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Apple Developing A System For iPhone To Control ACs, Seats, Stereo In Cars

Apple already has CarPlay which is highly successful as it allows users to beam the interface and features of their iPhone onto the infotainment system of their vehicles. It allows to get navigation, voice recognition via Siri and also taps into contacts and music streaming services. But Apple as per a Bloomberg report by Mark Gurman is working on a bolder system that will enable the iPhone to control core features of a car like the air conditioning, the seats, and even the stereo. The initiative internally is apparently called “IronHeart” and is in the early stages of development and will likely require the compliance of automakers.

The automotive market is clearly a long-term goal for Apple as it also has its electric self-driving car project in the works called Project Titan. But that project is a long-term play and has had many issues, but in the meanwhile, Apple has made solid inroads with CarPlay. One of the latest automobile-focused features that Apple introduced in 2020 was CarKey which has even been emulated by Google.

But IronHeart takes things to another level and it will provide inside and outside temperature and humidity readings. It will have information around temperature zones, fans, and defroster systems. There will be settings embedded for surround sound speakers, EQ settings which Apple doesn’t even provide for Apple Music, and fader and balancer settings; things that are standard in a car infotainment system that allows the user to sculpt the sound of the sound system in the car.

Users will also be able to control the seats and armrests and it will also embed the car telematics data and will pull information from the speedometer, tachometer, and fuel instrument clusters – basically, Apple is trying to combine all the functions that are found in both the infotainment screen and the instrument cluster and make it accessible right from the iPhone. Apple is turning CarPlay into the interface for the car itself and potentially with access to such data, Apple could allow third parties to develop more apps over these core functions.

Apple has faced resistance from major manufacturers like Tesla with the adoption of CarPlay. The updates that Apple is working on will reduce the reliance on the core car infotainment interface and most users will likely default to Apple’s interface. Apple could also use this information that will further help its efforts to make its own car which has been a tumultuous project since 2015.

October 8, 2021

Apple Pay and iPhone NFC restrictions can get Apple fined by the EU

Antitrust investigations from the European Commission on tech giants such as Apple, Google, and Facebook have been going strong in the past couple of years, and tech giants have already faced fines from the EC on some dubbed ‘anticompetitive’ behaviors.

Fines for anticompetitive behavior with Apple Pay and NFC against Apple are being finalized. The investigation has been going on since last year when the EC antitrust regulators have focused on Apple Pay and the iPhone’s NFC chip that makes contactless payments possible and began to scrutinize the practice. What the commission started investigating, in the beginning, was whether Apple unfairly locked out other contactless payment services by restricting the use of the NFC chip inside iPhones.

The report from the EC states that Apple will get charged for “anti-competitive practices related to its NFC chip technology”, but the exact details are still unclear. It is possible these charges could force Apple to “open up its mobile payment system to rivals”.

The EU competition enforcer is currently drafting a statement of objections that will express the concerns. The document is expected to be sent to Apple next year.

Apple has been opening up access to the NFC chip in iPhones in recent years; however, third-party contactless payment systems have had a hard time in comparison to Apple Pay integration with iOS, so this could have been an issue for antitrust regulators. The way that the NFC chip in an iPhone works seems to give an advantage to Apple Pay which antitrust regulators do not like. For example, when an iPhone comes near to an NFC reader, the Wallet and Apple Pay interface is immediately automatically shown, something third-party systems cannot do on the iPhone.

Earlier this year, the European Commission concluded in another investigation (this one is a preliminary conclusion at the moment, not a final decision, so keep that in mind) that Apple is indeed in breach of anti-competitive laws. More precisely, the investigation here was about Apple Music and music streaming services, and whether Apple was favoring its own solution on iPhones and thus making it harder for third-party music streaming services to compete.

This anti-competitive behavior was related to the high commission fees that Apple imposed on third-party apps in the App Store and that the company does not allow app developers to tell users there are other payment methods… sounds familiar? Maybe yes, as this is the same complaint game maker Epic Games had against Apple and why the popular Fortnite game is no longer to be found on the App Store, for more than a year now.

The aforementioned preliminary conclusion does not impose any fines or regulations yet, as it is not final. The next step is for the commission to review the case with Apple.In this case, after the period of reviewing it with Apple, the commission will decide whether to proceed with formal charges. If found in breach of competition law, the EC can force Apple to change the rules of the App Store or pay a fine for past offenses, which can go up to 10% of annual revenue.

It is not only Apple that the EC is investigating for breaching competitive laws. Under investigation are also other tech giants such as Google, and even Amazon (for anti-competitiveness in the smart home market). The EC is also investigating the voice assistants on devices from Apple, Google, and Amazon, for the same issues.

