Developing For Apple Watch

You've got a great idea for an Apple Watch app. But how do you get your app from idea to wrist? This book shows you how to make native watchOS apps for Apple's most personal device yet. You'll learn how to display beautiful interfaces to the user, how to use the watch's heart rate monitor and other hardware features, and the best way to keep everything in sync across your users' devices. New in this edition is coverage of native apps for watchOS 2. With the new version of the WatchKit SDK in Xcode 7, your apps run directly on the watch. On Apple Watch, your app is right on your users' wrists, making your code closer than ever before. Create native watchOS apps by extending your iPhone app with a WatchKit Extension, giving your users quick access to your app's most important features and an intimate user experience that's always within arm's reach. You won't just be creating apps - with Glances to provide timely information, notifications to inform your users of the latest updates, and watch face complications to show your users data as soon as they raise their wrists, your watchOS apps will be the best the App Store has to offer. Any book can teach you how to make a watch app. This book will help focus your efforts and refine your app's feature set. Which features make sense on the watch? How should you organize them? You'll learn what to consider when judging watch app features, allowing you to come up with the best strategy for your app. You'll test your apps on real Apple Watch hardware, and by the end of this book, you'll be ready to ship to the App Store. What You Need: You'll need a Mac running OS X Yosemite capable of running Xcode 7 or later. To build your apps for your Apple Watch, you'll need to be running watchOS 2 or later, connected to a compatible iPhone.

Apple Watch is the sort of science-fiction gadget that people used to dream about as kids. What kinds of apps do you envision for this new device? If you’re comfortable using OS X, Xcode, and iOS—and familiar with Swift—this concise book shows you the basics of building your own apps for this wrist-mounted computer with Apple’s WatchKit framework. You’ll learn what an Apple Watch is, what it isn’t, and how and why people might interact with apps you build for it. This practical guide also examines the type of apps most suitable for this device, and shows you how to be a good citizen in the iOS/Watch ecosystem. Learn the Watch app lifecycle, and understand how these apps interact with the user’s iPhone Build a Watch app and its iOS counterpart by adding controls, working with multiple screens, and sharing data Design a simple glance, the non-interactive Watch component that provides quick-look information Add functionality to the notification system, including actionable items, and display them on the Watch face Design and build complications, Watch-face gadgets that can display quick snapshots of information, including future events with Time Travel

Discover exciting and fun projects by building brilliant applications for the Apple Watch About This Book Explore the opportunities opened up to developers by Apple's latest device: the Apple Watch Be a crackerjack at developing software across a broad range of watch app categories From an eminent author, master all stages of development, from the first stage through to a completed project Who This Book Is For If you have some basic knowledge of programming in Swift and are looking for the best way to get started with Apple Watch development, this book is just the right one for you! What You Will Learn Understand the concept of the Apple Watch as an autonomous device as well as it being paired with the iPhone Get your app up and running Design exciting, inspiring, and attractive layouts for your apps Make your user interface more engaging using images and animation Enable your Watch and iPhone apps to transport and share data Leverage the feature-rich set of WatchKit technologies provided by Apple Connect your apps to the Internet Submit your app to the App Store In Detail With Apple's eagerly anticipated entry into the wearable arena, the field is wide open for a new era of app development. The Apple Watch is one of the most important technologies of our time. This easy-to-understand book takes beginners on a delightful journey of discovering the features available to the developer, right up to the completion of medium-level projects ready for App Store submission. It provides the fastest way to develop real-world apps for the Apple Watch by teaching you the concepts of Watch UI, visual haptic and audio, message and data exchange between watch and phone, Web communication, and finally Visual, haptic as well as audio feedback for users. By the end of this book, you will have developed at least four fully functioning apps for deployment on watchOS 2. Style and approach This is a step-by-step guide to developing apps for the Apple Watch with the help of screenshots and fully coded working examples.

Build real-world applications for the Apple Watch platform using the WatchKit framework and Swift 2.0 About This Book Find out how to download and install the Xcode development tools before learning about Xcode playgrounds and the Swift programming language Discover everything you need to know about the WatchKit platform architecture, its classes, as well its limitations This book introduces you to the very latest mobile platform with hands-on instructions so you can build your very own Apple Watch apps Who This Book Is For This book is for developers who are interested in creating amazing apps for the Apple Watch platform. Readers are expected to have no prior experience of programming. What You Will Learn Navigate within the WatchKit interface using the page-based, modal, and hierarchical navigation techniques Work with context menus to allow your users to interact with the Apple Watch and respond to their actions to perform a task Use the MapKit framework to display a map within the WatchKit interface to track the user's current location Build effective user interfaces for the WatchKit platform and integrate iCloud capabilities to synchronize data between the iOS app and the WatchKit UI Design your apps for the Apple Watch platform by adhering to the set of User Interface design guidelines set out by Apple Reinforce image caching to display animations within the Apple Watch user interface Explore WatchKit tables, which allow your users to purchase groceries and pay for them using Apple Pay Analyze the new layout system to ensure that your Apple Watch apps work with various screen sizes In Detail Wearable are the next wave of mobile technology and with the release of Apple's WatchKit SDK, a whole new world of exciting development possibilities has opened up. Apple Watch App Development introduces you to the architecture and possibilities of the Apple Watch platform, as well as an in-depth look at how to work with Xcode playgrounds. Benefit from a rapid introduction to the Swift programming language so you can quickly begin developing apps with the WatchKit framework and the Xcode Development IDE. Get to grips with advanced topics such as notifications, glances, iCloud, Apple pay, closures, tuples, protocols, delegates, concurrency, and using Swift Playgrounds, with each concept is backed up with example code that demonstrates how to properly execute it. Finally, discover how to package and deploy your Watch application to the Apple AppStore. By the end of this book, you will have a good understanding of how to develop apps for the Apple Watch platform, and synchronize data using iCloud between the wearable and the iOS device. Style and approach This book takes a step-by-step approach to developing applications for the Apple Watch using the Swift programming language and the WatchKit UI. Each topic is explained in a conversational and easy-to-follow style.

