If you have CarPlay in your current car, would you buy a new car if it didn't have CarPlay? According to Joseph White of Reuters, GM hopes that the answer is yes. For GM's future electric vehicles, GM will no longer support Apple CarPlay (or Android Auto). Instead, GM will have its own system, one that it hopes it can monetize by getting you to pay for certain features—something that GM knows how to do considering that it has been selling the OnStar service since 1996. CarPlay receives free, regular updates and occasional new features whenever Apple updates the operating system on your iPhone. Will GM deliver regular updates to its cars after someone has already paid for the car? Will people be happy if the app that they prefer to use for navigation, listening to podcasts, listening to music, etc. is not available on GM's system? Can GM do a better job creating a software interface than Apple? Will people even consider purchasing a new car if it doesn't have CarPlay? There are certainly other car manufacturers that don't support CarPlay, most notably Tesla, so maybe this will work out for GM. But Patrick George of The Verge reports that GM's announcement sparked an immediate backlash from many people, and just last year, Apple cited research finding that 79% of all new car buyers will only consider buying a new car if it has CarPlay. I suspect that GM will see fewer sales as a result of this decision, and I wonder whether GM will make up for all of the lost sales with the additional charges that it can extract from car owners who use GM's built-in infotainment system. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- The normally private Tim Cook is on the cover of GQ this month. In an article written by Zach Baron, Cook explains many aspects of his job and himself. It's a well-written article, and Baron clearly did his research before interviewing Tim Cook.
- California attorney David Sparks recommends the Dark Noise app.
- Do you use a case for your iPhone? John Gruber of Daring Fireball has an interesting discussion on the subject. I generally do not use a case, although I do own the Apple leather case and I use it from time to time when I think I am at a higher risk of dropping my iPhone. Gruber recommends a case from Bullstrap that looks nice as well and doesn't include a bottom lip, if that is your preference.
- In the iPhone 14 and the newest Apple Watch models, Apple added crash detection as a feature. For example, if your iPhone senses that you have been in a collision, your iPhone will alert you, and if you don't respond after 20 seconds, your iPhone will call emergency services such as 911. What if it does so by mistake? Your natural tendency may be to just hang up, but as Juli Clover of MacRumors explains, Apple has updated the Crash Detection page on its website to state: "If the call has been made, but you don’t need emergency services, don’t hang up. Wait until a responder answers, then explain that you don’t need help." Good to keep in mind.
- It is hard to make a really good app for the Apple Watch, but some developers have done it. One example is Clicker, an app that I've been using for a long time. The idea is simple: start the app when you need to count something. Tap the face of your watch every time that you need to increase the count. Force-press and tap the "subtract" button if you make a mistake and need to decrease the count. And that's basically it. Tap the Settings icon at the top right to adjust a few things such as counting increments, whether you want to count up or count down, whether there is a goal, etc. The app was updated to version 2.0 earlier this year, and this post by the developer, Craig Hockenberry, explains how the app works and what you might use it for. It's free and it works well.
- The iPad is now 13 years old. William Gallagher of AppleInsider takes a look back at the early days of the iPad. For example, he notes that many people made fun of the name when the product was announced, which is something that I haven't thought about in a long time because "iPad" is now such a common part of my vocabulary.
- Ivan Mehta and Lauren Forristal of TechCrunch report that Hulu has a new interface on the Apple TV that is rolling out to customers. My wife and I started subscribing to Hulu a long time ago, expecting to cancel it after a few months. But we still find lots of good things to watch on Hulu.
- This is a long holiday weekend for many folks. If you find that you have too much extra time on your hands, John-Anthony Disotto came up with 129 things that you can ask Siri that will result in an answer that is somewhat surprising and occasionally humorous.
- And finally, there are lots of interesting shows coming to Apple TV+ soon, and Apple revealed trailers for some of them this week. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie looks to be a great documentary that brings back tons of memories for folks like me who were huge fans in the 1980s and 1990s. Drops of God looks like it could be interesting if you don't mind the subtitles. And Silo tells the futuristic tale of an entire community that lives in a slio deep underground. Here is the trailer for Silo, which has a great cast so I hope it is good:
