20 Apple Watch apps we want to see
We cross our fingers really really hard, in an attempt to magic these amazing apps into being by the time Apple’s wearable appears
Unless a shiny gadget is only supposed to sit quietly, looking gorgeous, it’s what you can do with it that counts.
Quite a few people prefer the iPad over Android tablets not because Apple technology is any better, but because you get amazing apps for iOS that just don’t exist elsewhere.
The Apple Watch will be the same – a device that succeeds or fails not so much due to fashion or bling, but down to the apps available for the platform. (And, yes, Apple’s decision to create the Edition line, starting at something like eleven billion dollars, erodes that sentiment a bit, but the fact remains apps will differentiate Apple Watch from the competition.)
Here, then, is our Apple Watch apps wish-list; it’s a mix of existing iOS apps we reckon would work well on Apple Watch, pie-in-the-sky dreams that the technology’s almost certainly not yet ready for, and entirely practical suggestions that are probably in the works anyway.
*Note: all images in this feature are mock-ups created by Stuff.tv’s tame Photoshop wizard, not official app grabs.*
1. Motion Sports
There’s actually already a small selection of Wii-style sports games for iPhone, which beam footage to an Apple TV, but using Apple Watch’s built-in motion gubbins seems safer than waving an expensive iPhone about like a lunatic. For added realism, you could also hold a real tennis racket or bowling ball while playing! OK, maybe not the latter of those.
2. RealBeat
You’re not going to be composing anything complex when music apps make their way to Apple Watch, but a stripped-back RealBeat could be fantastic. Use the device’s microphone to record tiny samples of whatever’s nearby and handy (tables; glasses; pots and pans; small animals), and then overlay the snippets to create a loop. Export to a ringtone or oddball megahit.
3. Remote control
Controlling your telly has evolved. Once, you actually had to get off your backside, walk to the TV and press buttons (the horror!), and then remotes appeared, attached to suspiciously short wires. But then wireless remotes arrived, followed by controlling a TV via a phone! Using an Apple Watch on your wrist is surely only one step away from the ultimate prize: thought-beaming channel changes to a set. (Apple’s of course releasing the Remote app, but that’ll only control your Apple TV, alas.)
4. Find My Friends
Also known as Stalk Agreeable Friends And Family Members, this app has to be a dead cert for Apple Watch, enabling you to see where your favourite people are at any given moment. It’d be great for geo-based notifications too — a nudge to your wrist when your kids are safely at school, for example. (Assuming they’re armed with expensive Apple kit, obviously).
5. 30/30
The 30/30 app is a clever time-tracker that enables you to manage your day, including looping work/break sessions, like a pared-down Pomodoro Technique. This kind of app would be well-suited to Apple Watch, politely nudging you when it’s time to stop gawking at LOLcats and return to doing something slightly more productive.
6. A really lazy shopping app
The future of shopping is, to some extent, avoiding the hassle of shopping. So we want an app where we can just stumble about and say “I need some eggs”, and the app would eventually — and possibly grudgingly — order at the most opportune time. (The Apple Watch should ideally then grow arms and legs and put the shopping away once it arrives).
7. A really clever shopping app
And for those times when you haul yourself to real-world shops, geo-location and learned preferences should come into play. Ambling about the supermarket and need some beans? Your Apple Watch should buzz when you’re near the product. A huge fan of amusing hats and walking past Amusing Hats, Inc., which is having a half-price sale on especially amusing hats? Your Apple Watch should tear your arm off to get you inside.
8. Triposo city walks
The Triposo app is wonderful for all sorts of reasons, not least in providing offline guides for 30,000 destinations. But its shining star is dynamic city walks for wherever you happen to be. An Apple Watch app just for that bit would be magic, the wearable prompting you to turn left or right when appropriate, rather than you ending up lost, alone and devoured by wolves.
9. Duolingo
The Duolingo app is a cunningly designed way of injecting new languages into your brain by way of bite-sized lessons. On Apple Watch, this kind of thing could be even shorter and sweeter, perhaps concentrating on you learning a single new word or phrase a day.
