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Using the Apple Watch on a 5Ghz WiFi Network

The Apple Watch supposedly only works via a 2.4GHz WiFi connection but there is a workaround to trick it into working with a 5GHz connection if that’s how your WiFi is configured. Technically it would not really be using a 5GHz network because the Apple Watch is equipped with a 2.4GHz chip so it can only connect to like networks. This trick will allow you to make use of a 5GHz connection all the same. Follow this procedure to fool the Apple Watch into playing nice with that 5GHz network.

1. Either turn the Apple Watch Off or enable Airplane mode. To turn the watch off, hold the side button down until you see the power slider. To enable Airplane mode, swipe up on the watch face, then swipe left until you reach the Airplane mode toggle and toggle it to On.

2. Now on your iPhone, forget your existing WiFi connections and disable Bluetooth. Go to Settings, then WiFi where you will see a list of existing WiFi networks. Tap the ‘!’ exclamation symbol next to each network name and tap ‘Forget This Network’.

3. Connect the iPhone back to your 2.4GHz network, enable Bluetooth, turn your Apple Watch back on and disable Airplane mode if it’s on. The Apple Watch will reconnect to your iPhone.

4. Turn Bluetooth off on your iPhone. Now attempt to send a quick iMessage via the Apple Watch. The message should be sent successfully as it will revert to the WiFi connection.

5. You can now turn Bluetooth on again on the iPhone. Forget the 2.4GHz network again on the iPhone WiFi settings and reconnect using your 5GHz connection.

6. Once again turn Bluetooth off on your iPhone. Attempt to send another iMessage from your Apple Watch. It should again work but is now using your 5GHz connection.

It’s a bit of a hassle but could be worth it if you don’t want to be bothered having to remember which device is using which type of WiFi network.

Game of Thrones Episode Four Release Dates

The latest installment of the video game version of the Game of Thrones : A Telltale Games Series from Telltale Games now has a game, set, match release date. The game is of course based on the wildly popular series of Game of Thrones fantasy books and TV show. For fans who are hungry for every last bit of the series, you now have a firm release date for the latest episode across many digital platforms. The game will eventually have a total of six episodes with the first three having been released already. Telltale Games is known for having a somewhat unpredictable episode release schedule but luckily we now know when the next one is coming out. The production values and fun of the games easily makes up for the wait.

The fourth episode, ‘Sons of Winter’, chronicles the story of House Forrester and will be released on May 26th, first on Steam for PC and Mac and the PlayStation Network for PS3 and PS4. The following day (May 27th) it will be available for both Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The day after that (May 28th) the episode will be available to download and play on iOS and Android devices. That’s a little confusing but at least the game is available on nearly every possible platform so there’s no excuse for missing out on it.

If you’ve ever played a Telltale game before, you know you’re in for quite a treat when this episode is finally released. You also know that it’s highly recommended that you play the previous episodes to fully enjoy the game and not have various spoilers ruin the experience. If you haven’t played the series already, luckily you have a few days to play the first three episodes and get all caught up! So fire up that console, tablet, or computer and jump into Westeros.

Only a few days left until the saga of House Forrester continues.

Creating and Managing Custom Watch Faces on Apple Watch

One of the best features of the Apple Watch and smartwatches in general, is the ability to completely customize the watch face. You’re no longer bound by the physical and unchangeable face of a normal watch. Now you can decide exactly what kinds of information you want to display on the watch, where it will be placed, and the general style of the watch face.

First we’ll start with the simplest task, which is switching between the stock watch faces that ship on the Apple Watch.

1. Bring up the current watch face, then press firmly (Force Touch) the screen to go to the Faces gallery.

2. Here you can see the default faces available to you can swap instantly. Swipe left or right to change the face and tap it to select it as the new watch face.

Now is the more fun part, creating your own customized watch face. You don’t have complete creativity as you cannot use your own images or fully control the placement of elements. You do get a huge number of options however, in terms of color, types of information to display, and the placement of those elements.

1. Bring up the current watch face, press firmly (Force Touch) on the screen and tap the Customize button on the bottom.

2. Swipe to the right until you find a blank face with ‘+’ New displayed. Tap this face and choose the template stock face you wish to customize.

3. Now bring up the watch face again, press firmly and tap Cuztomize again.

4. Anything now highlighted in green can be changed and customized by moving the Digital Crown.

5. Swipe left or right to see more options for customization, again move the Digital Crown to adjust these.

6. When you’re satisfied with the final result, tap the Digital Crown once, then tap the watch face to exit and save your custom watch face. It will also be saved and available with all customizations in the Faces gallery.

Finally if you create one too many custom faces or decide you don’t like one that’s been saved, you can delete custom faces too.

1. Bring up the watch face and press firmly to enter the Faces gallery.

2. Swipe to the face you wish to delete.

3. Swipe up and a trashcan icon will appear. Tap it to delete the face.

Now you should be able to find and set a watch face that suits your style and personality while also being functional.

