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I love CarPlay, but tbh, I really don’t use it to its fullest potential.
The stereo in my old jalopy doesn’t support CarPlay directly, so I got a great portable screen that sits on the dash.
The screen is powered via the ciggy lighter, and wired up to the aux jack for sound.
I don’t love the wires, but taking a cue from my son (an aspiring movie electrician), I taped them down with color-matching gaffer tape, and it looks a lot neater.
However, aside from playing Apple Music or streaming the BBC Sounds app (which is geofenced but easily circumvented via VPN), I mostly use it to watch San Francisco unfold in glorious 3D in Apple Maps as I drive through the city.
It’s kinda silly, I know, but I still get a kick out of it — especially when driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, which is rendered magnificently in the Maps app.
Today, we have a great post about using Siri with CarPlay, and I have to admit, I had no clue whatsoever about all the handy things you can do with it.
But having read it, I’m now a power user — and you can/will be, too.
Also in today’s newsletter:
Apple cites external reasons for shuttering three of its U.S. retail stores, but suspiciously, one of them was a hotbed of union activity.
Get special launch pricing on UPDF 2.5, the all-in-one PDF editor powered by cutting-edge AI. It’s already one-sixth the cost of Adobe Acrobat.
I don’t get Liquid Glass haters. But if you’re one of them, here’s a new way to tone it down a bit.
The Peabody Awards are like the Pulitzers for TV — and Apple TV is up for five of them, with Pluribus leading the pack. I couldn’t get into that show, but the others look well worth checking out.
🔥 DEAL OF THE DAY: The New York Times’ Wirecutter just went crazy over this portable charger from Belkin with built-in cables. It’s surprisingly powerful (10,000mAh, 23W) and on sale for a modest 10% off. But hey, it’s still a discount! #affiliate
For those who use Logic Pro or Pixelmator Pro, both apps just got some meaningful new additions. Time to update!
Setups that mix Macs and PCs are like mullets: business up front (Macs, for work) and party in the back (PCs for gaming). Here’s a roundup of the best we’ve seen.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
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One more thing ...
Asked by Playboy magazine it takes insane people to make insanely great things, Steve Jobs replied: “Actually, making an insanely great product has a lot to do with the process of making the product, how you learn things and adopt new ideas and throw out old ideas. But, yeah, the people who made Mac are sort of on the edge.”
Today’s poll
Be honest: Did you know you could do all those things in CarPlay?
Results from yesterday’s poll: How many keys do you have?
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