Ford is finally adding CarPlay and Android Auto to its cars



Ford has long indicated that CarPlay and Android Auto were part of its long-term infotainment strategy, but only now are we learning the actual game plan: both platforms will finally be coming this year.
All 2017 Ford models sold in North America with the company's Sync 3 infotainment platform will have CarPlay and Android Auto out of the box, while owners of 2016 models will be able to upgrade "later in the year." The 2017 Escape will be the first model on the road to get both systems, going on sale in the spring. The new Escape had also been previously announced as the first vehicle to get Ford's Sync Connect system, which brings LTE into the car; other vehicles with Sync 3 will be getting LTE later this year as well.




Interestingly, Ford is also promoting enhancements to its own AppLink platform at this year's CES, suggesting that the company has no intention of giving up on it — even as CarPlay and Android Auto are spreading industrywide. AppLink apps will now be able to access vehicle data directly, and several apps are coming this year that are able to take advantage, including AAA and Concur, a business expensing system that can log vehicle mileage automatically. And it's not just Ford using AppLink: the open version of the platform, SmartDeviceLink, is being "investigated" by Toyota as a possible in-car app platform. (It's probably no coincidence that Toyota, like Ford, has been slow to adopt CarPlay and Android Auto.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DirectX 12 vs DirectX 11

Image
DirectX 12 vs DirectX 11 – How DX12 will transform PC  gaming on Windows 10 DIRECTX 12 VS DIRECTX 11 – WHY DOES IT MATTER? Windows 10  has arrived and, along with integrated Cortana, Xbox One game streaming and a fancy new web browser, one of its key features is DirectX 12, the latest version of the operating system’s gaming API. A software layer that sits between the hardware that powers our computers and the software that runs on them,  DirectX is at the heart of the vast majority of games that run on Windows.  The other major gaming API is OpenGL, which as its name suggests is an open source API. Both offer very similar key functions, but it’s DirectX that tends to be at the heart of most bigger games. Microsoft talks up the amazing new capabilities for every new release of DirectX, but with DirectX 12 it really does have some key new features, at least when it comes to improving performance. It also has some new effects tools and functions for making games look bett
Read more

Android N's "Freeform Windows"

Last week, we wrote about the " freeform window " mode in the Android N Developer Preview. Brief mentions in the developer documents and hints in the code pointed to Android someday displaying apps in resizable floating windows, just like in a desktop OS. Freeform window mode isn't normally accessible in the current dev preview, but shortly after the post, we were contacted by reader  Zhuowei Zhang  with instructions on how to make it work. We'll get to the instructions, but first let's talk about what's actually here. Freeform window mode is just what we imagined. It's a dead ringer for  Remix OS —multiple Android apps floating around inside windows—and it might be the beginnings of a desktop operating system . It works on Android N phones and tablets, and once the mode is enabled, you'll see an extra button on thumbnails in the Recent Apps screen. To the left of the "X" button that pops up after a second or two, there will be a s
Read more

The Chord Mojo turns good headphones into great ones

Image
The best gadget you never knew you wanted Audio processing isn’t sexy. Better sound doesn’t lend itself to easy marketing through numbers or pretty posters, and so many companies treat it as an afterthought when designing their products. The  blissful ignorance  of "good enough" audio pervades the world of consumer technology, leaving only a niche of audio enthusiasts supporting a few boutique hi-fi manufacturers. Things have been like this for quite some time, but recently a new gadget was introduced that bridges the gap between the many and the few, and its name is the  Chord Mojo . The Mojo is an audio processor and amplifier that’s smaller than a pack of cards yet delivers the awesome performance of much larger rivals. Honestly, I think its size works to its disadvantage because it looks like, and is, a portable unit you can plug into your phone and use off its 10-hour battery. By audiophile standards, it’s almost  too  practical. But those same aud
Read more