iOS 8.2: iPhone update installs useless Apple Watch ad on home screens

The companion app is meant to be used for changing settings on the watch, but can't do anything until it's out

Andrew Griffin
Tuesday 10 March 2015 09:11 GMT
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Apple CEO Tim Cook during an Apple media event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California on March 09, 2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook during an Apple media event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California on March 09, 2015 (Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images)

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Apple's latest iOS update puts an Apple Watch ad that can't be deleted on the iPhone's home screen.

The app — which is not the first time Apple has force installed a product or ad — is intended to be used to control the Apple Watch, released last night. But since the watch won't be out until April, it can only be used to watch videos about Apple's wearable.

Apple Watch owners will use the iPhone app to download new software for the watch and change its settings. Many have complained that those functions could easily have been created within the App Store and the Settings pages.

The update also brings bug fixes and stability improvements, according to Apple's release notes, and makes changes to the Health app. One of those fixes the Freak vulnerability, which was made public earlier this month, and so the update is recommended for safety reasons.

It has also been suggested that Apple's new streaming service — based partly on Beats Music, which it bought last year — will do the same.

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