October 7, 2021

Apple fans have their minds blown by Intel in new video

When Apple decided to use its own “Apple Silicon” on Macs replacing Intel processors, Intel was not happy. Today, Intel got back at Apple by posting a series of videos showing how Apple fans can be tricked into thinking that innovations created by Intel were discovered by Apple. In the first video called Breaking the Spell, a moderator named Kevin meets with Apple fans (“I’m an Apple girl in an Apple World,” says one) for some one-on-one discussions.

Kevin has these Apple fans watch a video that they believe is about to show off a new Apple product. The video shows a chip called CPU Pro and on the screen, the video says, “Systems you can customize,” “Laptops you can upgrade,” and “Now you’re in control.” The Apple fans watching the video shake their heads up and down. This is what they have all been wanting.

The moderator captures the attention of the Apple fans by asking them whether they would be interested in a device that plays over 57,000 different games effortlessly. He then shows an animation of a laptop with two 4K touchscreens. And if the laptop could fold into a tablet, that would be even better, the Apple fans said. “I would like to have my iPad and my laptop combined,” said one.

Kevin goes out of the room and brings back a two-in-one laptop/tablet. “That kind of eliminates the need of an iPad,” one Apple fan says. The moderator then asks, “What if I told you that everything we’ve been talking about today is available now?” But Kevin then reveals, “But this was not Apple. That is a PC powered by Intel.”

When the group hears that it was Intel, not Apple, that was behind the device that had just seen, they are stunned. Some laughed, others said, “Really” in disbelief. Several were ready to whip out their credit cards right away. The tag line: “When you break Apple’s spell the choice becomes clear.”

Intel released the video on Monday and titled it a social experiment. You might recall that Apple was about to use a new 5G modem chip developed by Intel until it reached a settlement wiping out litigation between Apple and Qualcomm. As a result, Apple is able to stuff Qualcomm’s 5G modem chip inside both the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 series. Eventually, though, Apple plans on designing its own 5G modem chips.

In July 2019, Apple purchased most of Intel’s smartphone modem chip business for a cool billion dollars. And this past summer, roughly two years after it bought Intel’s smartphone modem chip operations, prescient TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that by as early as 2023, Apple might be ready to use its own 5G modem chip for the handsets that would make up the iPhone 15 line.

Losing this business would be a terrible blow to the pocketbook for Qualcomm since the latter cannot make up for the loss of this business by designing Apple’s AP chips. Apple does that itself while having the chipset built by TSMC. Kuo said that Qualcomm might be forced to enter new markets in order to compensate for losing Apple’s 5G modem chip business for the iPhone.

Even if Apple does start including a 5G modem chip that it designed itself with the iPhone 15, some older models that could still be in production would continue to use Qualcomm’s 5G modem chips. If for some reason you are unaware, Apple started offering 5G connectivity on the iPhone with the 2020 iPhone 12 series.

This year, Apple started replacing Intel processors on Macs with the M1. This is a powerful chip designed by Apple and is built by TSMC using the 5nm process node. It contains a whopping 16 billion transistors.

October 5, 2021

Siri loses the ability to help the blind use their iPhones after the release of iOS 15

The accessibility menu is where you’ll find features that Apple added to iOS to help those with hearing and vision problems use an iPhone. From that menu, you can add hearing aid compatibility, toggle on the Sound Recognition feature that sends an alert when certain sounds like a fire or smoke alarm go off. Other sounds that will trigger a notification include the sound of glass breaking, the sound of a baby crying, and more.

Other features found in accessibility include Subtitles & Captioning and there is a listing for Siri. However, some of the things that Siri used to do to help those who have poor vision or are blind have been removed following the iOS 15 update. Apple’s digital assistant will no longer send emails. It also won’t respond to the following commands:

Do I have any voicemails?
Play my voicemail messages
Check my call history
Check my recent calls
Who called me?
Send an email
Send an email to [person]

AppleVis, an online forum for iPhone users who are blind or have poor vision, recently posted a comment from a user named Brian Negus who wrote: “I tried on my iPhone SE with iOS 15.0 and the response from Siri was “sorry, I can’t help with that”. Subsequently, I’ve had the same response on a phone running iOS 12. If this is a deliberate feature removal, it’s certainly a loss to some users with sight loss who find it a convenient way to send a brief email.”

Negus later revealed that he had heard from Apple Support and they told him that “we are aware of this issue and it is currently under review.” This could indicate that Apple will be sending a software update to exterminate the bug. That certainly makes more sense than Apple haphazardly deciding not to allow Siri to help those with vision problems.

