In September, Apple introduced us to the Apple Watch Series 3. It isn’t much of an upgrade on the visual front, but some major rewiring has been done inside the gadget to enable support for LTE connections. This allows the tiny device to handle phone calls on its own, without being connected to an iPhone.
That being said, the latest update to the smartwatch has blessed it with one more exciting feature. You can now stream music independently from your Apple Watch using its LTE capabilities. This can be done using your paid Apple Music subscription or with the free new Radio app.
Of course, listening to music on the Apple Watch doesn’t just entail having it played through its tiny speaker. The most effective way of enjoying the same is pairing it with some good Bluetooth headphones, or better yet, the highly expensive Apple AirPods.
It’s this convenience coupled with the fact that you don’t need to carry around your iPhone everywhere you go that makes this feature an exciting one. Having an Apple Watch Series 3 enables you to listen to music when you’re at the gym, out for a quick coffee break or just walking your dog, without having an iPhone in your pocket.
While the earlier Apple smartwatches allowed playing music that was synced to them, this one goes a step further by letting you stream it directly through the Internet, adding another layer of freedom to the whole affair.
And then there’s the added benefit of having a 24/7 personal assistant by your side in the form of Siri. Just a simple command like “play some workout music” does the job for you. A downside, however, is that services like Spotify and Pandora are still not supported, so Apple Music and Radio are the only two options you have for LTE streaming,
For Indians, there’s an even bigger catch. None of the Series 3 Apple Watch units sold in the country offer LTE connectivity. This doesn’t make any sense since that’s the only feature that forms a big differentiating factor over the old devices.
The Apple Watch Series 3 is hence a raw deal in India. And the company has announced no plans of releasing the LTE variant anytime soon. So if you’re thinking of going for the device, you will be better off buying the previous-gen versions as that will also save you some of your hard-earned cash.
