Did Apple’s Summer Apps Predict The Coming Of An iWatch?

Though Apple obviously won’t confirm it, the hot rumor in the tech world today is that the company is going to use its September event for more than just announcing the iPhone 6. The buzz is that Apple will finally debut something in the wearables category, and since it applied for a smartwatch patent last month, most of the speculation is focusing on the birth of the iWatch, if that is indeed what the name turns out to be.

But did Apple subtly hint at this development when it introduced some new apps back in June? John Paczkowski of Re/Code, who made the initial report of the incoming iWatch, seems to think so, and others have connected the dots even more directly.

The main app in question is Health, which uses a new toolset called HealthKit to collect fitness data like heart rate, blood sugar, cholesterol and calories burned and gathers them in one place. And while it isn’t a standalone app, Apple also introduced HomeKit, a suite that allows developers to create apps that could control smart locks, lights, thermostats and switches from mobile devices.

Smartwatch apps don’t have a lot of screen real estate to use, but health and home-related apps wouldn’t need grand, showy interfaces. For that reason, and because the timing is awfully conincidental, it’s quite possible those new June apps and tools may have tipped Apple’s hand after all. We’ll know next month.