Updating Apple Devices

I'd like to hear back from you updaters in a while to see how that update works for you. I was reading about it and it seems to be targeted towards social media and connecting with other Apple users, which are things of marginal value to me. But I'll upgrade if there's no reason not to.

 

My oldest son said that he upgraded last week, and he is very happy with how everything is working. I always do the updates right away, and when there are issues, then the little updates will come out. This is the once a year large upgrade, and it is going to take a while to download and install. You have to do the phone first, and then make sure that the watch is on the charger and do the update for that.

 

I've run out of high speed for the month. I'll have to wait until my meter resets. So Apple releases new features annually and then does patches for the next 12 months, huh?

 

Pretty much that is how it goes, @John Brunner . They will release a large update, and then little ones to fix problems as they become obvious. Later in the year will probably be another fairly large update, probably around springtime, with new device releases, and then more small fixer updates for the next month or so.

Waiting until your meter resets is not a bad thing, because by then, they will probably added some bug-fixes, so it will be iOS 15.2 or something like that instead of just iOS 15. It won’t take any longer, and will mean you avoid any problems. Most people do not have problems, especially here in the US, but some people will, and apple is great at addressing those kinds of issues as they arise.

 

This morning when we went to the fitness center, my Apple Watch alerted me right after we left home, so I looked to see what it was telling me.
The watch now has a new detection ability, and it said that I didn’t have my phone with me, and that the last known place for the phone was at XXXX (my address).
There is a way to approve addresses, so next time, I will do that and then the watch will know that it is okay for me to leave the phone at home when I want to; but if I somehow lost it somewhere else, then the watch would alert me right away.

I also noticed that my exercise ring notices are in color now, too, which is pretty cool.

 

I forget, Yvonne...does your watch have LTE capabilities (can you make/receive calls without your phone nearby?) I take it they never get out of Bluetooth range when at home.

 

My watch works independently of the phone, but it does tell me if the phone is nearby or not. It has its own cell connectivity. As you said, at home they are always together.
The first watch I had , a Generation 2, didn’t have cell capabilities, so I had to carry the phone with me, but after the Gen 3 watch came out, they have the LTE option.

 

I've taken my phone around my property to see where the wi fi signals stops and it switches over to the cell tower, and I don't recall it saying anything about losing connection with the phone. In fact, I've left my phone at home and driven 5 miles to the Verizon store to see if I could get them to communicate with each other via wi-fi (I couldn't), and never got any such notification.

Hmmmm.... maybe the SE does not have that capability.

 

Look at the top corner of your watch face, and it shows a little phone with a line through it icon when you are away from the phone.
It is different from the red dot that tells you you have an alert.
When you upgrade to iOS 15 on the phone and upgrade the watch, then you will probably get the alert like I got today. I have never had any kind of alert before this.

Bobby’s phone is only an 8 gen, and his has the same capabilities as mine does in that respect, your phone is newer (maybe even newer than my 11 ?) so it should have no problem with the alerts.

Here is the support page that shows all the little watch icons and what they mean.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205550

 

Thank you so much, Yvonne. There are a few on there that I have not encountered yet. I don't know why I did not notice the "Out of phone range" one when I took my watch to the Verizon store...I was trying to see if I could communicate with my iPhone via the Camera App over Verizon's wi-fi. I could not, but I'm not sure it won't work. And I was certainly out of range.

I have been using iTunes to a limited extent. I'm currently using it to USB Tether my iPhone to my laptop to use my iPhone's balance of September's high speed internet allotment (I've burned through September's allotment on my MyFi.) I've also installed a program named MobiMover that lays on top of iTunes as a friendlier user interface for moving files (like photos) back & forth between my WIN10 laptop and my iPhone.