On Friday, April 24, the first Apple Watches will be delivered to some of the individuals who pre-ordered the devices early in the morning of April 10. Many of those who pre-ordered are reporting that they’re still seeing the same order status that appeared when their orders were made, with “Processing Items” being the only indication that anything is going on. MacRumors is now reporting that “pre-orders are now being shipped to centralized distribution points across the United States” and that “customers that pre-ordered the Apple Watch early should see their order status change soon.” The information about bulk shipments was provided to the popular rumor site by a source “that has provided accurate information in the past.”
Apple Watch fans may not yet have the sleek watches strapped to their wrists, but they’re definitely in for a veritable bumper crop of apps on April 24. A growing number of app developers have already announced companion applications for the Watch, and today’s announcements are indicative of the variety of apps that are being developed.
Booking.com is a well-known website for booking lodging at more than 625,000 properties in more than 75,000 destinations. The Booking Now iPhone app has a new Apple Watch companion that displays the nearest accommodation that matches a traveler’s personal preferences, allows a one-tap booking, provides turn-by-turn directions to the accommodation, saves their room number for the duration of the stay, and lets the traveler rate the check-in experience.
Do you like playing Yahtzee with Buddies on your iPhone? While you won’t be able to play the popular game on your Watch, the companion app provides alerts for turns waiting, shows you what your opponent rolled, and displays chats in progress. The same development team will also have a critical decision-making app available on April 24 — a Magic 8 Ball for Apple Watch!
CARROT is an artificial intelligence construct with an attitude that has been irritating and motivating iPhone users for several years. The developer, Grailr LLC, is bringing the snarky personality to the Watch for its CARROT Weather and CARROT Fit app. With the Fit app, the Watch serves as a heads-up display for the “7 minutes in hell workout” provided in the app so that you can see what form of torture the app wants you to endure next. CARROT Weather just provides “helpful” commentary on upcoming weather, as seen in the screenshot above.
If the ability to send animated Emoji, finger-drawn pictures and your heartbeat to Apple Watch-wearing friends isn’t enough for you, SHAPE (the creator of IM+ Messenger) will have a new “Watch-centric messenger” with the name of “8” available April 24. It’s a sticker-based messenger app designed to make short messages fun, and if you can’t say it all with a sticker, you’ll still have an opportunity to add text.
Expect to see even more fun, useful and even humorous Watch apps announced over the next few days as the countdown to Apple’s newest product continues.
