlock high-value items.

Ryan Christoffel from 9to5Mac:

CVS today announced the launch of a newly rebranded and updated CVS Health app (formerly called CVS Pharmacy). The iPhone app offers a variety of new features, but perhaps the most exciting is one that’s currently being piloted in select CVS stores: the ability to open locked-up product cabinets.

When it comes to retail shopping experiences, CVS can make things especially frustrating.

That’s because, depending on your local store, you may find that CVS locks up the majority of its products.

Historically, this has required hitting a button to call a CVS employee for help. The whole process is a pain for shoppers and a pain for employees.

But soon, the new CVS app could solve that.

I remember this being an issue back in my retail days, but now you won’t have to have that embarrassing conversation with your local CVS employee to, “please unlock the condoms for me.”

AirPods with “tiny cameras.”

Joe Rossignol from MacRumors:

Apple continues to explore the idea of releasing camera-equipped AirPods in the future, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Gurman only briefly mentioned the possibility of AirPods gaining tiny cameras, as part of his Power On newsletter intro this week, focused on Apple's future wearables ambitions. He did not explain what the cameras would be used for.

The tiny cameras would not be for taking photos, but rather serve as infrared sensors.

Here’s what Ming Chi-Kuo said about these infrared cameras:

Kuo said the new AirPods with infrared cameras would provide an enhanced spatial audio experience with the Apple Vision Pro headset.

"For example, when a user is watching a video with Vision Pro and wearing this new AirPods, if users turn their heads to look in a specific direction, the sound source in that direction can be emphasized to enhance the spatial audio/computing experience," wrote Kuo.

The infrared cameras could potentially enable "in-air gesture control" as well, allowing for device interaction with hand movements.

Although enhanced Spatial Audio might be a feature, I’m sure Apple’s target with this is more health features, such as blood pressure monitoring. I’ve talked about this at length a few days ago, and it only makes sense that these infrared sensors are PPG sensors just like on the Apple Watch for measuring heart rate, oxygen saturation, pulse, etc.

Still a few years to go before it’s ready for prime time.

An Apple Watch, a MacBook, and an iPhone all for less than $300?

Saw Luke Miani’s recent video, and it is a compelling ecosystem for a young adult. I’m talking about a late tween or early teenager, especially if they’re homeschooled and their current laptop is a Chromebook that makes the original MacBook Air screen look like a Retina display.

Yes, it’s that bad.

The fact that a 5 year old watch, a 10 year old laptop, and an almost 3 year old phone can still communicate with each other just seems incredible. It shouldn’t really surprise me since I’ve been using an 11 year old laptop that communicates with the newest iPhone and Apple Watch for logging in and Apple Pay.

How Apple will probably implement their blood pressure technology.

Whenever I go to my annual Doctor’s visit, it's nice to notice certain technological advancements when getting that initial screening by the nurse. 

Your height is measured by what I would call an extremely large digital caliper connected to the weighing scale, where they lay the top part of the “caliper” on your head, and instantly know your height. 

Your weight is digitally and effortlessly measured. I do miss the old scales where you had to move the weights and find that point where the balance finally starts to budge. It was more dramatic since you could see the nurse constantly sliding the weight past the point where you would hope the scale would balance out, only to realize you put on a few more pounds.

Your pulse is checked with an oversized digital clothespin that they put on your finger instead of the nurse clutching your wrist. 

Your temperature is checked execution style as they shoot your forehead with infrared rays instead of sticking a thermometer up your…in your mouth.  

Finally your blood pressure (BP) is checked…the old-fashioned way. You still have to remove your bulky jacket and strap that overly “velcrofied” arm cuff on while the nurse uses her stethoscope to check your blood pressure.

It’s the one vital information of your health that still requires old methods to get right. As a matter of fact, one could argue that your blood pressure reading is the most important reading of that visit because high blood pressure, or hypertension, leads to worse outcomes for every other health condition.

It’s the most important, yet it is also the most tedious because your blood pressure constantly changes throughout the day. If you buy any sort of portable blood pressure machine, you will notice a whole list of prerequisites before you take your blood pressure. Here is what the CDC says you should do before taking your blood pressure:

Don't eat or drink anything 30 minutes before you take your blood pressure.

Empty your bladder before your reading.

Sit in a comfortable chair with your back supported for at least 5 minutes before your reading.

Put both feet flat on the ground and keep your legs uncrossed.

Rest your arm with the cuff on a table at chest height.

Make sure the blood pressure cuff is snug but not too tight. The cuff should be against your bare skin, not over clothing.

Do not talk while your blood pressure is being measured.

There are other factors as well, such as “white-coat syndrome,” where a patient is nervous about getting their blood pressure taken, and it becomes falsely elevated.