10. iKaossilator
In its initial incarnation, the Apple Watch’s gestural input is reportedly pretty simple, as are the apps. But in a revision or two’s time, something like the pad-based iKaossilator would be fantastic — tiny gestural music-making right on your wrist. And then someone will make a hit album with just an Apple Watch and we’ll have to hate them.
11. iControl
This isn’t an actual app (as far as we know) — just one we really want. After a wee bit of setting things up, the Apple Watch would become the means of controlling your entire home and workplace. As you near work, geo-location magic would fire up things that need firing up; on returning home, it’d turn on the heating, and play suitably invigorating music that makes you forget you want your boss to have a particularly nasty accident involving a cheese sandwich and a whisk.
12. Super Hexagon
Another one to file away for the future: Super Hexagon on Apple Watch. We’re pretty sure the current hardware can’t deal with such fast-moving games, but simple left/right rotation avoidy stuff could work nicely with the digital crown controlling movement. Of course, this particular title would be even harder on the smaller screen, with games lasting only several seconds — perfect for not impacting on battery life.
13. Find My iPhone
Although primarily designed to track down your device if someone pilfers it, Find My iPhone has other uses, notably having it scream out when you can’t find the thing, despite having searched the entire house. On Apple Watch, we’d quite happily have this as a one-button app, with said button labelled ‘Blare alarm, because your buffoon owner has misplaced you AGAIN’ — or something a bit shorter if that won’t fit.
14. Guitar tuner
Guitars annoyingly don’t stay in tune forever, and unless you’re gifted with magic ears, you’ll need a tuner. Fishing one out (or even an app on your phone) is a hassle. If only there was a little screen attached to your wrist that could helpfully tell you your E is a little flat…
15. Strip comics
Reading comics on a smartphone is bad enough, and so we’d probably rather have Judge Dredd punch our face in than try delving into the latest issue of 2000 AD on Apple Watch. But short panel-based comic strips could work nicely with the tiny screen and page-based nav system, bringing Peanuts and the like to your wrist.
16. Groove
We know that Apple Watch will be able to store on-board audio, but Apple’s own music players lack imagination. We’d much prefer to see Groove on our Apple Watch, cleverly churning out limitless personalised playlists, thereby ensuring we get out of that rut of listening to the same few albums all the time.
17. Walkie Talkie
Yes, there’s a Phone app built into Apple Watch, and you can use the device’s built-in speaker and mic for quick chats. But really we want to turn Apple Watch into a modern take on classic TV-show wrist communicators, complete with terrible ‘futuristic graphics’, stupid bleepy noises, and more licensing than you can shake a stick at. Star Trek! Dick Tracy! *Knight Rider!* (Bonus points to Apple if our car starts calling us Michael and can turbo-boost into the air when we’re wearing an Apple Watch.)
18. 7-minute challenge
Tim Cook keeps banging on about exercise, and the Apple Watch has some built-in apps to track your health. The 7-minute exercise challenge is seemingly all the rage these days, and would seem perfect for a device you’re not meant to be using for very long in any given session.
19. A smart travel app
The excellent Citymapper is coming to Apple Watch, providing wrist-based updates for public transport. But the app only works in a handful of cities. Apple should stop dragging its heels regarding such info, bundle it directly into Maps, and have your Apple Watch intelligently keep track of what’s happening. Dawdling a bit, and about to miss the train? Apple Watch would prod your wrist to urge you to speed up. Another delayed train, making it a better bet to grab a nearby bus? It’d tell you about that too.
20. Cookie Clicker
Actually, we *don’t* think this would be an amazing app, but it would be funny to see Apple Watch reduced to a screen people incessantly tap all day, in order to amass a huge collection of virtual cookies. And then people would get RSI from holding their arms up for so long, in order to get all those cookies, leading, inevitably, to Cookiegate. We think you’ll agree there’s no finer-sounding scandal than that.
Cream of the crop › The best wearables in the world
Craig Grannell
Contributor 
