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Developer beta of iOS 17 reveals new features on Apple Music such as SharePlay by Anushe Fawaz Yesterday was Apple’s annual company event WWDC 2023, where it revealed new products such as the AR headset, iOS 17, and its latest Macbook models. The company briefly mentioned Apple Music, however, with the iOS 17 developer beta rolling out users got to see more features coming on the app. In May, Apple introduced a new concert discovery feature on Apple Maps and Music that allowed users to find upcoming concerts and their venues in their area. Now, as reported by MacRumors, Apple Music will allow a cross-fade feature when transitioning between songs. This means that when a song ends, it will transition into the next one without pausing in the middle. Since the feature is new, some users reported that enabling the cross-fade feature on Apple Music caused the app to crash immediately. This happens every time users tap on the Music tab in the Settings application. Developers with access to the beta version are also noticing some changes to the user interface (UI) of Apple Music. One of these changes includes the full-screen display of the album covers that blend seamlessly with the music player at the bottom. There is also a minimized version of the music player that hovers over the Apple Music UI. The player offers the standard play/pause and skip options. Another feature Apple Music has in the making is collaborative playlists. The feature enables users to create shared playlists by allowing them to add songs to a single playlist. The capability also displays a profile picture to signify the user who added the tune. Users also have the option to remove unwanted songs or “react” to the ones they like. However, Apple mentioned that this capability will be available later this year. Apple’s CarPlay is also getting an update with SharePlay, which lets users contribute to what is currently playing in their vehicles. They can, thus, pause, play, or skip the current audio to play their desired tunes. Lastly, some minor changes include the song lyrics being displayed in a larger font and syncing with the music being played. Source and Images: MacRumors

This Apple CarPlay bug is plaguing all iPhone users, glitching their car infotainment system by Ishtiaqe Hanif Apple CarPlay is a modern infotainment system for more than 800 models of cars. It is part of the Apple ecosystem, making it easy for Apple users to connect their iPhones and mirror their favorite apps to the car's infotainment display. It supports beaming navigation information, streaming music, video, and serving notifications among other features. While testing a Lucid Air, Edmunds noticed significant lag and stutter when using Apple CarPlay connected to an iPhone. The responsiveness and user experience were hampered. The reporter posted a video of this experience on Twitter as seen below. Last year, our Lucid Air’s infotainment was buggy and lagged. Today, responsiveness has improved and CarPlay functionality has been added — now we’re just trying to make it more aesthetically pleasing… pic.twitter.com/oR4kpiNong — Edmunds (@edmunds) April 24, 2023 Marques Brownlee, also known as MKBHD also experienced the same issue. He says it might never get fixed, therefore it's better to know how to avoid facing such problems when using the service. To avoid this problem, iPhone users should refrain from using the phone's camera while it is connected to Apple CarPlay. This solution was found by Edmunds while they debated about the issue, you can see a demo here.

Here are some new features coming to Microsoft Teams in March by Usama Jawad A couple of days ago, we learned that Microsoft is adding insights like birthdays, career changes, and pending meeting invites to Teams profile cards soon. However, this isn't the only feature planned for the online communication and collaboration software as the Redmond tech giant has recently updated its Microsoft 365 Roadmap with a bunch of new capabilities coming soon too. For starters, Teams is getting "ultrasound howling detection" on Windows and Mac. Basically, when multiple people join a Teams meeting in the same room with their respective mics and speakers on, it results in echoes and "howling" sounds due to the audio feedback loop. Microsoft is solving this problem by automatically detecting when more than one laptop is in the vicinity for the same meeting and if at least one has their mic on. When these conditions are met, participants after the first one will be informed and their mic and speakers will be automatically muted when they join. Moreover, Teams on Windows and Mac will also get support for an "Explicit Recording Consent" policy, which is exactly what the name implies. Before you consent, your audio, video, and content shared on your screen won't be recorded. Meanwhile, Teams admins will be able to leverage a cleaner UI in the Teams Admin Center on the web as well. Left navigation items that are not used as frequently will be hidden by default but admins will have the opportunity to pin them if they want. There are a few more nifty enhancements here and there too. Emergency locations for routing of emergency calls will be auto-suggested, meetings can be joined from the calendar view on Apple CarPlay on the iPhone, and more customization options for live captions, including the ability to scroll to previous captions, up to a minute ago. Lastly, Teams customers on the government cloud will be able to send, view, record, and review short-form Teams video clips. All of the aforementioned features are planned for general availability in March 2023 but it is important to understand that timelines mentioned on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap are tentative so they can slip.

Microsoft announces new calling features for Teams, such as CarPlay by Rich Woods Today, Microsoft is announcing a bunch of new calling features that are coming to its Teams collaboration service. It also provided some numbers, saying that Teams users made over 650 million calls in October, 11 times as many as in March. Going forward, you'll be able to set OneDrive or SharePoint as a default location for saving call recordings, rather than Microsoft Stream. That should make it easier to share, give you more of a storage capacity, and more. There's also an improved Calling app that's meant to streamline the whole calling experience into a single location; that app will work with Apple CarPlay, another improvement that Microsoft touted today. If you're not a fan of spam, well, you're like everyone else. Spam identification is coming, and Teams will also attest outgoing calls so they don't get rejected as spam. There's also automatic reverse number look-up, so you'll see the name of who's calling you. Along the lines of call management, you'll soon be able to switch between mobile and desktop. It should make general mobility a lot easier, where you can answer a call from your phone while you're driving, and switch to your desktop when you arrive at your office. This feature is coming in early 2021, along with a new low-data mode that will let you set bandwidth limits. Call merge will also be helpful for call management, letting you combine calls. Microsoft also announced some new advanced calling features, such as a new Survivable Branch Appliance that can keep calls going even if there's a network outage. There are also new collaborative calling capabilities like putting call queues into a channel, so you can collaborate before and after the call. The firm is also making sure that when you transfer a call, the caller won't get disconnected if no one is available on the other end. Finally, there are some new devices on the way. These include phones with hardware buttons, more Teams displays, and more. You'll also be able to get them through a device as a service plan, which is available now.