This is all assuming you’re using an arm cuff, which is the most accurate. Wrist cuffs are more convenient but less accurate, and now you have to factor that into the equation.

There have been advances in how blood pressure is measured leading to more convenient choices in the future, such as photoplethysmography (PPG). This is where your device can be used to shine infrared lights into your skin to detect blood volume changes. It is a graphical representation similar to an ECG, where people who know a heck of a lot more than me can determine what is wrong with a person's heart. 

This PPG technology can be used on your finger, your wrist, your foot, and even your ears. (Apple Ring and Apple Toe Ring anyone?)

It’s really inexpensive compared to an ECG, and your Apple Watch uses PPG all the time to get information about your pulse, blood oxygen levels, and your cardio health. If someone had a sensor on their wrist and on their finger for example, you can then calculate the pulse travel time (PTT) between the wrist and their finger, and use that time measurement to estimate blood pressure.

According to a study by Nature, that is still less accurate than using an ECG along with one PPG datapoint, such as your wrist or finger. This is actually better for the end user because you only need to have one device, along with an ECG which your Apple Watch already measures.

So in theory, your Apple Watch measures an ECG which has its own waveform, which can be correlated with a PPG waveform that measures changes in blood volume. You end up with 2 waveforms that can then be studied and analyzed along with machine-learning and anonymous, historical user data to determine blood pressure.

That would be how the Apple Watch can analyze blood pressure without any other complicated cuffs that inflate on your wrist, which would be a disaster since so many things can go wrong with an “Apple Cuff.” 

“You’re using it wrong.”

“You’re placing it wrong.”

The Apple Watch by itself naturally sits on the flat part of your wrist, and you don’t have to tell anyone how to wear it.

But it doesn’t end with the Apple Watch.

Apple already has another device that can be just as good, dare I say, even better at determining blood pressure.

According to researchers at the University of Toronto, noise-cancelling earbuds have the potential to measure blood volume changes in your ears, giving more data points to analyze a person’s blood pressure:

Many earbuds have noise-cancelling technology, which relies on having an outer microphone and an in-ear microphone. The outer microphone listens for ambient sound while the in-ear microphone listens to what’s happening inside the ear. It turns out that the in-ear microphone is able to pick up on some very interesting sounds inside the body, including heart sounds. Research has shown that you can use the audio recorded from inside the body to measure heart rate, but you’re really able to get the same sounds you would hear from a stethoscope. We’re hoping that we can analyze these heart sounds using different signal processing techniques to infer someone’s blood pressure. 

Furthermore, they are even optimistic of bridging many technologies together to get better results:

One study we’re hoping to do alongside this project, or maybe a little later, would be to compare and contrast all the different technologies being considered for blood pressure monitoring – earbuds, smartwatches, smartphones – to see what works best. Can we get better performance with earbuds versus a smartwatch? Can we combine a smartwatch and earbuds to get an even more accurate measurement? 

I found another study where they did use time differences between pulses going into the left and right ear, and they were able to get promising blood pressure results that did not significantly differ from the true blood pressure measured with a proper arm cuff.

They called it “Stereo Blood Pressure,” which just sounds awesome.

Not only that, but their diagram even had a guy wearing AirPods.

These studies still had limitations due to small sample sizes and the candidates all being normal healthy individuals, but it’s still progress.

When will Apple actually implement blood pressure measurements into their devices?

Apple doesn’t want to be first at something, they want to be the best. 

They were first with Siri, and look at what that’s done for them.

Whenever Apple releases blood pressure monitoring, I think it will be a feature for both AirPods and the Apple Watch. They will work together to get the best data and eliminate any hurdles.

For example, you can’t wear AirPods when sleeping, but you can wear your Apple Watch to sleep and get data and information when in a more relaxed state.

Another hurdle could be a lack of data points for better accuracy. Each device separately only provides 2 data points each:

1. Apple Watch - single-lead ECG and PPG on the wrist.

2. AirPods - PPG on the left and right ear.

It’s not hard for most people to wear an Apple Watch and AirPods, so getting information from 4 data points will be a lot easier and unobtrusive.

When you combine those 4 data sets along with advances in AI, machine learning, and historical data analysis, you get a pretty good recipe for blood pressure monitoring. 

Of course it sounds easy on paper, but it makes sense for Apple to take a safer approach like they did with Sleep Apnea. Their blood pressure technology will sense changes in blood pressure and not actually give you a reading like 120/80. It will probably alert you if you have an elevated BP over a sustained amount of time, and it will err on the side of under-diagnosing versus over-diagnosing incorrectly. 

