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Thursday 21 sepTember TECHNOLOGY
A24

Review: Apple Watch goes solo, but don’t dump your phone yet

By ANICK JESDANUN the battery was low to be-
AP Technology Writer gin with. Plan ahead. A
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) spare watch charger at
— A chief gripe with Apple your desk helps for those
Watch is that it requires you days you’re dumb enough
to keep an iPhone with you to leave your phone on the
for most tasks. The inclusion kitchen counter.
of GPS last year helped EMBRACING THE TETHER
on runs and bike rides, It can be handy to unte-
but you’re still missing calls ther the watch at times,
and messages without the but it’s not always neces-
phone nearby. sary. Even when tied to the
A new model with its own phone, Series 3 offers im-
cellular-network connec- provement such as track-
tion is Apple’s next step to- ing elevation, so you get
ward an untethered world. credit for climbing stairs or
Now you can make and jogging up a hill. And you
receive calls and messag- can now hear Siri respons-
es on the watch while leav- es on the watch speaker,
ing your phone at home. something enabled by the
But the watch still needs new version’s faster pro-
regular contact with an In this Sept. 15, 2017, photo, the non-cellular version of the Apple Watch Series 3 is displayed in cessor.
iPhone, and for most tasks, New York. The new watch comes out Friday, Sept. 22. SOFTWARE UPDATE
the phone needs to be on Associated Press For owners of past mod-
and connected, even if it’s els, a software update out
nowhere nearby. So you errand. Phone calls and iMessage noyance when the phone this week, watchOS 4, will
can’t get away with ditch- You need a data add- chats work on the watch was in the same room. If bring easier access to mu-
ing the iPhone altogether. on from the same wireless even if your phone is off, as you’ve left the phone be- sic playback controls when
(Android users have their provider as your phone. do turn-by-turn maps and hind, though, you’ll be left exercising — just swipe left.
own wristwear options, in- It typically costs $5 or $10 queries to the Siri voice as- hanging. There are more prompts
cluding Samsung Gear a month and uses the sistant. For texts, the phone You can also run into trou- when reaching or nearing
and Android Wear watch- phone’s data allotment. needs to be on — some- ble while roaming, particu- daily goals, and options for
es, some of which can al- While the watch technical- where. With the phone on, larly internationally. For one multiple sports in a single
ready manage their own ly has its own phone num- you can perform a variety thing, engineers weren’t workout.A new heart rate
network connections.) ber, the major carriers have of other tasks, including able to squeeze in support app now shows heart rate
The new Apple Watch Se- worked out number sync- checking weather apps, for cellular frequencies at rest and averages when
ries 3, distinguished by a ing. Calls to your phone will Yelp recommendations around the world. And out- walking or recovering from
red crown, comes out Fri- go to the watch, and calls and notifications that go side the U.S., only a hand- exercise. These can help
day starting at about $400. from the watch will appear to the phone. ful of carriers are support- you gauge your overall fit-
You can forgo cellular, and on caller ID with your regu- Coming soon: the ability to ing the cellular watch. In ness.And if your heart rate
the red crown, for $70 less. lar number. Same goes for stream Apple Music, even any case, don’t forget to is high without any signs of
Or get a first-generation texts and iMessage chats. with the phone off. Unfor- switch to airplane mode exercise, you’ll get an alert.
model, without GPS, for Calls use the watch’s tunately, this doesn’t apply on flights.Cellular data also You enable this when you
about $250. speaker and microphone, to rival music services or drains the battery quicker. first open the heart rate
WHERE IT HELPS or wireless earphones. Col- Apple’s podcast app. Apple’s promised 18 hours app. It can signal health
You might not want to leagues say call quality LIMITATIONS of battery life includes problems, though Apple
bring your phone on a was fine. It came in handy Because the watch screen about four hours of such is stopping short of telling
short jog; the watch can for sneaking in runs during is small, many apps offer use. An hour of phone calls you to see a doctor or visit
still keep you in touch. Or conference calls (though only a sliver of information over LTE will drain the bat- the emergency room, as
you can leave the phone if you’re my boss, just kid- and refer you back to the tery completely. the watch isn’t marketed
home while walking the ding! Now, about that raise phone to view more. That I got dropped from two — or certified — as a medi-
dog or performing a quick ...). was little more than an an- conference calls because cal device.q
Alexa, what do you see? Amazon

said to be working on glasses

NEW YORK (AP) — says the glasses could be Snapchat sells $130
Amazon is attempting to released before the end glasses that take a short
develop glasses that pair of the year. video and post it on
with Alexa and would al- Amazon.com Inc., the social media app.
low users to access the based in Seattle, did not And Alphabet Inc. sells
voice-activated assis- immediately respond to Google Glass to em-
tant outside the home, a request for comment ployers, so that doctors

In this May 17, 2017, file photo, an Amazon Alexa device is according to a newspa- Wednesday. or factory workers can
switched on for a demonstration of its use in a ballpark suite per report. Wearable technology, search information or
before a Seattle Mariners baseball game in Seattle. The Financial Times, cit- glasses specifically, is talk to co-workers hands
Associated Press ing anonymous sources, already in limited use. free.q