It’s our first podcast of April. Spring has (somewhat) sprung, and there’s Apple news in the air:
- Subaru to debut the redesigned 2018 CrossTrek SUV at the New York International Car Show this month, complete with CarPlay
- Apple has placed orders for 70 million flexible OLED panels for the 2017 iPhone with options for more
- A 21-year veteran of Apple’s industrial design team is leaving the company
- Join us for AWT TV tonight at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET
The text version of the podcast can be viewed below. To listen to the podcast here, click the play button on the player below. Note to Apple News readers: you’ll need to visit Apple World Today in order to listen to the podcast.
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Text Version
This is Steve Sande for Apple World Today, and you’re listening to the AWT News Update for April 3rd, 2017.
Today we start off with a story about another car manufacturer putting Apple CarPlay into a new car. The totally redesigned 2018 Subaru CrossTrek SUV will debut at the New York International Car Show later this month, and the new car will support both CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto on a 6.5-inch touchscreen even in the base model. Premium and Limited trims of the vehicle add luxury and driver-assist features, and the Limited model gets a larger 8-inch display. Subaru is relatively new to the CarPlay scene, with its only other compatible models being the 2017 Impreza and 2018 Legacy. Other Japanese auto manufacturers such as Honda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki have been supporting CarPlay for a few years. One notable company — Toyota — refuses to support CarPlay, as it is pushing its own infotainment platform as an alternative.
Production of the 2017 iPhone is beginning to shape up with Apple recently placing orders for 70 million OLED panels with Samsung — the sole supplier. The phone is widely expected to have an edge-to-edge display, a glass body and a price tag with a big number on it, but the premium pricing isn’t expected to stunt demand. In fact, demand is expected to exceed previous years as the phone will have a completely new look. Samsung is apparently preparing to make as many as 95 million OLED panels for Apple in 2017 in case demand exceeds expectations. The latest rumors about the 2017 iPhones point to a premium model with a 5.2-inch OLED screen and no home button, as well as standard 4.7 and 5.5-inch devices with LCD screens and home buttons. All three models will have inductive wireless charging capability and waterproofing, and the OLED iPhone is expected to also have a 3D sensor supporting facial recognition.
A longtime Apple industrial designer is leaving the company after 21 years. Christopher Stringer, part of Jony Ive’s industrial design team and noted for his involvement in the design of the iPhone, has worked with Ive for many years. Stringer has also worked on the iPad and Mac designs, and testified in the Samsung versus Apple patent infringement case in 2012, pointing out how Samsung’s design of the Galaxy smartphone and its user interface was basically a copy of the iPhone. There’s no word on where Stringer is heading after Apple. Another longtime designer, Daniel Coster, left Apple a year ago after 20 years of being on the design team and headed to GoPro.
Join the staff of AWT tonight for Episode 2 of AWT TV. We’ll be streaming live from our respective offices in Colorado, Kentucky and Tennessee, and all you need to do is point your web browser to youtube.com/c/appleworldtoday at about 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET. Tonight’s topics include the 7th anniversary of the iPad, the 41st anniversary of the incorporation of Apple, a discussion of the state of personal computing in Apple’s founding year of 1976, and a few live demos of apps.
That’s all for today; I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon with another edition of the AWT News Update.
