Apple announces CarPlay: in-vehicle voice and touch access to notifications, maps and music (update: video)

Apple has officially announced CarPlay, its new in-car
interface that'll be compatible with new Ferrari,
Mercedes and Volvo cars unveiled at the Geneva Auto
Show this week. Designed "from the ground up" to
bridge the gap between your iPhone and your auto, it
will offer touch- and Siri-based voice navigation of
your smartphone services, including contacts,
voicemail, notifications, map directions and music
cueing -- it will even support third-party apps like
Spotify and iHeartRadio from launch. Voice controls
will be activated by a button on the steering wheel,
while the in-car touchscreen is populated with those
familiar iOS 7 icons for easy access. The service will
launch as an iOS update for Lightning-enabled iPhones
(that's iPhone 5 and up), with CarPlay-compatible
vehicles launching later this year. And if any of the
above aren't your preferred automaker, Apple says that
you can expect compatible cars from BMW, Ford,
General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and several
more in the near future.

Update: At first CarPlay will only allow you to connect
through a Lightning cable, but WiFi should be coming
in the near future -- at least from Volvo. And, in case
you're wondering, the CarPlay connection is based on
the H.264 video protocol, and sends user input from the
touchscreen back to your iDevice. There's also a video
demo/teaser that we've added after the break.

SOURCE: Apple, CarPlay, Volvo