Apple

  • Apple Maps app - image courtesy of Apple

    With the launch of a single app (and a new mobile device operation system), Apple has apparently managed to make portable and in-car navigation systems all but obsolete. Announced at this week’s Apple World Wide Developer’s Conference, Apple Maps promises to deliver unprecedented levels of routing advice. As you’d expect, users get a choice of routes. There’s spoken turn-by-turn directions, too, and the Siri virtual assistant can be used to enter a destination via voice. Along the way, you can ask for restaurants, gas stations, stores and other services, and even...

  • Apple's steering-wheel-mounted remote control design
    Siri Is My Co-Pilot: Apple's Eyes Free Redefines Hands Free

    About a month ago we found a patent by Apple for an in-car remote control system. At the time, we weren't completely sure what that patent was for, assuming it had to do with music. It still might, but today Apple announced that it is integrating its voice-command service called Siri with the...

  • DriversEd.com's Driver's License app for iPhone, iPad, iPod
    After Two Years, Apple Pulls Fake Driver's License App

    If you heard the sound of a thousand distant screams yesterday, it wasn't an ebbing in The Force, it was the anguished moans of college freshmen, learning that Apple had pulled DriversEd.com's free "Driver's License" app from the company's App Store. In an instant, fake IDs became minimally more...

  • Prototype screen of the Tesla Open Vehicle Monitoring System. Image: Tesla Motors Club
    Tesla Roadster Fans Design Their Own iPhone Monitoring App

    Given the importance of Tesla's Roadster for changing the way the general public thinks about electric cars, it's a little strange that owners have been left in the dark as far as a dedicated smartphone app is concerned. While drivers of the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt or even Smart Electric Drive have...

  • Siri becomes voice-activated ignition key
    "Siri... Start My Car": iPhone 4S Becomes Car Key

    Technology you can talk to has been around in films for years, but the Siri voice-activated software assistant really has turned the iPhone 4S into a little robot personal assistant. Still, there's unexplored territory as far as talking to tech is concerned. How about a Knight Rider-style car that...

  • Navigon 2.0 update for iOS
    Navigon Now Lets Users Download Maps One State At A Time

    Millions of Americans are planning road trips this holiday week, and many of them will use navigation software to get them where they need to go -- whether that's over the river and through the woods or to the outlet mall. The Navigon MobileNavigator smartphone app recently made things simpler for...

  • Volkswagen Scirocco Challenge app for iPhone

    You know the drill here people: It's a Monday, everyone's least favorite day of the week. Actually, we don't mind Mondays that much as it's a perfect excuse for us to find something that makes the day a little bit more fun, and this week we've dug up five iPhone apps for the ardent Volkswagen fan. Turns out the Apple App Store is littered with VW-themed apps so we've tested a bunch, all available for free, that can keep you occupied on your lunch breaks throughout the week. iBeetle You'll have to bear with us on this one, as the whole app seems to be in Spanish. The description on iTunes...

  • Liviu Tudoran's "Apple iMove" design study
    The iMove: If Apple Designed Cars... (Video)

    We've speculated before that if technology giant Apple were to build a car, then licencing Gordon Murray's aptly-named iStream process would be a good place to start, with no prior experience creating cars. We could never see Apple releasing a car as ungainly as the T.25 or electric T.27 though...

  • 2011 Toyota FT-86 II Concept
    Toyota FT-86 Sports Car Gets Its Own iPhone App

    The Toyota FT-86 sports coupe is something of an enigma and it hasn't even been launched yet. Known variously as a spiritual successor to the AE86 "Haichi-Roku" Corolla of the 1980s, the "Toyobaru" for its technology shared with an upcoming Subaru coupe and "stop making concepts and build the thing...

  • 2012 Nissan Leaf in the Apple iPhone 4S commercial
    iPhone 4S Hitches Its Wagon To The 2012 Nissan Leaf

    As everyone knows by now, Apple did not launch the iPhone 5 at yesterday's press event. This was bad news for Apple (shares slid after the meet-up), bad news for iOS developers (iOS handsets have recently been losing ground to Android), and bad news for Apple's new CEO Tim Cook (who should've been...

  • 2011 Hyundai Equus
    2012 Hyundai Equus Loses iPad Manual, Goes Back To Paper

    We're so used to seeing carmakers taking leaps forward in in-car technology and mobile innovations that it comes as a shock when progress takes a step back. When the 2011 Hyundai Equus luxury car was launched it gained high praise from all quarters for offering huge levels of equipment at a price...

  • BMW "The Ultimate Drive" app
    BMW: The Ultimate Driving... App "Social, Mobile Experience"

    Some carmakers would have you believe that it's no longer enough to simply drive around in their product, that driving is now a connected experience and one to share with a wider audience than just your passengers. To this end, BMW's new mobile app, "The Ultimate Drive" lets you discover the best...

