MacRumors

Apple's much-anticipated iOS 7.1 update could come any day now, according to new information from John Gruber of Daring Fireball. Gruber has heard that Apple has plans to release an iOS 7.1-reliant app that will stream the iTunes Festival performances at SXSW, and as SXSW will begin on March 11, iOS 7.1 will need to be released to the public ahead of that date.

Apple's first iTunes Festival in the U.S. starts a week from today at SXSW in Austin. Apple is going to stream the performances to iOS devices using an app, but I've heard from a little birdie that the app requires iOS 7.1 (which explains why the app isn't out yet). That means iOS 7.1 should ship any day now.

iOS 7.1 has been in testing since mid-November, and has seen five different developer betas thus far with the last beta coming on February 4. The operating system update includes a number of visual tweaks, including revamped shift and caps locks keys on the keyboard, refined icons for the Phone, FaceTime, and Messages apps, and a new look for several aspects of the Phone dialer.

Details on features in past beta releases can be found in our previous beta posts: Beta 1, Beta 2, Beta 3, Beta 4 and Beta 5.

A mid-March release date for iOS 7.1 is in line with several previous reports that have pointed to a March launch for the operating system. Apple has yet to seed a Golden Master build to developers, however.

Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, and London Grammar kick off the SXSW iTunes Festival with a performance on March 11 that begins at 7:30 PM CST.

Apple's newly unveiled CarPlay iOS vehicle integration system, which allows an iPhone to take over the in-dash display of a car, has been designed to work with BlackBerry's QNX operating system. The QNX Car Platform powers many in-car infotainment systems and includes a mobile connectivity framework that supports many mobile development environments, including iOS.

In a statement made to Lucas Atkins of N4BB, BlackBerry's Paul Leroux confirmed that CarPlay works alongside the QNX systems installed in many cars.

Connectivity to smartphones and other mobile devices is a key strength of QNX Software Systems' platform for car infotainment systems, and many automakers and tier one automotive suppliers use our platform to implement smartphone/head-unit integration in their vehicles. We have a long-standing partnership with Apple to ensure high-quality connectivity with their devices, and this partnership extends to support for Apple CarPlay.

CarPlay, which requires an iPhone to function, can be likened to Apple's AirPlay, mirroring the iPhone's display and functionality to the existing in-car infotainment system.

Since CarPlay was announced yesterday, multiple manufacturers, including Volvo, Ferrari, and Mercedes-Benz have shown off vehicles with CarPlay integration. Other manufacturers, such as Honda, Jaguar, Hyundai, and more, are expected to launch vehicles with CarPlay support in 2014.

Following yesterday's announcement of Apple's new CarPlay iOS vehicle integration and the release of promotional materials from launch partners Volvo and Mercedes-Benz, more details are arriving today with Apple participating in Ferrari's launch at the Geneva Motor Show.

The first thing we noticed is how speedy everything is. Apps load quickly, and Siri's contextual algorithms hastily recognized our voice commands and responded appropriately. Apple has also implemented safety features to ensure services do not draw your attention away from the road and push forward its "hands-free" theme. For example, when we sent or received a message from a contact, Siri would only read the message back to us and we never once got the chance to see its contents.

For its part, Mercedes-Benz has released a seven-minute B-roll overview video, shared by iFun.de. While the clips are repetitive and disjointed as they are meant to be edited together for promotional purposes as needed, the video shows how the system can be controlled without directly touching the screen, using a combination of Siri and a physical control knob.

Apple has promised new CarPlay-compatible vehicles from a number of manufacturers in 2014, including Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo, with a dozen other manufacturers signed on as partners with unspecified launch timeframes.

Apple today announced the retirement of Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer will leave Apple in September of this year and will be succeeded by Luca Maestri, Apple’s vice president of Finance and corporate controller. This change in executive leadership comes one day after Goldman Sachs announced that Oppenheimer would be joining the banking firm's board of directors.

“Peter has served as our CFO for the past decade as Apple’s annual revenue grew from $8 billion to $171 billion and our global footprint expanded dramatically. His guidance, leadership and expertise have been instrumental to Apple’s success, not only as our CFO but also in many areas beyond finance, as he frequently took on additional activities to assist across the company. His contributions and integrity as our CFO create a new benchmark for public company CFOs,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO. “Peter is also a dear friend I always knew I could count on. Although I am sad to see him leave, I am happy he is taking time for himself and his family. As all of us who know him would have expected, he has created a professional succession plan to ensure Apple doesn’t miss a beat.”

Oppenheimer joined Apple in 1996 as the Senior Director of Finance and Controller and was promoted several times before being appointed Chief Financial Officer in 2004. During his 18 years with Apple, Oppenheimer helped the company build a strong balance sheet, while expanding its data and corporate facilities in the US and acquiring key technology to drive innovation.

