The biggest Apple Watch update in years could be revealed in days

On Monday, June 5, Apple will unveil the next generations of software for its devices, including the Apple Watch, during its annual World Wide Developers Conference. A new report from Mark Gurman to Bloomberg discusses what he expects to see announced.

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This fall is when we expect to see Apple Watch Series 9 and it will run watchOS 10. That’s what will be unveiled at WWDC, and Gurman believes it’s the software that will account for the most improvements on the smartwatch this year, even if he’s a fool who it underestimates what Apple has up its sleeve (literally, I suppose, in the case of the Apple Watch).

And remember, watchOS 10 will also work on many current Apple Watch models. While the general release software won’t be available until the fall, the developer beta and public beta software will arrive much sooner. As soon as next week, maybe, for developers.

You can read some of the previous entries about this software here.

The latest reveal is about the Watchs apps and how they will be revamped. Gurman says Apple is revamping all of the Apple Watch’s core apps with new designs to take advantage of the Apple Watch Ultra’s larger displays and larger standard watches.

This is interesting and addresses an issue some users had, who felt that while the Watch Ultra is the largest smartwatch display Apple has made, many watch faces haven’t really changed. Mind you, faces like the brilliant Wayfinder, designed exclusively for the Ultra, are hard to beat.

However, this is promising, offering a wider range of faces that maximize the extra screen real estate. I wonder, will Apple take the opportunity to improve these faces for other users as well?

Gurman previously envisioned widgets for the Watch, but now he goes into more detail, saying Apple is bringing widgets back to the Apple Watch and making them a core part of the new operating system. The widgets will be similar to those on the iOS and iPadOS home screen and will allow users to scroll through the weather, stock tickers, upcoming calendar appointments and more.

It feels like a splendid use of space and will get all Watch users, not just Ultra wearers, to use their wearable in new ways. This is always good and makes users feel like their existing product just got better.

As a result, this may mean relating to the hardware differently. As Gurman explains, Apple is changing some of the behavior of the buttons on the Apple Watch, including changing the Digital Crown to open the new widget interface instead of the standard home screen array of apps.

These are big changes. There will no doubt be more secrets shared at WWDC. Please check back for more information as we have it.

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