Apple with the introduction of the Apple Watch Ultra showed off a redesigned and more expansive Compass app, which, as it turns out, is available to existing Apple Watch models in watchOS 9.
Available today, watchOS 9 adds the redesigned Compass app to the Apple Watch Series 5 and later and the Apple Watch SE, though select features are limited to the Apple Watch SE and the Series 6 and later.
The redesigned Compass app features an analog compass that displays a digital view of your current bearing and direction. You can tap into a zoomed view that shows your bearing, elevation, incline, latitude, and longitude for more information.
If you have an Apple Watch Series 6 or later, you can mark points of interest in the Compass app using the Waypoints feature, which has customizable colors and symbols. The Waypoints app adds a little marker to your current coordinates, and all Waypoints show up on the main Compass view so you can find your way back to them.
You can also use a new "Backtrack" feature if you have a Series 6 or later. Backtrack uses GPS to record the path that you take, so if you get lost, you can find your way back later. watchOS 9 is available on the Apple Watch Series 4 and later and it can be downloaded now.
Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
Wednesday March 18, 2026 11:56 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, which means we're going to see a public launch as soon as next week. The RC versions of the software include Apple's official release notes, giving us final details on what's included in the update.
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They know how many, which and what kind of watches are active currently and which one need to be forced to upgrade.
i don't think it is fair, Apple products last longer then most other products and Apple is working hard to support software upgrades to older devices in general. Apple does somethings that i don't like (repairability/upgradability) but not supporting products and forced upgrades in not one of them. We have to give them credit where it is due.