Luca Maestri joined Apple in March 2013, after serving as the Chief Financial Officer at both Nokia Siemens Networks and Xerox. His 25-year career has spanned the globe with various leadership roles within General Motors bringing him to Asia Pacific, South America and Europe.

Pandora confirmed today that Apple's newly released CarPlay feature does not include integration with Pandora's popular streaming music service, despite CarPlay offering support for other music services including iTunes Radio, Spotify, Beats Radio, Stitcher Radio for Podcasts, and iHeartRadio.

In a statement to MacRumors, Pandora said that although its service was not integrated into CarPlay, Apple "continues to be a valued partner." The company also suggests that it is continuing to explore opportunities to expand its presence within the car, hinting that it could be working towards integration with CarPlay in the future.

At this time, Pandora is not integrated with Apple CarPlay. As a first mover in the auto space, we continue to broaden our relationships with OEMs while also exploring other opportunities to expand our presence in the car. Apple has been and continues to be a valued partner.

It is unclear why Apple chose to exclude Pandora from CarPlay while supporting other competing services from companies like Beats Music and Spotify, but it may be due to the similarities between iTunes Radio and Pandora's own service. Both services are station-based, allowing users to create radio stations based on music genres, artists, and specific songs, which are then used to play similar music, making Pandora a direct competitor for iTunes Radio.

Pandora, in addition to mirroring iTunes Radio's functionality, is also ranked as the most popular music app in the App Store, sitting at the top of the free app charts in that category and the number 22 free app overall. The less popular services from Spotify and Beats Music work differently than Pandora and iTunes Radio, allowing users to search for specific songs, while iHeartRadio acts more like a traditional radio station.

In its statement, Pandora was quick to point out that although it is not included in CarPlay, its service is already integrated with more than 130 different vehicle models and present on several aftermarket stereo devices.

With CarPlay, iOS users with compatible cars will be able to utilize voice and touch commands, along with car controls, to access functions like Maps and various music apps, in addition to making phone calls and sending messages.

CarPlay will debut this week in vehicles from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo. Apple has also made deals with other car companies for future integration, including BMW, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Kia, Toyota, and more.

Apple's Campus 2 project, which includes the giant "spaceship"-esque building envisioned by Steve Jobs, has been thoroughly outlined in city plans and models that depict the company's vision for the space, but in an interview with Architectural Record, Norman Foster, who designed the campus, gives some additional insight and context on the planning process behind the project.

Foster, who is the chairman of Foster + Partners, has led the construction of multiple high-profile buildings, including the massive Hearst Tower in New York and the bean-shaped McLaren Technology Centre that rests on an artificial lake. He helped Jobs design the campus based on Jobs' love of the Main Quad on the Stanford campus, and his desire to reintroduce native flora to the area.

Foster did a series of case studies, inspired by a London square with a park in the center, which eventually evolved into a perimeter area surrounding a larger outdoor park.

So a series of organic segments in the early studies started to form enclosures, all of which were in turn related to the scale of the Stanford campus. These studies finally morphed into a circular building that would enclose the private space in the middle—essentially a park that would replicate the original California landscape, and parts of it would also recapture the orchards of the past. The car would visually be banished, and tarmac would be replaced by greenery, and car parks by jogging and bicycle trails.

According to Foster, though the building is large, spanning more than a mile around, it's also compact, much like an airport. To combat the sheer size of the building, its sections have been broken up with cafes, lobbies, and entrances, with each section of the building carefully constructed with social interactions in mind.

Of course, you have got an enormous range of skills in this building—from software programmers, from designers, marketing, retail—but you can move vertically in the building as well as horizontally. The proximity, the adjacencies are very, very carefully considered.

The campus also houses miles of jogging and cycling trails, and Foster says that more than 1,000 bikes will be kept on the site for employees to travel around the campus. Landscaping connections and pathways will also help it to be more easily traversable, and parking will be underground to avoid marring the scenery.

Currently, construction on Apple's Campus 2 project is well under way, and just a few months after receiving final approval for the campus, Apple has demolished all of the existing buildings on the site, allowing the building portion of the project to begin.

When finished, the campus will house 12,000 Apple employees and will also include a fitness center, a presentation center, and more. Apple hopes to complete the project by 2016.

Microsoft has been aiming to entrench its popular Xbox Live service into both the iOS and Android ecosystems for several years, having introduced its first Xbox-compatible app SmartGlass in 2011, along with a few other iOS and Xbox hybrid apps.

SmartGlass, which is also available for the Xbox One, is designed to be a companion app that allows gamers to access and control their Xbox game consoles to browse content and track achievements. The SmartGlass app also allows an iOS device to be used as a remote control and a keyboard for the system.