Interestingly enough, while the first thought is that the issue started with the recent iOS 15 updates, the same accessibility features no longer working with Siri in iOS 15 are also not working when using Siri in iOS 14. Siri will play the latest voicemail that a user has received or read a voicemail from a specific person. But again, the digital assistant will no longer read the list of all available voicemails.

Siri received something of an overhaul in iOS 15, with speech processing is now done on-device instead of via an Apple server. That’s because the Neural Engine will process speech as well as the off-device server does. The digital assistant will handle some requests offline including setting alarms and timers, messaging, launching an app, controlling the playback of audio, and opening the Settings app.

Siri will now share content on the screen including photos, web pages, content from Apple Music or Apple Podcasts, Maps locations, stories from Apple News, and more. All you have to say is “Send this to Giancarlo.” If the content on the screen can’t be shared, Siri will offer to send a screenshot instead. And while Google Assistant already does this, Siri will now maintain context when you have a follow-up question to make the interaction with the digital helper more of a conversation.

Is it possible that somehow, in the midst of making these changes to Siri in iOS 15, some of the accessibility features were accidentally disabled? It doesn’t matter what caused this as the most important thing is for Apple to bring back Siri’s lost capabilities so that those less fortunate can still use their iPhone even if their vision is poor.

Apple already has a backlog of fixes it needs to send out so we could see all of these bundled together in iOS 15.01, or added to the iOS 15.1 update that Apple is currently testing with the release of its second developer beta.

September 30, 2021

New Chinese regulations force some Apple suppliers to halt or cut production

Some of Apple’s iPhone contract manufacturers in China have had to shut down for a few days because of new regulations related to the use of energy in the country. This doesn’t sound like good news for Apple especially when it has backorders of iPhone 13 units to fill. The good news is that not all of Apple’s suppliers are affected and those that are have cut back on their jobs for other companies instead of Apple.

Still, factories churning out parts like speakers and motherboards will have to shut down for a few days. Because of a shortage of coal, tougher standards related to emissions, and strong demand from manufacturers, coal prices have surged hitting records and forcing users to ration energy. Analysts studying China’s economy say that the reduction in production due to the power shortage is resulting in a drag on the country’s economic growth.

The energy shortage has affected factories in China’s key industrial regions and besides Apple, Tesla suppliers have also had to stop their assembly lines. 15 companies in the country have had production interrupted by the new regulations, and over 30 such firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange have had to stop production to comply with new limits on the use of power.

Nomura Securities says, “The power-supply shock in the world’s second-biggest economy and the biggest manufacturer will ripple through and impact global markets.” China says that it aims to start bringing down carbon emissions following a peak in 2030, dropping down to net-zero by 2060.

The company that makes motherboards for the iPhone, Unimicron Technology Group, closed three of its subsidiaries starting at noon on September 26 to midnight on September 30. A spokesperson for Unimicron attributed the shutdown to the firm’s effort to “comply with the local government’s electricity limiting policy.” The spokesperson added that production lost by the shutdown will be made up with products sourced from its other facilities.

Concraft Holding makes speakers for the iPhone and during the five-day period during which it will be shut down to conserve energy, it will use inventory to meet demand. As for Foxconn, Apple’s largest assembler of iPhone handsets, sources unnamed by Reuters said that the impact on the manufacturer has been limited to the production of non-
Apple products like notebook computers. In addition, Foxconn moved some scheduled production to October and made the necessary adjustments with its staff.

Outside of those changes, Foxconn states that it hasn’t seen any impact at any other production centers throughout China. The Chinese government wants to see to see the growth in electricity use come in lower than GDP. But in the first half of this year, electricity use rose 16.2% compared to GDP growth of 12.7% during the same time period.
Eson Precision Industry Co, a Foxconn affiliate, has suspended production from Sunday to Friday and the world’s top foundry, TSMC, says that there will be no impact from the power shortage on the company’s business. Another Taiwan-based chipmaker, United Microelectronics, who counts Qualcomm among its customers, also said that it has experienced no impact from the new power regulations in China. UMC said that its “Hejian fab in Suzhou is currently running at full capacity utilization of 80,000 plus wafers per month.”

Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Group, says, “This is largely a self-inflicted supply shock. It’s clear by now that Beijing is willing to sacrifice higher growth this year in exchange for structural reforms in some areas.”

