Two years ago, we showed you a jailbreak tweak called CarPlay iOS, which allowed you to emulate the CarPlay head unit user interface directly on your jailbroken iPhone or iPad.
Although the tweak was limited due the nature of the features that come bundled in the CarPlay interface, the developer has been working on a treat for those who liked playing with the original tweak; CarPlay iOS 2.0 is now available in Cydia.
BMW still doesn't have any vehicle on the market with integrated CarPlay support, but that's about to change this fall, Bimmerpost said Friday. As the German-language publication gleaned from BMW's official price list, BMW's mid-size luxury crossover models, the X5M and X6M, will have built-in CarPlay when they arrive in August.
Car maker Ford said on Friday that a new Escape model is going to officially become its first vehicle with CarPlay and Android Auto integration. Ford's 2017 Escape puts emphasis on maintaining the quality that made the vehicle an award-winner and the second best-selling Ford product in the United States last year.
In addition to CarPlay and Android Auto, the new Escape also includes a capable driver-assist technology and all-new Sync Connect that supports features like remote start and door locking through the new FordPass platform.
CarPlay, Apple's software platform that integrates some iOS features into the dashboard of select cars, is now available in over a hundred vehicles from nearly two-dozen auto manufacturers, according to Apple's newly published webpage which details CarPlay availability across manufactures and brands.
We knew for some time that Apple was partnering with major vehicle manufacturers in CarPlay, but this marks the first time the company has listed all manufacturers and models with CarPlay support.
Apple has registered a handful of rather interesting domain names within the last few weeks. As noted by MacRumors, the company purchased three top-level domain names in December including apple.car, apple.cars and apple.auto, through sponsored registrar MarkMonitor.
The acquisitions only posted on Whois this morning, and they aren't active yet, but given the ongoing chatter regarding Apple's secret car project, they do arouse curiosity. There's certainly a precedent of the firm purchasing domain names for rumored projects: iCloud and iPhone 4.
Fiat Chrysler on Monday announced its fourth-generation Uconnect system, which will bring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to select vehicle models later this year. In a press release, the automaker says that the addition of CarPlay will give drivers a smarter, safer way to use their iPhones while in their cars.
"With fourth-gen," said Joni Christensen, Head of Uconnect Marketing, "we are continuing to minimize the everyday stresses of busy lifestyles by providing drivers with a variety of ways to stay conveniently connected to their vehicles, while making every drive exceptionally informative, entertaining and unique."
CarPlay has slowly gained momentum over the last few years, but 2016 might be the year when it really breaks into the mainstream. That's because Ford has announced that all of the Sync 3-equipped cars in its 2017 North American lineup will feature CarPlay as an option.
Ford is offering CarPlay as a part of its Sync 3 infotainment package. Sync 3, at least in the current 2016 lineup, is an available add-on, but every new 2017 Sync 3-capable Ford will at least have the option of being equipped with CarPlay.
The Detroit Free Press reported Monday that the automobile manufacturer Hyundai Motor Company will release CarPlay-enabled Sonata in the first quarter of 2016. Apple’s software platform for the car will require Sonata owners to “buy an SD card with new software” to access CarPlay features.
This sounds like an odd implementation of CarPay given that Hyundai already offers Google's Android Auto software integration at no additional charge.
Apple has acquired UK-based voice technology startup VocalIQ, according to a report from the Financial Times. A spokesman for the Cupertino company has confirmed the buyout with the usual boilerplate statement of "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."
Volkswagen on Thursday posted a new commercial to its US YouTube channel entitled "Volkswagen App-Connect saves a bromance," which highlights support for connect apps and Apple's CarPlay platform in its late model vehicles.
The clip features Adam Scott, from Parks and Recreation fame, and prolific big-screen star Michael Pena. The two are shown in a vehicle using Siri and other CarPlay features as they work through way through a humorous argument.
Mercedes-Benz maker is not ruling out the possibility of vaguely outlined “different types” of cooperation with Apple, which is rumored to be building an electric car of its own code- named Project Titan. “Many things are conceivable,” Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said in an interview with quarterly magazine Deutsche Unternehmerboerse published on Friday.
Daimler AG, a German multinational automotive corporation, owns a number of car brands such as the Mercedes-Benz and Smart Automobile, and was an important launch partner for Apple's CarPlay in-car software.
Volkswagen announced on Wednesday that its first CarPlay-enabled vehicles have begun shipping from production facilities. The German automaker says the first 2016 models featuring its new infotainment system will start landing in dealer showrooms in "late July 2015."
It's calling the new infotainment system "MIB II," and in addition to CarPlay it will also support Android Auto and MirrorLink. In the press release, Volkswagen calls the new system "one of the most comprehensive suites of connected vehicle services and features available."