  • Nissan Carwings App for Android OS

    2011 Nissan Leaf owners are right on the cutting edge of car technology, but so far only Apple iPhone users have been able to enjoy the full experience of controlling the car's climate control and charging timer functions from a mobile device. No longer. Android smartphone users are now privy to the party with the new Nissan Leaf app for Android OS devices. Like the clever iPhone app the Android version is free to download and through a subtly redesigned interface users can control their Leaf's state of charge, view estimated range and pre-heat or cool the cabin using Nissan's Carwings...

  • Backseat Driver app from ToyToyota
    Vacation Planner: Toyota Has A Road Trip App Just For Kids

    At a time when most major manufacturers are scaling back and focusing on core products, Toyota has added a brand -- and along with it, a new toy to keep kids occupied on road trips. The brand in question is ToyToyota, and its first product is an app called Backseat Driver. Backseat Driver is...

  • 2012 Chevrolet Sonic. Photo by Joe Nuxoll
    2012 Chevrolet Sonic: Spotify Invites For Info Requests

    As a replacement for the dull and unfashionable Chevrolet Aveo, GM is hoping the funky 2011 Chevrolet Sonic will appeal to a more savvy car buyer, and tempt people away from their Ford Fiestas and Honda Fits. One way of doing this is giving free invitations to the Spotify digital music service to...

  • Apple Store smash and no grab, Greensboro, NC
    White Ninja Crashes Honda Accord Into Apple Store; Your Move, Mr. Jobs

    Like you, we're fed up with waiting on Apple to put out, whether it's the white iPhone 4 or any iPad 2. Or maybe a Genius Bar waitron who doesn't give you the idiot look when you don't "live" TCP/IP protocols. The dude in the Honda Accord above obviously couldn't wait for Apple to get its act...

  • Bob Ferry's 1906 Oldsmobile replica. Photo: Inside Google Books
    Vintage 1906 Oldsmobile Built Using Google Books Downloads

    Accessing the internet in your car is nothing new these days. Using the internet to build your car is rather more special. That's exactly what Kentucky-based vintage car enthusiast Bob Ferry did, constructing his "brand new" 1906 Oldsmobile Model B Runabout using information downloaded from Google...

  • 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class Apple iPad app
    2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS Accessorizes With Apple iPad App

    Automotive apps are all the rage, but it's a special kind of car that gets an app all to itself. The luxury 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class four-door coupe is just such a car, and a free app available through the Apple App Store allows owners and potential owners to access information about the car...

  • BumpChat driver connection app

    For those who can't get enough of chatting to strangers in traffic, the experience can now be enjoyed more widely than ever with BUMP.com's acquisition of BumpChat. The 'social network for your car' allows you to contact other drivers and chat to your heart's content, all the while fine-tuning the criteria you use to find other drivers by. The app lets you select how far away you'd like to speak to others - whether in the same traffic queue as you or several miles away - or by a specific make, model and year of car, allowing you to keep in touch with other like-minded drivers. Simpler options...

  • eBay Motors app infographic
    The eBay Motors App Arrives At Last, But Can It Save The Day?

    We expected the eBay Motors app to arrive in March, but it missed that deadline by a couple of months. Now that it's finally arrived, can the app redeem itself by preserving eBay's standing as a worthwhile shopping destination? There's no denying that eBay has lost luster over the past few years...

  • Pulled over by the police
    Senators Push Apple, Google To Nix DUI Apps -- But Does It Matter?

    In March, we told you that four U.S. Senators had pushed Apple, Google, and Research In Motion (creators of the Blackberry) to remove apps that revealed the location of DUI checkpoints. At the time, RIM was the only provider that agreed to do so, but now Apple and Google have indicated that they...

  • Homer Simpson
    Homer Simpson Squeezes Into TomTom's App For iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch

    Given the vast number of free navigation apps available for Apple, Android, Blackberry, and Windows handsets, we've been more than a little skeptical about the future of satnav makers like Garmin and TomTom. After all, why should consumers shell out for a fairly limited piece of hardware when they...

  • Copart's Sell My Car app
    Tired Of eBay, Craigslist? Sell Your Car With Copart App

    Online car sales sites have transformed the way we buy and sell cars. Whether you're selling to the highest bidder on an online auction site or setting your price and waiting for the calls on sites like Autotrader, you can not only add far more photos and details than ever before but reach a...

  • BMW i App
    Planning A Road Trip? Make It 'Appen With These Mobile Apps

    In the good old days all you needed for a road trip was a car, some buddies, and a sense of adventure. Even a map was optional. These days you can have it so much easier with the latest downloadable apps at your fingertips telling you everything from where to sleep to providing your tunes. Here is...

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