September 28, 2021

Apple gives a $1000 bonus to its employees ahead of the shopping season

Surprise surprise, Apple Store employees will receive a hefty $1000 bonus this year. The good news for Apple employees was first reported by Bloomberg. Those who joined the company before March of this year will receive a $1000 bonus. Newer employees will receive $500, which is still a pretty good sum. This information comes from reliable sources of both Bloomberg and 9to5Mac.

“The bonuses will be an unusual perk since Apple rarely gives companywide payouts. The last major one was $2,500 worth of restricted stock units in 2018. That bonus followed tax changes allowing Apple to bring back cash from offshore accounts at a lower cost. The new bonuses will be issued via cash in paychecks, rather than as stock units, the people said.”

Apple Store staff won’t be the only one to get a nice bonus this year. AppleCare and online sales employees are getting one grand as well, which means the company is serious about keeping its customer service happy.

9to5Mac states that the reason the Cupertino company gives such bonuses is that it wants to retain its existing employees before and during the holiday season. As most of you know, the iPhone 13 series is the company’s biggest upcoming release, and it is set to be a big one. This means that Apple will need all the labor force it has to keep its customers happy.

Plenty of stuff if you ask us. The first thing that comes to mind is buying a new iPhone 13 device. Yes, the iPhone 13 Pro Max costs more, but Apple staff can always go for the $999 iPhone 13 Pro or the even less expensive iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini.

September 24, 2021

Upset Tim Cook sends email to Apple employees about product leaks.

Apple CEO Tim Cook once again made it clear that he is not happy with those who work at Apple and have a side hustle selling leaked information to those who pass these secrets on to Twitter tipsters and others. Cook wrote an email to employees last week and naturally, that missive leaked. Cook said in the email that Apple is doing “everything in our power to identify those who leaked” and he also stated that “people who leak confidential information do not belong” at Apple.

Cook was upset to see details of a global employee meeting, held last Friday, September 17th, leak. During the internal meeting, the executive announced that Apple would demand frequent COVID testing for Apple employees who have yet to receive a vaccination, but that the company would not force workers to get the jab. He also was not happy that details of his response to the judge’s ruling in the Epic v. Apple bench trial were leaked.

Cook wrote in his letter, “I want you to know that I share your frustration. These opportunities to connect as a team are really important. But they only work if we can trust that the content will stay within Apple. I want to reassure you that we are doing everything in our power to identify those who leaked. As you know, we do not tolerate disclosures of confidential information, whether it’s product IP or the details of a confidential meeting. We know that the leakers constitute a small number of people. We also know that people who leak confidential information do not belong here.”

The executive added, “As we look forward, I want to thank you for all you’ve done to make our products a reality and all you will do to get them into customers’ hands. Yesterday we released iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8, and Friday marks the moment when we share some of our incredible new products with the world. There’s nothing better than that. We’ll continue to measure our contributions in the lives we change, the connections we foster, and the work we do to leave the world a better place.”

Earlier this year, in an effort to stop leaks, Apple instructed its manufacturing partners Foxconn and Wistron, to conduct criminal background tests on all assembly line workers. Those found to have a criminal background would be banned from entering areas where unreleased Apple products are being developed and assembled. Additionally, all visitors to these factories must flash a government-issued ID, and guards must keep tabs on the movement of factory workers with possession of important components and products.

There is a bit of inconsistency involved here. While Apple is promoting the privacy of its own employees by restricting the biometric information (like fingerprints) that Foxconn and Wistron can collect from Apple employees visiting these facilities, it still wants its manufacturing partners to collect this data from its own employees.

The report that Apple held an internal meeting about leaks which itself leaked might have led you to experience deja vu. That’s because back in 2017 the company held an internal seminar called “Stopping Leakers – Keeping Confidential at Apple.” It was hosted by employees from Apple’s Global Security division. As you might have guessed, the seminar leaked.

Arguably, the worse year for Apple iPhone leaks came in 2013 when images of the different colored rear shells for the more affordable iPhone 5c leaked. Many of these iPhone 5c leaks were traced to Australia’s Sonny Dickson, who at the time was a teenager.

In 2017, Dickson told Reuters that he had 5 to 10 sources inside China who purchased prototype parts from assembly line workers paying $250-$500 a pop. The sources sent him videos of the parts and sometimes they sent him the parts themselves.

September 23, 2021

Google and Apple Maps rival explains why their ETA estimates are always off

Ever wonder why your estimated time of arrival (ETA) at a destination that you used Google Maps or Apple Maps to navigate to never matches up with the initial ETA estimate? For example, let’s say that you are traveling from Ludlow, Vermont to Moreau, New York. After tapping the destination into Google Maps, it shows that the drive will take 1 hour and 40 minutes allowing you to get to your destination by 2:45 pm.

