Speed booster in Apple Watch coming Sept. 13 with WatchOS 3

If you own an Apple Watch, your gadget is going to get faster and better at communicating on Sept. 13 with the release of WatchOS 3.

Apple announced the smartwatch's new software version at its iPhone 7 Launch inn San Francisco on Wednesday, while touting new features for communications and health.

"There are so many features in WatchOS 3, people are going to absolutely love it," said Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer.

Smartwatches are generally an expensive accessory, not an essential gadget like a phone. But with WatchOS 3 Apple hopes to give you new reasons to wear a computer on your wrist, to consider it as something usefull instead of just a status symbol.

Along with the new software, Apple also announced the Apple Watch Series 2 starting at $369 and a revamped Series 1 with a better processor starting at $269.

Perhaps the most important feature is better performance, with apps launching nearly instantly, according to Apple. That makes it more likely you'll want to glance at your wrist for information or fire up an app to respond to an alert.

Apple first showed WatchOS 3 in June at WWDC, its conference for outside developers who have been so important to making iPhones a success by creating more than 2 million apps. Better Apple Watch performance will provide those developers a big new incentive to support Apple Watches: We just don't use apps as much if they're slow to launch and use.

The new software has a totally different interface that shows promise in improving the Apple Watch. The side button now opens a list of apps, and they can show a little bit of preview information. WatchOS 3 also brings a control panel similar to the swipe-from-below option on iPhones and iPads. That gives quicker access to options like turning on airplane mode. And you can swipe left and right to change watch faces, including the new Minnie Mouse option.

Another Watch OS 3 feature is a "scribble" ability that translates fingertip writing in messages into text. In addition, you can send Apple's suggested smart replies directly from a message notification.