Apple Watch for Developers: Advice & Techniques from 5 Top Professionals gives you the base-knowledge and valuable secrets you'll need for your own projects from a core team of successful, experienced Apple Watch app-development experts. You'll explore elements such as branding within Watch apps, translating audio data into visual information, taming complex data, mastering environment-driven feature sets, and much more. This book is for developers who already have some knowledge of developing with WatchKit and WatchOS 2, and who are now interested in learning how to use them to create cutting edge Watch apps. It is written by five experienced, industry-leading Apple Watch developers who have created their apps early, and are now ready to pull apart examples to show you how to best create an Apple Watch app. This book will bring your cool Watch ideas to life!

Intended for readers with some existing experience of iOS development, watchOS 2 App Development Essentials has been fully updated for watchOS 2, Swift 2 and Xcode 7. Beginning with the basics, this book provides an introduction to WatchKit apps and the watchOS 2 app development architecture before covering topics such as tables, navigation, user input handling, maps, menus, working with images and videos and the recording and playback of audio. More advanced topics are also covered throughout the book, including communication and data sharing between a WatchKit app and the parent iOS app using the WatchConnectivity framework, working with custom fonts, user interface animation, clock face complications and the design and implementation of custom notifications. As with all the books in the "Development Essentials" series, watchOS 2 App Development Essentials takes a modular approach to the subject of app development for the Apple Watch, with each chapter covering a self-contained topic area consisting of detailed explanations, examples and step-by-step tutorials. This makes the book both an easy to follow learning aid and an excellent reference resource.

Create Breakthrough Apple Watch Apps with the WatchKit Framework With its Apple Watch and WatchKit framework, Apple is challenging developers to build exciting and innovative apps for Apple Watch. iOS developers who master Apple Watch programming now will have the same huge “early mover” advantage that early iPhone developers enjoyed. Learning WatchKit Programming is a complete, hands-on tutorial for all iOS developers who are ready to design and build tomorrow’s hottest new wearable apps. Leading iOS development trainer and author Wei-Meng Lee covers all of the fundamentals of Apple Watch development and the WatchKit API, from application architecture and design to navigation, notification, and glances. Using practical Swift code examples designed for clarity and simplicity, Lee guides you through building apps from the ground up and shows you how to integrate those apps with the iPhone for expanded capabilities. The perfect companion to other mobile development books in the Learning Series, this guide helps you extend your iOS skills to a whole new environment, build apps that solve a new set of problems, and reach millions of people in the new Apple Watch marketplace Coverage includes Getting started quickly with WatchKit and Apple Watch development Storyboarding apps and testing them on the Apple Watch Simulator Mastering Apple Watch’s multiple-screen navigation Building highly efficient interfaces with Apple Watch UI controls Customizing each screen’s look and feel, and passing data between them Responding to user interactions via buttons, switches, sliders, or Force Touch Displaying information via labels, images, or tables Communicating between an Apple Watch app and its containing iOS app Calling web services from Apple Watch Displaying short- and long-look notifications Customizing notifications to display your message’s essence more quickly Implementing glances to give users a faster way to gather information Localizing your Apple Watch apps All of this book’s sample Swift code is available for download at informit.com/title/9780134195445.

WatchKit App Development Essentials is intended for readers with some existing experience of iOS development using Xcode and the Swift programming language. Beginning with the basics, this book provides an introduction to WatchKit apps and the WatchKit app development architecture before covering topics such as tables, navigation, user input handling, image handling, animation, maps and menus. More advanced topics are also covered throughout the book, including communication and data sharing between a WatchKit app and the parent iOS app, working with custom fonts and the design and implementation of custom notifications. As with all the books in the “Development Essentials” series, WatchKit App Development Essentials takes a modular approach to the subject of WatchKit app development for the Apple Watch, with each chapter covering a self-contained topic area consisting of detailed explanations, examples and step-by-step tutorials. This makes the book both an easy to follow learning aid and an excellent reference resource.