Google Maps now supports CarPlay Dashboard, coming to Apple Watch soon by Jefferson Mangubat Google has announced a couple of new updates for Maps. Starting today, the navigation app is compatible with Apple's CarPlay Dashboard, with plans to also roll out support for Apple Watch in the near future. Maps has now added support for CarPlay's split-screen functionality, allowing users to play or pause songs from their media app, for example, while also using with Maps' turn-by-turn navigation at the same time. This multi-tasking capability is designed to let you "get the information you need while keeping your focus on the road". The integration is now available on all vehicles worldwide with CarPlay support. Over the coming weeks, Google is also rolling out a new Maps app to Apple Watch. This will enable users to receive driving, biking, and walking directions on their wrist. The navigation app will also provide an estimated time of arrival at the users' known destination such as home, work or any other location they have previously saved. For other destinations not saved yet on the app, users have to start on their iPhone first and then pick up where they left off on their smartwatch.

Full article at TheDrive tl:dr ... Instead of charging $300 for AirPlay, BMW is thinking about an annual subscription of $80 (first year free). (sarcasm to follow) Next up, subscriptions to use anti-lock brakes and seat belts. Using the AC requires a cruise control subscription.

Apple reportedly delays some iOS 12 features to focus on reliability by Abhay Venkatesh iOS 11 has not seen the best of reviews since its release in September of last year. It has been plagued with reliability issues and also saw a slow rollout in comparison to earlier iOS updates. However, subsequent updates have been pushed to resolve many of the issues. As of December, according to the numbers from the company’s app support page for developers, iOS 11 had been running on 59% of devices. Today, a report from Axios states that Apple is delaying certain features that were meant to be in the next iOS release in favor of focus on performance and reliability. According to the report, features that are being pushed to 2019 include a refresh of the iOS home screen and Apple CarPlay’s in-car user interface, as well as improvements to the picture taking, photo editing and sharing experiences, and core apps such as the native Mail app. The report also states that the announcement of the revised plan for the forthcoming updates were made by Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, at a meeting earlier this month. The features that may make it to this year’s release, however, include improvements to ARKit, Apple’s augmented reality technology, the health platform, and parental controls. In addition to these features and usual bug fixes, Apple will aim to make iPhone devices much more reliable and responsive, the report states. Following the yearly cadence, Apple is expected to announce the next major update to iOS in the fall of this year. Following the criticism faced by the company this year with regards to certain security features, few annoying usability bugs and the backlash for CPU throttling of old devices, for which the company publicly apologized, it is to be seen what other features make it to the next release in addition to the renewed focus on reliability. As with all rumors and internal reports, this news too should be taken with a grain of salt, as internal plans may change at any time until the final release.

Apple CarPlay now supports Google Play Music for iOS by Chris Schroeder Apple's CarPlay platform is slowly gaining adoption among auto manufacturers and aftermarket media deck manufacturers. The platform streamlines an iPhone interface on a compatible vehicle dashboard system when an iPhone is connected, allowing for quick access to supported apps. This helps drivers access selected services and functions of their phones without having to take their eyes off the road for too long. Now, CarPlay has picked up support for one of the more popular music streaming services. Google Play Music for iOS is now supported via Apple CarPlay, allowing iPhone users that play and purchase audio content via Google's music service to access their music through the simplified CarPlay app interface. When accessed, Google Play Music will allow for four main categories of the app to be accessed while driving: Home, Recents, Music Library, and Stations. Older versions of Google Play Music do not support CarPlay, so if you're someone that has a vehicle with a CarPlay-compatible system you will need to update your Google Play Music app before taking your next drive. Just like other CarPlay apps, the Google Play Music app can be placed wherever you prefer on your CarPlay homescreen. Source: 9to5Mac

Ford will bring Android Auto and Apple CarPlay to all of its 2017 models by Vlad Dudau Our cars’ digital prowess is very underwhelming by most standards but Ford is looking to change that as it announced that all of its 2017 vehicles will feature Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The giant automaker announced earlier this year that it was looking to bring the two infotainment systems to all of its models equipped with Sync 3. Now the company has announced in a press release, that indeed, all of its new cars, light trucks, SUVs and electric vehicles will feature Sync 3 by the end of the year. Up until now, Apple CarPlay or Google's Android Auto were generally available on more expensive cars, or select models. As a buyer, you’d be hard pressed to find a car if you wanted to take advantage of the digital systems built around our phone’s operating systems. But Ford claims it wants to take out the guesswork involved with buying a car if a consumer is looking for these systems. This seems to be good news for those in the market for a new car, although, an infotainment system that connects to your phone seems to be a bit quaint at this point. After all, self-driving cars, affordable Teslas and Apple’s Car are all supposedly just around the corner.