Apple CarPlay was announced earlier this week and now you can see how it could function in a car.
An Apple representative gives a demonstration of how Carplay will work in a Volvo concept ES and showcases an iOS-like home screen with a grid of available apps.
Basically you’ll get access to your phone’s basic functions like calls and messages, but a few additional features like Spotify, Maps and Music.
The aim of Carplay is to make it easier to keep your eyes on the road, but still make your smartphone’s features safely available.
All the apps basically just look like their iOS 7 counterparts but squashed a little and made suitable to present information at a glance.
The Phone App still has all your favourites, call history and contacts available and the same content on your phone is also available in the Music App.
With CarPlay, Apple Maps shows any recently searched for destinations, locations pulled from your calendar, texts or emails, which will be handy for a quick turn-by-turn route.
It seems Apple’s Messages app is the only one that is heavily reliant on Siri voice control. Rather than displaying your messages on the dashboard, it seems they can only be read aloud by your phone’s personal voice assistant.
Even when dictating your message, no preview appears on-screen. Of course this is because Apple is discouraging the ability to read through your messages whilst driving, but seems a bizarre choice when none of the other apps appear like this.
Everything seems presented in a very straightforward way that will be very familiar to those already used to the iOS experience.
CarPlay will initially be available in Ferrari, Mercedes Benz and Volvo 2014 models later this year, with other manufacturers to include Apple’s iOS in the car experience at a later date.
Read more: Apple CarPlay – 8 things you can do with Apple’s in-car system
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
