Wesley's Tool-Box

As many people including myself noticed, iOS 9 beta 1 and watchOS 2 beta 1 had horrible battery life. After two weeks of bearing this, beta 2 of both OSes arrived on June 23 (June 24 in Korea), amidst the hope that they would fix or lessen this battery problem. The one for Apple Watch was pulled just after release, but then re-uploaded a few hours later. I was able to have these betas installed on my iPhone 6 Plus and my Apple Watch as soon as I could.

It's now been more than two full days since and Apple Watch has finally been launched in Korea with people lining up in front of the store despite the rain. For those people who were now wondering if the new beta is anything worth diving into for their shiny new watch, here's my verdict. Yes, it's better than 2.0 beta 1, but no, it's not quite as battery-efficient as 1.0.1. As for the iOS 9 beta 2, its battery life is back to being as good as 8.3 for my iPhone 6 Plus, which was excellent.

This is good news for iPhones, but for Apple Watch, sticking to a non-beta version is still recommended if you value long battery life. As you've seen before, 1.0 / 1.0.1 version delivered about 26 hours of continuous usage on average for me, which included daily exercising and moderate interactions. 2.0 beta 1 effectively halved this, often getting only 12 hours and conservative use barely pushing it to 18 hours. So I'd say that's roughly 15 hours per charge, to be generous. With 2.0 beta 2, I've been getting about 21 hours of use daily so far, barely good enough for one-charge-a-day routine but lacking any comfortable margin.

Meanwhile, the apps do run smoother again, almost like 1.0.1, making the experience less annoying overall. There are still some noticeable bugs, like the one that prevents scrolling with digital crown in certain notifications. This has been persisting since beta 1. Another problem I am seeing is that the voice call volume is quite low and rebooting doesn't fix it. This one seems to be new for this beta. Anyone who's seeking cutting edge, beware.

As it's about a week away from Apple Watch's official launch in Korea (and other 2nd wave countries), I wanted to provide an update on the current state of my watch. This is to hint at its durability and upcoming functions.

On the durability side, things are more or less as expected. As I went traveling in New Zealand, the watch accidentally brushed with the walls of the buildings a few times while walking around. It left two slight scratches, one on the aluminum frame and one the glass. The latter is nearly invisible unless seen at a right angle under a bright light. Sapphire glass would've fared even better, but the ion-hardened one on this Sport version seems to be alright, too, given that's all it's gotten after kisses with rough surface.


As for the band, the front side had no visible changes. The back side had been showing marks where rubbings happened only a few days after wearing, but they had no effect on the functional and performance aspects of the band. So unless you take the watch off your wrist to see the marks, you won't be able to tell the difference from day 1 to day 45 use.

Considering all this, I think Apple Watch Sport should be quite usable for a long time, under normal circumstances. Meanwhile, I also had the chance to explore the upcoming OS, watchOS 2, as WWDC 2015 event unfolded nearly two weeks ago.

On the Memorial Day in Korea earlier this month, the night sky was clear and had three planets shining brightly in the sky at the same time. I took my astrophotography equipment outside and got some burst mode photos of the planets.

It seemed that Venus was quite bright and the default camera app didn't have enough adjustments available to make it dark enough to reveal any details on the half-disc. Also, Jupiter now being in the lower altitude hampered the details somewhat. Other than that, things turned out fine. It was nice to have a direct comparison of the apparent sizes between the planets.

Telescope: Celestron NexStar 6SE + 5mm eyepiece
Device: iPhone 6 Plus (afocal)
Filters: None
Location: Naju, Korea
Stacked with RegiStax 6.1.0.8

Saturn
Settings: 29mm - ISO 400 - 1/15s - f/2.2
Time: 2015-06-06 21:44 KST
30 photos

Venus
Settings: 29mm - ISO 250 - 1/30s - f/2.2
Time: 2015-06-06 21:40 KST
100 photos

Jupiter
Settings: 29mm - ISO 320 - 1/30s - f/2.2
Time: 2015-06-06 21:16 KST
100 photos