New CarPlay apps, iPhone Fold reports

Welcome to 95Mac Daily for Wednesday, April 8, 2022. I'm your host, Chance Miller. We are sponsored this week by Backblaze. Leading off today, two popular iPhone apps have made their way to CarPlay in the last few days. First is Google Meet. In CarPlay, Google Meet will let you join meetings with a single tap, view your upcoming schedule, and participate in audio-only calls to maintain your focus while driving. You'll be able to hear audio from the meeting and have audio input access from your car's microphone. Your phone's camera is turned off and you won't be able to see any incoming video content from other people on the calls. Other Google Meet features like chat, handrails, polls, and Q&A are also not available. Google says the app is designed to provide a seamless transition from your device to your vehicle. Second, WhatsApp has been available on CarPlay for a while, but this week it's gotten a completely rebuilt, far more capable version of the application. For years, the WhatsApp app for CarPlay was limited to basic voice interface controls that let users compose messages or place calls. With this week's update, however, the WhatsApp CarPlay experience feels much more native. There's a new contact info interface that lets you view profile details for each contact. There's a call history interface showing recent calls, including whether they were incoming, outgoing, or missed, and support for quickly favoring contacts for easy access. Both the new WhatsApp app for CarPlay and the Google Meet app for CarPlay are available in the app store today. We are sponsored this week by Backblaze. If you are building apps, editing video, or managing client work on your Mac, your files change constantly. iCloud keeps everything in sync across your devices, which is great for access. Time Machine gives you a local backup, but what Backblaze does is adds an automatic off-site backup with version history so you can restore earlier versions or recover everything after a drive failure. You install it once and it just works in the background. For anyone who depends on their Mac every day, this type of setup makes sense. Start your free trial at backblaze.com-9to5-mac and use code 9to5-daily for 20% off. My thanks to Backblaze for their support of the show. Next up today, Reparability ratings based on official government criteria in Europe have found that Apple gets the worst ratings for a repairability of both iPhones and Macbooks. However, in the laptop rankings, the MacBook Neo was found to be an exception, so perhaps there is hope for the future. The French government imposes a legal requirement on manufacturers to display their repairability ratings according to a set of criteria and tended to allow for like-for-like comparisons between brands. The European Union has very similar criteria and the United States Consumer Organization Public Interest Research Group uses it for those rankings. In the latest report, there are repairability grades for four smartphone brands and eight laptop brands, and Apple gets the lowest scores in both categories. The PIRG organization says that it reviewed detailed repair information for a total of 105 devices, factoring in repair documentation, ease of disassembly, spare parts availability, repair parts pricing, the number of fasteners used, the number of tools required, and the longevity of software updates. Motorola topped the smartphone repairability rankings with a B+, followed by Google with a C-, Samsung with a D, and Apple with a D-. For laptops, ASUS came in at the top with a B+, grade, followed by Acer with a B, HP, Dell, Samsung, and Microsoft with a B-, Lenovo with a C-, and Apple with a C-. There is, however, one point in Apple's favor, and that's the MacBook Neo. The MacBook Neo has been widely praised for its repairability, including in this latest repairability report and from Teardown Information published by iFixit. Whether the MacBook Neo is a one-off exception relating specifically to the design of this model or represents a change in direction for Apple remains to be seen. In other news today, yesterday we talked about supply chain reports suggesting that iPhone Fold had hit production snags that could delay it by several months. Now, however, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has refuted that report and says the iPhone Fold is on track for an expected September launch. Writing at Bloomberg, he says, Apple's first foldable is on track to arrive during the company's normal iPhone launch period later this year. Apple with knowledge of the matter said, rebutting concerns about major manufacturing snags. He continues, Apple is scheduled to introduce the foldable model in September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. Apple's phones typically hit store shelves the week after they're unveiled. The report notes that Apple's stock took a hit earlier yesterday after the supply chain report suggested the iPhone Fold was having serious production problems. So clearly sources within Apple were motivated to share the positive news via Mark Gurman. But still, even if the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Fold are announced at the same time, there's a possibility the fold will go on sale at a later date. Gurman says, while the complexity of the new display and materials may limit initial supply for several weeks, Apple is currently operating with a plan to put the iPhone Fold on sale around the same time or very soon after the new non-foldable models. Finally he adds an important qualifier. The release is six months away and production has yet to ramp up. That means the timing isn't final. It's not unprecedented for Apple to announce phones and then release them at different times. For example, the iPhone 8, the iPhone 8 Plus, and the iPhone 10 were all announced together, but the iPhone 10 went on sale several months later. The iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR were announced at the same time, but the iPhone XR went on sale later. There's plenty of precedent for that strategy, but Gurman's report makes it clear, at least based on what he knows right now, that the iPhone Fold will launch before the end of 2026 and that reports saying otherwise are incorrect. There ups up another episode of 95 Mac Daily. As always, you can find all of the latest Apple news on 95Mac.com, follow along with me on threads at Chance H. Miller, and we'll be back tomorrow for a new episode of 95 Mac Daily.