But by the time your journey ends, it is 2:55 pm and you’re ten minutes late. What happened? Google Maps and Apple Maps rival TomTom recently said in a blog post that “We rely on estimated times of arrival (ETAs) now more than ever. Whether we’re waiting on a package, food delivery or taxi ride, an accurate ETA is essential. The problem with ETAs is that they are hard to calculate accurately – and this can lead to both dissatisfied customers and disgruntled drivers.”

First, why should it matter if your ETA is off by a few minutes? TomTom points out that deliveries could arrive too early or too late which frustrates consumers. A package that arrives too early when no one is home to receive it has a bulls-eye on it that says “steal me.” And a late food delivery could result in food being too cold by the time it gets to your house. And a rideshare that arrives at the airport late might force you to run through the airport as O.J. Simpson used to in television commercials for Hertz back in the day.

Drivers trying to pick up minutes on their ETA tend to drive faster with no regard to the usual rules of the road. In 2019 Tom Tom spoke with ride-hailing companies (such as Lyft and Uber) and food delivery companies and was told that having an accurate ETA was one of the biggest problems they face in their businesses. That’s because there are so many unpredictable variables that go into figuring out when you will arrive at point “B” after leaving from point “A.”

Such variables include the weather, driver behavior, and traffic. Part of the problem is that each company has a different reason to provide an accurate ETA. Delivery firms need reliable ETAs while ride-hailing and other firms dealing with commuters want to get their customers from one place to another as fast as possible.

Inaccurate ETAs can occur because some drivers are aggressive and will speed through yellow lights, drive well above the speed limit, and take other chances. Some drivers are conservative and will stop at a yellow light and drive well below the speed limit. Some companies use algorithms to match deliveries with certain drivers. TomTom says that “These algorithms are the ‘secret sauce’ behind route and ETA planning and perform extremely complex calculations that companies own and may vary from business to business.”

To improve ETA accuracy TomTom suggests the use of historical data that show how fast traffic flows through certain roads at specific times of the day. Mix that with Real-Time traffic (TomTom has a system that updates real-time traffic every 30 seconds). It is also important to figure information about the road into ETA calculations. The mapping firm points out that “The more accurate the maps, the better for drivers and customers. Road details like curvature, gradient, speed limits, traffic lights, specific traffic rules and lane information are all important to consider.”

It might sound surprising, but TomTom says that the best route might be one that is longer but is more likely to deliver a more accurate ETA than another route with more traffic lights or accidents. TomTom adds that obtaining an accurate ETA is “both an art and a science.”

September 20, 2021

Apple Adds More Drivers For Testing Self Driving Cars In California

It is no secret that Apple is lagging behind the likes of Google, Aurora, Cruise, Tesla, and many more when it comes down to self-driving technology. It even lost its lead of project titan aka the Apple Car project – Doug Field – to Ford recently. But now there are signs that it is ramping up testing of its self-driving car software with it increasing the number of pilots it has for tests in the last month.

In August, Apple’s autonomous driving program consisted of 69 vehicles and 92 pilots as per a filing with the California DMV. Now that number has risen to 114 registered drivers as of September 10 which is just last week. This number is still lower than the peak of 154 drivers which was achieved in October 2020. There are signs that Apple is increasing its fleet after almost halving it in 2020.

Waymo and Cruise have the most vehicles with each having 616 and 201 autonomous cars on the prowl in California. Apple just has 69 cars and is yet to apply for a driverless permit. DMV filings also reveal that Apple’s vehicles were involved in two collisions since last August achieving a total of five in the year. It has been reported that Apple’s system for autonomy disengaged at the time of the accident and the other vehicle was to blame for the two recent incidents.

Apple has been developing a self-driving system for the last couple of years and this system will be applied to a chassis that will be powered by an electric powertrain with unique battery technology. Recently, after the exit of Field, Apple elevated Apple Watch software boss and healthcare head, Kevin Lynch to being the head of the Apple Car project. Lynch himself reports to Apple COO Jeff Williams and the overall project is under Apple AI chief and senior VP, John Giannandrea.

Apple has been also on the lookout for a manufacturing partner having had chats with Hyundai, Magna, Kia, Toyota and Nissan for a contract manufacturer agreement, something that’s yet to be closed. Many believe Apple could be launching its car by 2025, but many Apple watchers believe that may not be true and the project isn’t as further along as many believe. Regardless, this will like also be the last major product launch under CEO Tim Cook who has been at Apple since 1998 and recently completed a decade at the top of the Silicon Valley giant.

September 15, 2021

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