The WristBoom Wearable Bluetooth Speaker

With the rise of wearable devices, along comes a fun little portable Bluetooth speaker, dubbed the WristBoom. It’s designed to be worn on the wrist just like a watch and features a surprisingly capable speaker that can work with any Bluetooth device. It’s a sort of big brother to the Bluetooth headsets that have been around for ears except with a much more powerful speaker. WristBoom is currently trying to achieve a crowd funded goal to support a full release at a price of $49.

In terms of technical specs, WristBoom features both a speaker and a microphone. It can connect to any Bluetooth capable phone and functions much like a Bluetooth headset. The difference here is that because the speaker is so much more powerful you can actually use it as a portable music player, speakerphone, etc. where you couldn’t on a standard headset or trying to rely on the weak speakers in many portable devices and phones.

The sound quality is reportedly quite good, even at high volumes. There is no noticeable distortion and the volume can be surprisingly loud which makes it a very usable speaker. It likely handily beats most portable small speaker devices in that department.

The biggest drawback is a complete lack of controls on the device which would have definitely increased price and complexity. Instead, you’ll have to manage everything from your phone from playback, to pausing, to selecting audio. You’ll need to keep that phone nearby as long as you want to interact with what’s being played on the phone or if you’re using it as a microphone.

The real fun comes from the wearable and portable applications of WristBoom and that is where it separates itself. Any place or time you’d need a wearable speaker and microphone, WristBoom would be an amazing device. If you want to quickly share some music with friends, invent some sort of new game, or even use it in a work environment to relay information, it could definitely find a strong role in such applications. If you’re a fan, you can pre-order one now for $20 on WristBoom’s Indiegogo campaign.

Source: WristBoom | INDIEGOGO

Google’s New Tone Extension for Chrome

Tone is a new experimental extension for Google’s Chrome browser. It leverages the fact that nearly all devices have speakers and microphones to transmit information using actual sound waves instead of standard wireless radio signals like WiFi and Bluetooth. Although these familiar ways of transmitting data are also present everywhere, they are so common and so numerous that they often interfere with one another or make transmitting data more troublesome than it should be. This is especially true in the simple environment of a room full of friends or colleagues.

In essence, Tone allows for computers to literally talk to one another using sound as the information medium and a codec to make it understandable. As long as each device in the area has Tone installed, and as long as they can hear the transmitting device, information can be exchanged just as it would between two people speaking. It’s a clever way to get around the hassle of fiddling with various Bluetooth or WiFi settings or having to transfer information between conflicting OSes. Funnily enough, problems can happen if the machines aren’t oriented in such a way that they can easily hear one another, just like humans speaking!

If you want to give Tone a try, you can use it to broadcast a URL to nearby machines with Chrome and Tone. All you need to do is the following.

1. Install the Tone extension for Chrome.

2. Check that the volume on your computer is sufficiently high and on.

3. Press the Tone button in Chrome. Tone will beep (talk) to nearby machines and tell them the URL being sent.

4. If you’re receiving a Tone URL, a notification will pop up in Chrome that you can click to go to the URL that was sent!

This is a pretty cool tech demo and could become quite useful in the future as support is enabled for sending various other types of data besides simple URLs. Google is already experimenting with that internally but it seems very likely that if Tone becomes popular, this capability will be added for everyone.

Source: Google Research Blog | Google Tone – Chrome Store

Increase Haptic Feedback (Vibration) on the Apple Watch

Haptic feedback has been around for quite a while now. In essence, it’s controlled vibration on a device that allows for some more interactivity and adds a sensory element. As with all things Apple, they weren’t content to just slap on a little motor inside the Apple Watch and have instead created a more sophisticated haptic device dubbed the Taptic Engine. Inside every Apple Watch is a Taptic Engine motor which provides subtle vibration based feedback to the wearer’s wrist. This is what allows you to feel a tap on the wrist with an incoming notification or even feel someone’s heartbeat from anywhere in the world.

Just as you might miss a tap on the wrist while walking through a party or down the street, it can be easy to miss a Taptic Engine alert on your Apple Watch. The motion of walking around or carrying something can easily mask the gentle tap that your Apple Watch is so kindly trying to provide. Luckily, Apple has thought through just such a contingency and has provided a setting to enable much stronger feedback which makes it harder to miss. Follow these steps to increase the force of haptic feedback.

1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.

2. Under My Watch, tap Sounds & Haptics.

3. Toggle the Prominent Haptic switch to On.

If you want to switch Prominent Haptic on directly from your Apple Watch that’s also possible.

1. Open Settings on your Apple Watch.

2. Tap Sounds & Haptics.

3. Toggle the Prominent Haptic switch to On.

Once Prominent Haptic is enabled, the Apple Watch will send a longer, more intense vibration to tell you that an alert of some kind is incoming and to take note. This makes it much more likely that you’ll notice the Prominent Haptic warning and the subsequent, more subtle alert. Of course if for some reason you don’t like the pre-alert warning, you can toggle Prominent Haptic to off to disable it. For most users, it does seems to be quite an improvement over the standard alerts which can be easy to miss during the motion of everyday life.