{"id":738547,"date":"2026-06-15T19:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738547\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T19:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:03:13","slug":"apple-is-leaving-its-first-apple-watch-ultra-in-the-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738547\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Is Leaving Its First Apple Watch Ultra in the Dust"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the age of AI, more and more gadgets are being left dead in the desert of discarded tech. Even the four-year-old $800 Apple Watch Ultra won\u2019t receive the watchOS 27 update this fall, and we\u2019re now learning\u00a0about other features beyond\u00a0AI-enhanced Siri<\/a> that older wearables will miss out on.<\/p>\n

Relatively few Apple Watches will receive the new updates that Apple announced at WWDC. The Apple Watch Series 9<\/a> and later have access to the upcoming software<\/a> enhancements. But the Series 6 through 8, the Apple Watch SE 2, and the 2022 Apple Watch Ultr<\/a>a aren\u2019t compatible with watchOS 27. None of the chips in these watches include neural processing cores capable of running Siri and its new contextual awareness features. Starting with the S9 SiP, all watches have at least a four-core Neural Engine that\u2019s supposedly capable of running some minute backend AI tasks.<\/p>\n

In his latest newsletter, Bloomberg\u2019s Apple leaker-in-chief Mark Gurman reported<\/a> Sunday that there are a few features Apple didn\u2019t reveal during its WWDC 2026 keynote<\/a> that we can expect to see in the fall. Older watches won\u2019t receive the supposed \u201cModular\u201d watch face<\/a> that Gurman claimed would include a larger clock with three customizable \u201celements\u201d pasted below the time. All three Apple Watch Ultra models have access to a more complicated version of that watch face.<\/p>\n

\"AnOlder watches will miss out on the new Dynamic App Grid, which features five Siri-suggested apps. \u00a9 Apple <\/p>\n

Despite that, the original $800 Apple Watch Ultra won\u2019t receive any other benefits. Apple has promised<\/a> that watchOS 27 will enhance all facets of the wearable experience. That includes a better battery life, faster initial Wi-Fi connections, more accurate sleep tracking, and faster media playback and app extensions. The current dev beta update also removed the Walkie Talkie\u00a0<\/a>app,<\/a> which has been around since 2018, though it remains unclear whether Apple will put\u00a0it back in for the official update.<\/p>\n

Apple has a strong track record of supporting products long after they\u2019ve been ostensibly left behind. Even an iPhone 11 from 2019 will support the upcoming iOS 27. MacRumors\u2019 Aaron Perris claims to have confirmed<\/a> that the original HomePod from 2018\u2014running on an ancient A8 chip\u2014will run HomePod Software 27. Of Apple\u2019s massive hardware stack, the first Ultra appears to be only the Apple Watch being sacrificed on the altar of AI.<\/p>\n

\"AppleThe Apple Watch SE 3 will be the only budget Apple wearable supporting watchOS 27. \u00a9 Raymond Wong \/ Gizmodo <\/p>\n

You\u2019d be justified in feeling a little miffed that your $400 Apple Watch is suddenly hitting the end of its life; owners of the similarly lacking $800 Apple Watch Ultra are\u00a0very\u00a0unhappy. One redditor<\/a> wrote, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing Apple is doing that can\u2019t be tweaked or down-clocked that would prevent [older watches] from running a new OS. We\u2019re not simulating particle collisions on the new OS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s first Ultra wearable already missed out on major watchOS 26 features<\/a>, such as hypertension notifications for high blood pressure (which were only available on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Series 9 or later). It also lacked live translation for incoming texts. Now, it\u2019s an outmoded model that Apple seems all too happy to toss aside. Of course, it could also entice users to upgrade to the next $800 smartwatch, like the Apple Watch Ultra 3<\/a>, or\u00a0to the rumored\u00a0Series 12 watch,<\/a> which\u00a0may not offer many real hardware updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the age of AI, more and more gadgets are being left dead in the desert of discarded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[256,1337,16556,64,63,213,39295,105],"class_list":["post-738547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-ai","tag-apple","tag-apple-watch","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-gadgets","tag-siri","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}