Microsoft may be aiming to expand Xbox Live on iOS even further, according to a new report from The Verge, which suggests the company wants to poise Xbox Live as an optional replacement for Game Center.

While Microsoft has experimented with achievements on iOS and Android recently, the company is planning to push Xbox Live cross-platform in a big way soon. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that Microsoft is building a platform to extend Xbox Live functionality to iOS and Android games.

Back in December of 2012, Microsoft experimented with an iOS game that provided gamers with Xbox Live achievements for reaching in-game milestones. The company plans to expand on this concept, making it easier for iOS and Android developers to incorporate Microsoft's framework into games on their respective platforms.

Microsoft already offers tools that allow Xbox Live functionality to be integrated into games, but to access them developers are required to be certified through Microsoft, which is a significant barrier to entry.

According to job listings found by The Verge, Microsoft is currently assembling a team that will create an "open-source, lightweight, extensible and scalable" framework that spans multiple platforms including the Windows Store, Windows Phone, iOS, and Android. Such a system, with fewer restrictions, could make it easier to integrate Xbox Live into apps and games.

Apple and Google both have proprietary game progress tracking in the form of Game Center and Google Play Games, but Microsoft appears to be aiming to get Xbox Live on all platforms, leading to a unified achievement system that would work with multiple systems.

Following this morning's announcement from Apple that it will officially begin rolling out its "CarPlay" iOS vehicle integration with Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo on board as the first launch partners this week, Volvo has published its own press release announcing the launch. Volvo's promotional materials include a new video briefly showing off CarPlay in action.

Volvo enhances Apple’s capabilities by linking them to a specially-developed interface that allows drivers to use voice and touch controls to access Apple features and services, ensuring the entire interaction is always safe and easy to use.

With Apple CarPlay, users will immediately recognise their basic iPhone applications, such as phone, messages, music and navigation. The initial offer also features third party audio apps including Spotify, the popular music streaming service.

Volvo's press release also makes clear that while the initial implementation of CarPlay will require a wired connection using an iPhone's Lightning connector, Wi-Fi connectivity will be "coming in the near future".

Apple is hiring engineers and supply chain managers for its operations in Asia as its seeks to expand and quicken the production of new and existing products, reports the Wall Street Journal. These new teams will work out of the company's main Asian campus in Shanghai, China and its office in Taipei, Taiwan.

The report states that the company is hiring engineers away from HTC, Inventec and other Taiwanese tech firms to build an engineering team in Taipei. These new hires will quicken the pace of production by working closely with Apple's Asian suppliers on hardware components for the iPhone and iPad. They also will oversee software quality assurance.

Apple has added several hundred new engineers and operations staff in China over the past two years, with a blitz of hiring that began in mid-2013, people familiar with the matter said. The total number of engineers and operations staff in China now exceeds 600, they said.

Apple also is adding supply chain managers to its Asian staff in response to ongoing criticism of working conditions in select supplier factories.

Apple's new operations in Asia may help combat supply constraints that have plagued recent product launches. The company admitted during its Q1 2013 earnings conference call that production issues limited the supply of the iMac during the holiday shopping season. More recently, Apple warned of low Retina iPad mini inventory prior to the tablet's launch in late 2013.

As indicated last week, Apple today announced its CarPlay iOS vehicle integration feature at the Geneva International Motor Show, which allows an iPhone to take over the in-dash display of a car, providing Siri voice controlled access to aspects such as navigation, phone functions, messages, and music.

Once a Lightning-enabled iPhone is connected, the feature can be summoned and controlled on compatible cars through Siri voice control, a touchscreen, and on-board buttons. From there, users are able to access various iOS apps such as Maps, Phone, Messages, Podcasts, and Music. Third party apps such as Beats Radio, iHeartRadio, Spotify, and Stitcher are also supported, with Apple promising compatibility with more apps soon.

CarPlay will be accessible this week with vehicles from manufacturers such as Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, while other manufacturers such as BMW, Ford, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota will receive the update later.

“CarPlay has been designed from the ground up to provide drivers with an incredible experience using their iPhone in the car,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPhone and iOS Product Marketing. “iPhone users always want their content at their fingertips and CarPlay lets drivers use their iPhone in the car with minimized distraction. We have an amazing lineup of auto partners rolling out CarPlay, and we’re thrilled it will make its debut this week in Geneva.”

The feature was originally named iOS in the Car and was revealed last year at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). While Apple executives went on record to say that the functionality was "very important to the company" and is an essential "part of the ecosystem," reports earlier this year stated that CarPlay was plagued by development issues. However, a video of the feature surfaced last month, and showed support for multiple resolutions of external displays, touch input and hardware controls, and voice input.

CarPlay will be available as an update to iOS 7 and works with Lighting-enabled iPhones including the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5.