Apple released iOS 7.1 back in March, and with it, introduced CarPlay, iTunes Radio enhancements, and several other minor tweaks and alterations. Today, reports suggest that iOS 7.1.1 release is on its way, although it appears that said update will focus on house-keeping, with the usual spate of bug fixes and general performance enhancements.
Apple's Siri voice assistant has been gradually improved by Apple in its two-and-a-bit year lifespan, but it's fair to say that there's plenty of scope for further enhancements. At present, Siri is very one-dimensional, and can only perform tasks or actions based upon a limited field as predetermined by Apple. We expect this to change at some point in the future, but if you don't wish to wait for the Cupertino to broaden Siri's horizons, then you might be interested in GoogolPlex, the brainchild of four University of Pennsylvania students that does exactly that.
As much as we all love and treasure our mobile devices, we also love it when an individual or company creates and uploads a video that shows a device being pushed to its physical limits.
Hyundai already confirmed its intention to begin rolling out CarPlay-enabled cars after striking a deal with Apple, and today, the Seoul, South Korea-based company has officially announced that the 2015 Sonata - releasing this summer - will be the very first beneficiary of Apple's in-car variant of iOS.
Historically, Samsung has been all too willing to slander Apple and its products with ads, but for a while a few years back, the Korean outfit took a back seat, preferring to let Google take control of the Apple-bashing. But while, as has been revealed during the unfolding of events in the current Apple vs. Samsung court case in California, the Galaxy maker did cease to attack Apple for a while, the company's marketing team saw the death former CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs as "the best opportunity" to re-ignite its smear campaign.
The tech community had collectively declared the iPhone 5c as being a flop, but given the increased attention that Apple seems to be paying to its lower-end, polycarbonate-clad handset, the reality of the situation appears to be quite the opposite. A short while back, the Cupertino company began rolling out an even cheaper, 8GB version of its smartphone line-up's second-in-command, and today, the handset has begun retailing in a further six nations.
With in-car sound specialist Alpine looking set to bring CarPlay support to existing automobiles following a report on Monday, it now appears as though rival Pioneer will also be offering something similar. In line with speculation that hit the blogosphere shortly after CarPlay was introduced alongside the iOS 7.1 software update, Pioneer will offer a CarPlay-facilitating update to a select group of its more recent in-car systems.
A couple of new leaks have emerged today that may once again offer clues as to what we should expect of the so-called iPhone 6. Given that the model packing a 5.5-inch display has been hit by delays, we're anticipating that Apple will deliver a new handset with a 4.7-inch panel around September time, and an interesting apparent leak of the device's front panel seems to back this notion up.
The developer preview Of Windows Phone 8.1 is now out there for all to try out and assess, and even though the Cortana voice assistant seems to be the main talking point, Microsoft has thrown in many more useful features besides. Along with the Action Center, wallpaper support and other such niceties, it looks as though the software giant has included support for Apple's Passbook passes, which can be read and comprehended via Microsoft Wallet.
It's an accepted fact that Apple changed the face of the smartphone industry with the introduction of the iPhone back in 2007, and even though it has only been seven years, it feels as though we've always been tapping home screen icons and gesturing our way through interfaces. Not only did the iPhone completely turn the market on its head, but Google's in-development Android interface - which didn't, at the time of the Apple smartphone's announcement, support touch input - also had to be completely re-thought.