They would rather have false negatives and put their disclaimer similar to their sleep apnea disclaimer:

It's important to remember: not all people with sleep apnea will receive a notification. If you believe you have sleep apnea you should talk to a doctor.

When this technology is released and ready, it will be a game changer for the healthcare industry because of how effortless blood pressure monitoring can be. Simply wear your AirPods and your Apple Watch and go about your day.

The icing on the cake? 

Not knowing when your blood pressure is being taken is the most accurate way of measuring it.

Siri sucks, but AirTags rock.

After seeing Siri’s failings getting miserably worse and worse from both John Gruber and Paul Kafasis, I found some hope for all you Apple fans out there. Even though Siri is still “doomed,” Apple’s AirTags are still the best trackers in the world.

Rita El Khoury from Android Authority did a comparison of AirTags versus Google’s AirTag competitors, and the AirTag was the hands-down winner of all the different tests she threw at them. Mind you this test was conducted in multiple countries, none of them being the United States, where Apple might be accused of having an unfair advantage.

Her quick summary in the beginning gives you the TLDR, but I suggest you give it a full read.

I’ve been testing Chipolo and Pebblebee’s Google-compatible trackers ever since Google first launched its Find My Device network in May 2024. For eight months now, I’ve lugged them around, plus a bunch of their competitors, on every flight, train ride, outing, and activity, hoping to find the absolute best Bluetooth tracker out there. What started as a fun exercise of, “Hey, let me see if I can track my husband through a busy area in Paris,” quickly turned into a nightmare because of the sheer logistics of testing these.

I often had at least two or three phones in my pocket — sometimes four — with a bunch of testing scenarios, features to check, and environments to test in. I also had to enlist my husband’s help very often because I had to be physically separated from the “lost” item without losing it for real. Overall, I’ve tried these trackers in the UK, France, UAE, Lebanon, Belgium, Albania, Italy, and Portugal. When all was said and done, I had to comb through over 150 screenshots and dozens of videos. I’ve also delayed this article time and again because I wanted to give Google more time to roll out its network and redeem its disappointing performance. But time’s running out, and if there’s one verdict you need to know, it’s this:

Under absolutely no circumstance should you rely on Google's Find My Device network... just yet.

Nokia’s Design Insights from Apple’s iPod.

Before the iPhone, Nokia was analyzing Apple’s iPod and how it went from a cult status to a global icon. They wanted to know what was it, that drew people to a device that really only did one thing?

They knew the formula, and they spelled it out clearly in their presentation:

• core design team

• start with an idea for an unmet customer need

• drive innovation from imagining user’s experience

• define essentials for “insanely great”

• simplify to great lengths to hide complexity

• grow user involvement through evolution

Nokia dives into each of these topics in more detail, but I wanted to highlight what they said about the user experience:

Apple’s UI is superior to the competitions because it is easy to use, and it focuses on what is essential

“The vertical integration between iTunes and the iPod has been key to Apple’s success.

Because it owns all of it, Apple can control the user-experience from beginning to end.”

Apple has created a seamless user experience from opening the iPod box to purchasing songs.

Apple always launches products with content. The content is easy to find, load and play back.

Complexity is hidden, optimizing flow, integration of key use cases so a seamless user experience happens across applications while user performs user tasks.

Apple’s vertical integration, which is getting even deeper with its own established custom silicon and future Wi-Fi and 5G modems, will only strengthen their brand and the seamless integration between their hardware and software.

I’m not sure if a lot of the material in this presentation was distinctly Nokia’s analysis, or that of Leander Kahney. They used the cover art for his book, “The Cult of iPod,” as the image for their opening slide.

Is the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra ‘Jetblack,’ really Jet Black?

No.

It’s a matte-gray finish that does injustice to the words, Jet Black.

Source: Samsung

No polished mirror-like shine here circa 2016 with the iPhone 7.

Source: Apple

The only difference between Jetblack and Black seems to be black phone rails and a black S-Pen click-button to match.

It’s an online exclusive color…for now.

And yes, they did spell it, “Jetblack.”

Another injustice.

The Bose SoundDock XT fixed my HomePod mini problem.

I work a weird schedule.

I work a normal 8am - 4pm shift for 2 weeks, and then I work 1am - 9am on the 3rd week, rinse and repeat. I have been doing this rotation for the last 10 years, so I have gotten used to it.

Kind of.

With a full house (wife and 3 kids), I have to balance my sleep into multiple naps when I work the graveyard shift. The rest of the family is awake, and they do a great job of staying quiet. They’re homeschooled, so they stay home during daytime hours except on certain days when they have in-person classes.

The problem isn’t them making noise, but the problem lies with my white noise stopping in the middle of my nap. I have my iPhone connected to my HomePod mini, and I play my favorite YouTube video as a form of white noise at a high volume. To protect my hearing and to double down on normal house chatter (because…kids), I also wear ear plugs.

