Yo, check this out, Apple's been thrown a curveball and they're rolling with the punches. So, Apple just dropped the news that they're pushing out their latest Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in the US, but there's a twist – they've ditched the blood oxygen feature. Yeah, starting today, January 18, you can grab these tweaked versions both online and in Apple's brick-and-mortar stores from 6am PT.

Apple's not exactly thrilled about this. They told the folks at 9to5Mac that they're doing this while they wait on an appeal, hoping that the big shots at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will flip the script on the USITC's decision.

Here's the deal – the U.S. appeals court wasn't feeling Apple's request to put a hold on a ban of their Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2. This whole drama kicked off because the International Trade Commission (ITC) called foul on Apple, saying their watches were stepping on the toes of blood oxygen patents owned by a medical tech company called Massimo. So now, Apple can't sell any smartwatches with this feature in the mix.

But Apple's got moves. They've nixed the feature with a software update, dodging the need for any pricey hardware tweaks. This means if things go Apple's way down the road, they could flip the switch and bring the feature back. Plus, if you already got your hands on one of these watches before the court's ruling, or if you buy one outside the U.S., you're still golden – you can keep using the blood oxygen feature.

So yeah, Apple's in a bit of a jam, but they're not down for the count. Stay tuned to see how this all plays out.

The company has updated its website with a prominent banner noting the absence of the feature. Despite Apple’s disagreement with the decision, it’s likely that it will have to keep the blood oxygen feature disabled for the foreseeable future, as the company has said that it thinks the appeals process could take over a year.

While the feature has been nixed, we wouldn’t expect Apple to remove the blood oxygen sensors themselves from the next Apple Watch, which is due to launch this September.

If Apple’s appeal is successful then it will want to re-enable the feature as soon as possible, and it won’t be able to do that if the sensors are absent. Besides that, physically removing them would require updating its manufacturing processes for what might be just a temporary setback, which would be hugely expensive and inconvenient for Apple.