The Apple Watch companion app reveals all-new details

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] What's happening? Brian Tong here, and welcome back to theapplybyte, returning to your normally scheduled programming after a couple weeks of break and the madness that is CES. Plus, I'll finally announce the winners of our favorite things giveaway. All right. Lots of news this week. And the buzz is all around the Apple watch. Now, Apple recently released the fourth beta of the upcoming IOS 8.2 update, and previous builds have included watch to support for testing out apps. In the Bluetooth section now the latest update adds and Apple Watch connection link and also revealed there will be a standalone Apple Watch app. Now 9to5Mac has shown off some of the features of this companion app, including an over the top virtual view of the Apple Watch home screen so you can see how your apps are organized. A new watch face called Monogram will allow you to include one to four letters, typically your initials, directly on the watch face to personalize it. Now, I'd go with B, T, and Z, since my friends call me BTZ. But I probably didn't need to tell you that. All right, a subtle red dot will appear on the top area of the Apple Watch's clock face for new notifications, and since there's no keyboard, you can respond either using Apple's Dictation, which is world's better now. Or record an actual audio message. The companion app will also let you activate fitness features like reminders if you've been sitting on your **** too long, your activity progress or completion of activity goals. And the Apple Watch app will show you storage capacity, number of songs on the device, photos, and apps, confirming that it will indeed have actual, usable storage space. The Apple watch was rumored to be shipping in spring of 2015 but the latest reports point to retail associates starting training on the wearable in mid February with the actual apple watch targeted to ship by the end of March. Alright now one of the cool new pieces of tech from Apple's watch is force touch. The big A's pressure sensitive touch technology that can distinguish between a light tap and. A deep press. Now a new rumor report coming out of Taiwan claims Apple's considering the force touch tech in its next iPhone. And that's realistically about nine months out. Can you believe it? Nine months. And they're also moving to a dual lens design that would allow for optical zoom capabilities in the iPhone for the first time. Now, I like the idea of both of these features, but I wouldn't expect them to throw these into the mix with such a short lead time. This sounds more like iPhone 7 stuff instead of 6s. But I'm just hoping that I too can draw hearts that someone can feel from my iPhone sooner. Rather than later. I love you. Alright in Mac news, there are still many of you waiting for the new Macbook Air with Retina Display. According to DigiTimes, Apple supplier Quanta Computer has begun ramping up production for the upcoming Air ahead of it's release that's targeting the first quarter of this year. The new 12 inch air is expected to feature Intel's Broadwell Core M Processor with its [UNKNOWN] design making it thinner. Reports have also claimed it will get rid of almost all the ports found on current MacBook Air and contain a headphone jack, a pair of microphones, and a USB type C port to handle charging and connectivity. Alright, switching to the smart phones! It was a huge scene at CES 2015 and we showed you iDevices Switch, the first home kit compatible smart plug. We talked how it works through its own app or through Siri with voice commands. Now that all works fine and dandy if you're at home on your wi-fi but if you're at work or heading out of town the [INAUDIBLE] report that you'll need to have a third generation Apple TV or later to remotely control them. Now that will serve as the hub for these smart devices when you're away. So quietly the Apple TV is becoming a more important part of Apple's plan for the home. And in more cool AppleTV news, a recently granted Apple patent hints at an in air 3-D gesturing user interface for the AppleTV, Mac, and future products. Apple acquired 3-D sensor company PrimeSense back in November of 2013 that also worked with Microsoft Kinect and the patent grants a 3-D UI for use with PrimeSense's motion sensing hardware that is now. All under Apple. Now, look, the Apple [UNKNOWN] was way ahead of the curve on this one, and imagine what this could be like a few years ago. Whoa, how'd you do that? It's called [UNKNOWN] TV. Cool, man. Wait. Leave it here. I got you. [MUSIC] Pause. Check this out. Byte TV is the best. Yeah, it is. So yeah. Coming soon to a living room near you. And in our do not try this at home story, a Chinese man yesterday. My people decided to come up with his own Apple wearable and tried to smuggle 94 iPhones from Hong Kong, where they are cheaper, into mainland China by wearing them, inside his clothes attached to his body. Now the Huffington Post reports the man was pulled aside by custom officials as a result of his. Weird walking posture, joint stiffness and muscle tension. Now the iphone6 pluses were selling for over $3000 on the black market before they were officially available. And for you sir, I'm giving you an A for effort, no bad apple, none at all. except dude, you got caught. All right, let's announce the winners from my favorite give away. I asked you guys and gals to send me a picture or video of you guys taking a bite of the apple and there were too many entries to pick from, but congrats go to all fourteen of you. PIctures from; Alfonso Valentine, Desmond Davis, Eric Grimm, Freddie Martinez, George on twitter, Nicholas McCoy, power tron and his. Threesome. Trevor Smith and Yuba Maragon. And sorry, James Connor. You're not gonna win with this fake pic, James. All right. Videos like a vine from King Liang and singing by Arcady. Plus, Andres Lin Fan climbed down a rope chameleon style to bite that apple. Base Ankimbo. Even gave me a bad apple. Now you are not allowed to do that but I will let it slide this time. And Paul Cherba with the sweetest sounding apple bite that you can check out at the end of the show. So congrats to all of you. I'm just gonna throw all your names into a hat. And pick who wins the Threes game codes, Mopey cases, Airframe Pluses, Bose QC25s and Swingbox randomly. And I'll be in touch to get you your goods. All right, that's gonna do it for this weeks show. Keep emailing me at theapplebyte@cnet.com or tweet me @briantong and I'll answer when I'm not sleeping. Thanks so much for watching and we'll catch you all next time for another bite of the apple. [MUSIC]