The Curious Case of the Missing Apple Podcast Complication
When Apple released watchOS 5 they highlighted the fact that they were bringing their Podcasts app to the Apple Watch for the first time ever. Then, a few weeks later when they unveiled the new 4th generation Apple Watch, they highlighted the fact that you could now get more complications on the watch’s new larger screen. But here we are 8 months later and Apple still hasn’t gone the last step needed. They still haven’t made a podcasts complication for the new infograph watch faces on the 4th gen Apple Watch. What is up with that?
I’m starting to wonder if something really big is coming to watchOS in the near future. This situation of Apple ignoring seemingly simple additions to watchOS 5 reminds me of of what I use to see just before a big software release.
Earlier in my career I used to help install custom AS400-based inventory systems for the Amway Corporation in foreign subsidiaries. I teamed up with a software programmer and I would design and test the module we were assigned, while he wrote the code. Every new country we launched received various custom tweaks to the system based on their unique needs.
However, something irritating always occurred just before the release of a major new software release. All non-emergency custom software development for the current system was put on-hold. I was a contact for our foreign accounting departments and they were always requesting new software tweaks to help make their jobs easier or requesting new reports that they needed for government compliance etc. Communicating the fact that system changes were on lock-down was never popular.
When we were about to launch a new version of the software, any work on the old system would be wasted. The thinking was, roll out the new system and put your time and effort into making that meet your customer’s needs. Why spend time enhancing a system that would be gone in 6 months?
Now Apple operates on a magnitude so much larger than what I’ve ever been exposed to that it is hard to even imagine how they handle software changes. But since they are ignoring obvious and simple software tweaks to their infograph watch faces, I can’t help but wonder if they are in a similar situation.
Could Apple be about to revamp how they handle watch faces? Are we going to get an Apple Watch App Store where people can make watch faces and put them up for sale in the watch? It’s already been rumored that the Apple Watch may get an on device App Store that doesn’t require the iPhone. To which everyone asked “Why?”. Well, purchasing new watch faces could be a definite big reason.
Prior to the Apple Watch I used to wear the original Pebble Watch. The watch face store there was seemingly endless. In fact, many nights while I was watching TV I would browse the watch faces and pick a new face for the next day. You could literally have a new watch face every day of the year and never use the same face twice.
Now, new watch faces doesn’t necessarily mean that Apple is off the hook for making a podcast complication. But if Apple is about to overhaul everything about how complications function and are handled by the system, that might. If Apple is rewriting everything about complications so that they are dynamic and more powerful, why waste any more time on creating complications under the old rules?
If Apple is about to turn the world of watch faces upside down it could also help explain why they’ve seemed to have shut down development on the current watch faces. If it’s possible that in a matter of weeks very people may ever use their stock watch faces again, it could become apparent why Apple never bothered to update their infograph watch faces. Why bother?
Why spend any more time and expense on a system that is about to get blown away? I suppose we’ll find out in a few weeks as Apple unveils watchOS 6. The lack of the podcast complication availability could be a sign of big things coming. Or it could simply be a lack of a attention to detail.
Earlier in my career I used to help install custom AS400-based inventory systems for the Amway Corporation in foreign subsidiaries. I teamed up with a software programmer and I would design and test the module we were assigned, while he wrote the code. Every new country we launched received various custom tweaks to the system based on their unique needs.
However, something irritating always occurred just before the release of a major new software release. All non-emergency custom software development for the current system was put on-hold. I was a contact for our foreign accounting departments and they were always requesting new software tweaks to help make their jobs easier or requesting new reports that they needed for government compliance etc. Communicating the fact that system changes were on lock-down was never popular.
When we were about to launch a new version of the software, any work on the old system would be wasted. The thinking was, roll out the new system and put your time and effort into making that meet your customer’s needs. Why spend time enhancing a system that would be gone in 6 months?
Now Apple operates on a magnitude so much larger than what I’ve ever been exposed to that it is hard to even imagine how they handle software changes. But since they are ignoring obvious and simple software tweaks to their infograph watch faces, I can’t help but wonder if they are in a similar situation.
Could Apple be about to revamp how they handle watch faces? Are we going to get an Apple Watch App Store where people can make watch faces and put them up for sale in the watch? It’s already been rumored that the Apple Watch may get an on device App Store that doesn’t require the iPhone. To which everyone asked “Why?”. Well, purchasing new watch faces could be a definite big reason.
Prior to the Apple Watch I used to wear the original Pebble Watch. The watch face store there was seemingly endless. In fact, many nights while I was watching TV I would browse the watch faces and pick a new face for the next day. You could literally have a new watch face every day of the year and never use the same face twice.
Now, new watch faces doesn’t necessarily mean that Apple is off the hook for making a podcast complication. But if Apple is about to overhaul everything about how complications function and are handled by the system, that might. If Apple is rewriting everything about complications so that they are dynamic and more powerful, why waste any more time on creating complications under the old rules?
If Apple is about to turn the world of watch faces upside down it could also help explain why they’ve seemed to have shut down development on the current watch faces. If it’s possible that in a matter of weeks very people may ever use their stock watch faces again, it could become apparent why Apple never bothered to update their infograph watch faces. Why bother?
Why spend any more time and expense on a system that is about to get blown away? I suppose we’ll find out in a few weeks as Apple unveils watchOS 6. The lack of the podcast complication availability could be a sign of big things coming. Or it could simply be a lack of a attention to detail.
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