Ford is bringing Siri to 5 million SYNC-enabled cars

Most modern Ford cars come installed with its bespoke infotainment system called SYNC, allowing drivers to make calls and listen to various music streaming apps while keeping their eyes on the road. The system already lets some owners remotely start their car, but it will soon also offer services from an important partner: Apple. Starting today, owners of a Ford vehicle purchased in 2011 or later can download a new software update that will add Siri functionality to their SYNC interface.

Via: Ford Media Center

Source: Ford Owner Portal

Ford Brings Siri Eyes Free Support to 5 Million Vehicles Dating Back to 2011

While many carmakers are starting to roll out support for Apple’s CarPlay in-vehicle functionality, an older Siri Eyes Free feature is also designed to help minimize driver distraction by using Siri voice recognition and spoken responses to allow drivers to interact with an iPhone without needing to look at the screen.

Siri Eyes Free is generally activated through a hardware button on the vehicle’s steering wheel and is available in a number of makes and models, and Ford today is officially announcing the launch of Eyes Free support for over five million vehicles dating back to the 2011 model year via a software update to Ford’s second-generation SYNC infotainment system.

“SYNC, Ford’s entertainment and communications system, was designed to be flexible and updatable, just like other mobile technologies, so our customers are able to get the most out of their smartphones while behind the wheel,” said Sherif Marakby, director, Ford Electronics and Electrical Systems Engineering. “Siri Eyes-Free is another great voice-activated feature that not only adds convenience but helps our customers keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel.”

Eyes Free support actually went live two months ago with the launch of version 3.8 of the second-generation SYNC software, but Ford has apparently waited until now to make the rollout official as it has worked to apply the update to new cars coming from the factory and make it available to owners of existing vehicles.

Apple also lists Ford as one of its CarPlay partners, but the automaker has yet to announce specific plans for supporting it in upcoming vehicles. The most recent information from Ford indicates CarPlay support will be arriving “relatively soon.”

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Withings Home Review: New Apple TV App and Baby Monitor Features Make a Solid Camera Even Better

Roughly a year ago, popular accessory company Withings introduced its Home security camera and air quality monitor, giving users an easy way to keep tabs on their homes with video streaming, push alerts for activity, and cloud storage of footage. Withings has continued to improve the Home with software updates since the launch, and several recent additions such as an app for the new Apple TV and a Baby Monitor mode have made the user experience even better.

Priced at $200, the Withings Home is a 5-megapixel HD camera with a 135-degree field of view, night vision, sensors for motion, sound, and air quality, and more. A companion iOS app [Direct Link] makes it easy to control the camera, receive alerts, and monitor video, audio, and other data from the Home.

The Home is a fairly attractive looking camera about the size of a coffee mug, with a wood grain shell that can be rotated to physically cover the device’s camera to eliminate any potential concerns about accidental activation of the camera at unwanted times. The lower portion of the main body can glow in a variety of colors to indicate device status or act as a nightlight.

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Logitech Create Review: Excellent Keyboard, but Makes iPad Pro Bulky and Heavy

Logitech’s Create Keyboard Case for the iPad Pro was one of the first third-party keyboards available for the device, because Logitech created it with help from Apple. Because Logitech partnered with Apple for the accessory, it’s also the only third-party keyboard that’s currently able to take advantage of the Smart Connector on the iPad Pro, meaning it doesn’t need to connect to the iPad over Bluetooth or use its own power source.

We went hands-on with Logitech’s Create Keyboard case to see how it measures up to Apple’s own hard-to-find Smart Keyboard and the few other iPad Pro third-party keyboards on the market.

Design

Logitech designed the Create to transform the iPad Pro into a laptop clone, producing a keyboard that is close in design and feel to a traditional laptop keyboard. The case itself is made from a rigid material covered with a ballistic nylon fabric, while the keyboard is constructed from aluminum with plastic keys. Design wise, the Create is available in three colors – black, navy, and red – to match the Space Gray, Silver, and Gold iPads.

You can mix and match colors, but based on marketing materials, the black model is meant to match the Space Gray iPad, the navy model is meant for the Silver iPad, and the red version is designed to match the Gold iPad. Each model’s outer cover is designed to be resistant to liquid, keeping the iPad Pro safe from small spills, drips, and light rain.

The Create Keyboard has two main parts: the keyboard portion of the case and a rigid backplate that fits over the iPad Pro. The shell of the case fits over the top half of the iPad Pro in landscape mode, aligning with the camera. There’s a crease in the middle of the backplate that allows it to flex to fit the iPad Pro into the Smart Connector built into the case.

Only half of the iPad Pro is fitted securely in the case because of the need for that connection, and on multiple occasions, my iPad Pro popped out of the shell. This never happened in an area where I could potentially drop the iPad Pro, but it was a definite concern of mine. Having the iPad Pro pop out of the case at the wrong time could be a potential disaster, but at the same time, the bottom of the iPad Pro has to be free to fit properly.

