Roger Fingas
Apple's upcoming watchOS 2 will bring Activation Lock to the Apple Watch, the company quietly revealed on Monday via a new webpage for the operating system.
As on devices with iOS 7 or 8, Activation Lock will prevent someone from re-activating a lost or stolen Watch without a previously-linked Apple ID. One difference is that owners will need to turn on the feature using the Watch's companion iPhone app.
The lack of anti-theft measures for the Watch has been a recurring complaint. While there are some security measures in place, such as passcodes, Find My Watch, and automatic data wipes, these are more focused around protecting personal information and won't stop a thief from reusing or reselling the product, which can cost anywhere between $349 and $17,000.
watchOS 2 will add a variety of features, such as native app support, third-party complications, a Nightstand mode, new faces, and public transit directions. Third-party apps will also have access to more hardware features, such as the accelerometer, microphone, and Digital Crown.
An early beta of watchOS 2 is currently available for developers, but the final software won't reach the public until this fall.
Charles Martin
Marko Zivkovic
Mike Wuerthele
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
Christine McKee
William Gallagher
17 Comments
Oh good! Activation lock will make my $11,000 gold watch a less valuable target for thieves! /s
Oh good! Activation lock will make my $11,000 gold watch a less valuable target for thieves! /s
Not really. Get a $349/$399 Sport and swap the gut...You get yourself an Edition...well sort of...again.
I love it. There as so much bitching on this board and others about lack of activation lock for the Apple Watch, and of course, not one positive comment now that the feature is coming. Amazing.
[quote name="Slurpy" url="/t/186648/apple-watch-to-get-activation-lock-with-watchos-2#post_2732977"]I love it. There as so much bitching on this board and others about lack of activation lock for the Apple Watch, and of course, not one positive comment now that the feature is coming. Amazing.[/quote] People will just complain how it should have been there in the first place. Or complain about how much the Edition models cost or complain that they have to put the stock apps in a separate folder or complain about Google apps not having system access or complain about..... That lot are never happy.
I was not aware that watch thefts were a major problem to be solved. What are the odds?