As we close out one week and kick off another, let’s take a moment to look back at the attention-grabbing headlines from the past seven days (March 3 – March 9). Some of the news you may recall, some may be new to you, but all the topics below are worthy of a second mention.
Apple has announced the official arrival of CarPlay (previously known as iOS in the Car). This feature will make its way to existing iOS 7 devices in the form of an update. However, only the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5 are supported as this feature requires Lightning-enabled devices.
Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer to retire in September, Luca Mastri to succeed
The Chief Financial Officer and Senior VP of Apple, Peter Oppenheimer, has officially announced his departure from Apple, after reports of him joining the Goldman Sachs Board of Directors emerged yesterday. This brings an end to Oppenheimer’s 18 year career with Apple during which he has seen plenty of ups and downs with the company.
Apple’s CarPlay systems powered by BlackBerry’s QNX software
Apple announced CarPlay, previously known as iOS in the Car, yesterday, as a way to bring the iPhone experience to in-car entertainment systems. CarPlay systems integrate with the iPhone, and let you control the device via a touchscreen, voice or the knobs on your car’s dashboard.
The iPhone 5s M7 chip counts your steps even after the battery dies
Most of you know that the iPhone 5s has a motion coprocessor called the M7 chip that keeps track of your motion related data derived from the integrated accelerometer, gyroscope and compass sensors. But did you know that this data is collected even while your iPhone’s battery has died?
Corrosion causing some Lightning cables to fail
Apple’s lightning cable may be prone to corrosion that diminishes the cable’s ability to charge an iOS device. The corrosion occurs in the small gold connectors that physically plug into the lightning port on the iOS device.
Apple to stop production of 13-inch non-Retina MacBook Pros this year [Report]
A new report claims that Apple is looking to permanently stop the production and sales of the 13-inch non-Retina MacBook Pros in the second half of 2014. This comes less than a year after its 15 inch sibling was discontinued.
Apple working on opening up Siri SDK to third-party developers for iWatch
Apple has a lot of improvements planned for Siri, in the run up to the launch of the much-rumored iWatch, according to a report by The Information.
Apple is reportedly working on increasing Siri’s utility by opening it up to third-party developers, improve its search abilities and make the virtual assistant more intelligent. Siri is said to be one of the most important ways to interface with the iWatch due to its small screen, and hence it becomes important to improve its capabilities.
TSMC begins production of Apple’ A8 chips for iPhone 6: Report
A new report claims that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company also known as TSMC has started manufacturing Apple’s A8 chips, which is expected to be used in iPhone 6. Apple has long contemplated a switch to TSMC which will allow the folks at Cupertino to no longer depend on Samsung for its chipset requirements.
Apple loses renewed bid to get Samsung products banned in the US
Apple today lost an appeal to get a number of old Samsung products banned in the US, over the infringement of a few of its patents. The decision, made by Judge Lucy Koh, said that Apple didn’t provide enough evidence to show that the patented features were important enough to influence consumers decision to buy one phone over the other.
Apple releases updated iTunes Festival app for SXSW performances
Apple today updated its iTunes Festival app ahead of next week’s SXSW iTunes Festival, which is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, March 11. As noted by MacStories, the app appears in iTunes with a refreshed icon and new design, but it is still not available to download in some App Stores, including the US.
Mercedes-Benz working on a solution to bring Apple CarPlay to older cars
According to Mercedes-Benz, Apple’s newly announced CarPlay technology might make its way to older models with “an after-market solution”. The German car maker has clarified that it is working on an aftermarket solution to bring Apple’s CarPlay technology to older cars.
Apple retains the top spot in U.S. smartphone marketshare
iPhone has retained the number one spot among smartphones in the U.S. yet again. While iOS was trailing compared to Android, Apple was clearly ahead of the competition in terms of sales with a marketshare of 41.6% in January 2014, while Samsung was at second place with 26.7% of the pie. These figures were published in comScore’s latest MobiLens and Mobile Metrix reports which has taken quarterly figures into account.
Apple TV updated with new channel for iTunes Festival at SXSW 2014
Apple has added a revamped iTunes Festival channel to Apple TV ahead of this week’s event at the South by Southwest (SXSW) 2014. Apple had released an updated version of the iTunes Festival app with a refreshed icon and new design late last week.