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MacBooks Top Consumer Reports Survey in Reliability and Customer Satisfaction

A recent Consumer Reports survey shows that MacBooks continue to lead all notebooks in reliability and customer satisfaction, based on 58,000 subscribers who purchased laptops between 2010 and 2015.

ZDNet reports that almost 20% of the respondents experienced a breakdown in the first three years of using a notebook, but MacBooks had notably lower failure rates compared to various Windows-based notebooks from Acer, Lenovo, Samsung and other OEMs. MacBook Air had just a 7% estimated failure rate, while the MacBook Pro was slightly higher at 9%.

Apple, as in year’s past, has the most reliable notebooks by far – a 10 percent breakdown rate in the first 3 years – with Samsung and Gateway distant seconds at 16 percent, and the rest of the industry – including Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba, HP, Dell and Asus, at 18-19 percent.

Windows machines used more than 20 hours a week – average for Windows systems – have a higher break rate. Apple users report using their machines an average of 23 hours a week, 15 percent more. More hours, fewer breakdowns, what’s not to like?

The most reliable Windows-based notebooks in the survey were Gateway’s NV (13% failure rate) and LT (14%); the Samsung ATIV Book (14%); Lenovo ThinkPads (15%); and the Dell XPS line (15%). HP’s premium ENVY line was near the bottom, with a 20% failure rate, while Lenovo’s Y Series had the highest failure rate at 23%.

When MacBooks do break, however, the survey found they are often more expensive to fix, which is why purchasing AppleCare is recommended. Apple provides 90 days of complimentary phone and online chat support that can be extended for a total of three years with an AppleCare Protection Plan for Macs at a cost of up to $349.

In terms of customer satisfaction, 71% of MacBook owners were “completely satisfied with system reliability,” compared to “only 38% of Windows notebook owners.”

The complete survey results are available at Consumer Reports for subscribers only.

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United Airlines to Equip 6,000 Customer Service Representatives With the iPhone 6 Plus

United Airlines today announced a plan to equip its customer service representatives in each United States-based hub with Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus. The airline said that the plan will allow each rep to assist passengers’ needs faster while giving them access to “additional operational information” without needing to search for outside help.

“Our employees told us they needed better tools to serve our customers, especially during severe weather and busier travel times,” said Jon Roitman, United’s senior vice president of airport operations. “We have seen great success with the custom-made tools on the iPhone 6 Plus and believe expanding the use of a smart phone device with other applications is a great investment in our employees.”

Estimated to begin in 2016, United will distribute an iPhone 6 Plus — 2014’s 5.5-inch display iPhone — to more than 6,000 of its representatives across the United States. The new initiative will let the company’s reps print boarding passes and baggage tags before departure, and even help customers find alternative flight options. Future enhancements to the program will bring fully-realized check-in opportunities and enough well-rounded features to give customers “much of the same functionality as traditional airport kiosks.”

Previously in June, United distributed iPhones to its flight attendants in an effort to provide better customer service in-flight to passengers. That initiative was announced a year ago, so today’s customer service representative program will probably see a similar six month gestation period before launching.

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One of Apple’s favorite developers just left the Mac App Store

Bohemian Coding has pulled its popular design app Sketch from the Mac App Store. In a blog post, it cites numerous reasons for the switch, “many of which in isolation wouldn’t cause huge concern.” The main culprits are the time between an app update being submitted and approved, a lack of upgrade pricing options and the technical limitations imposed by Apple’s guidelines on sandboxing. Anyone that’s bought the app previously will be able to download the app from the Sketch site to continue receiving updates.

Source: Bohemian Coding

New Apple TV Shown Streaming Steam Games From PC Using Unofficial Client

Developer Kevin Smith, who previously demonstrated a version of the MAME emulator running on the new Apple TV, has now made some tweaks to existing open source tools to allow game streaming from a PC to the new Apple TV. Smith took advantage of the Moonlight iOS open source project based on NVIDIA’s GameStream, modifying it to run on tvOS.

Using this modified version of Moonlight iOS, Smith was able to stream games from Steam on a PC directly to the Apple TV. Without the need to run directly on the Apple device, streamed games can appear as high-quality as the source computer allows, with obvious Wi-Fi and streaming strength limitations taken into account when used without a wired Ethernet connection. In the video below, Smith tests the Moonlight client out on the new Apple TV with popular open-world game Grand Theft Auto V.

Caution: Gameplay audio includes profanity

With the launch of the new Apple TV at the end of October, Apple took its first significant steps into the world of couch gaming, thanks to a full App Store for third-party apps included on the new tvOS operating system for the platform.

Although the Apple TV supports wireless gaming controllers that account for a few exceptions, most of the gaming apps that function best on the Apple TV remain as iOS-like side-scrollers and platforms rather than more sophisticated console-level games.

While it is still in the early days for the new Apple TV, momentum does appear to be building. For example, Facebook last week announced a new SDK for developers to “build immersive social experiences” on Apple TV with a number of features including a confirmation code login system that can bypass the cumbersome text entry of the Apple TV.

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