More often than I would like, my YouTube video stops playing and I wake up due to some noise that would easily be masked by the HomePod. If this happens when I am sleeping at night like a regular human, it isn’t a big deal since I can just restart it and go back to bed. If it happens during the day or late in the evening when I have to wake up at midnight for work, it becomes a challenge to fall back asleep.

As much as I wanted the HomePod mini to be my permanent solution, I just can’t rely on it when working the graveyard shift.

I also use a Bluetooth Anker speaker as an alternative, but that has its own annoyances. If I permanently keep it plugged in and charged, it will fail in 2 years due to the battery conking out (I’m on my 2nd unit). Plus, I don’t want to fiddle with yet another device that needs to be charged.

With Anker, I get reliable audio but annoying charging. With the HomePod, I get reliable power but annoying AirPlay issues. I needed something that has the best of both, and I decided to get a Bose SoundDock XT.

This was released back in 2012, but still holds up well today. It has no wireless capabilities whatsoever and has to be physically plugged into the wall like the HomePod. It has very simple touch controls in the front for volume, and that’s it. You can plug in a lightning iPhone and it will charge while playing audio, but I ended up using the AUX jack in the back. With Apple’s USB-C to headphone jack adapter, I can plug in my iPhone from a distance and I am set. No more power, Bluetooth, or AirPlay issues to worry about.

As for my iPhone, I have it docked on a dome-shaped, MagSafe charging station by Anker.

My white noise is bass heavy, and this Bose system handles it just fine. You can fetch one of these on eBay for about $50-60, and with shipping it was $75.

I liked it so much that I bought another one for only $50 with shipping.

If you want old-school, high-quality sound with reliable connectivity, you can’t go wrong with one of these older Bose SoundDocks.

iPhone SE supply is dwindling.

Joe Rossignol from MacRumors:

In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said iPhone SE inventory is "quickly" dwindling at a "large number" of Apple Store locations in the U.S., and he believes this is a "reliable sign" that a new model is on the horizon.

The current iPhone SE is still available to order on Apple's online store.

The current iPhone SE looks similar to the iPhone 8, with outdated features such as a Touch ID button, Lightning port, and thick bezels around the display. Pricing starts at $429, but at least a slight price increase seems probable for the next model.

Looks like the iPhone SE 3rd gen is on its way out, and if you really wanted one, now is the time to get it. A classic and a collectible down the line. You’ll be able to tell your grandkids about the “old days,” when you had to press a button to go to your Home Screen.

Using your AirPods Pro upside down works great.

I have been using my AirPods Pro upside down for certain reasons, and it turns out to be a great solution.

When I trim my beard near my ears, the AirPod stems get in the way and are at risk of falling out since I’m bringing my trimmer right in that area. All I do is switch the left and right earbuds, and flip them so the stems are now facing upwards. 

If I am at risk of them falling out or getting loose, such as during intense workouts, I also do the same thing, and they are actually more stable for me.

Keyword being, for me. 

We all have different ear shapes and sizes, so if you do have AirPods Pro, or even any other AirPods, give it a shot and see how you like it. 

I even called my wife while in “upside down mode,” and she could still hear me, but she said I sounded “distant,” and not in the psychoanalytical way. A disadvantage for call quality, but that’s fine because when I’m trimming my beard or working out, I don’t want to talk to anyone.

It’s even easier to adjust the volume up and down when the stems are pointing up. I don’t feel like my ear fit is any looser versus when the stems are hanging down. It actually feels more stable. 

The controls are reversed, so you have to slide up to lower the volume and slide down to increase the volume. Think inverted mouse scrolling.

This is a legitimate way to use your AirPods in certain scenarios. If you are using them for other Accessibility reasons such as Hearing Aids, I wouldn’t recommend flipping them upside down since orientation is a big part of those features working properly.

Nokia’s internal presentation to the iPhone announcement in 2007.

The Nokia Design Archive was opened to the public on January 15, 2025, and it has some interesting, previously confidential documents, including a reaction to the iPhone launch with a presentation titled:

Apple iPhone was launched (yes, it is “iPhone” *)

The asterisk led to the footnote:

*) Apple has agreed with Cisco on using the name, details not known.

We don’t know the details either, but let’s just say Apple got the better end of that deal.

The title sounds like they're mocking the iPhone, but the presentation tells a story of panic, fear, and stiff competition.

Not sure if this presentation should be in their Design Archive, but seeing references to the S60 Symbian OS and other Nokia phones was nostalgic.

This is as close to being a fly on the wall you could have been in Nokia’s executive meeting.

Full PDF of presentation in case they take it down.