New vehicles arriving later this year from
Honda,
Kia, and
Lincoln will support Apple's CarPlay platform, as well as Android Auto. The latest announcements follow a long series of similar moves by most major car manufacturers for many model year 2016 and 2017 vehicles. Even Ford, a long holdout, said it would bring CarPlay support to its Sync 3-equipped 2017 cars, leaving Toyota as one of the major holdouts for now. The three carmakers have specified one model each for CarPlay support.
Honda will add CarPlay support along with the option of an eight-inch touchscreen to its 2017 Ridgeline, the first pickup truck the company has made in recent memory. Kia will feature it in the 2017 Forte5, a hatchback that offers a seven-inch touchscreen. Lincoln is adding CarPlay to its 2017 Continental, expanding support from the list of vehicles it previously announced. All three will also be compatible with Google's Android Auto, but whether the support will be included with the infotainment systems or part of an add-on package remains to be seen.
The Kia Forte5
Later this week, Apple and fashion designers Hermés will both make the special-edition Apple Watch Hermés
available for ordering on their respective websites for the first time, reports
Fashionista. The unit, which combines a standard stainless steel Apple Watch with Hermés' single tour and double-tour leather straps, has up until now only been available in limited supply in Apple stores in select cities, including Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto along with Hermés boutiques.
The Single Tour buckle, available in several colors, includes the Watch and sells for $1,100 -- a $500 premium over the cost of the stainless steel model with a default Apple Sport band. The Double Tour, which wraps around the wrist twice, costs $1,250. A third option, the Cuff, is available for the 42mm Watch model only, and costs $1,500. The Hermés partnership is unusual in that Apple allowed Watch co-branding with the company, as well as a special custom watch face option for buyers.
Apple shows incremental improvement in latest diversity report
A new report
filed by Apple with the federal government showing the racial makeup of the company's US workforce reveals that the iPhone maker is making progress on increasing diversity, but that the changes are still very incremental in nature. However, Apple points out that the data on the government's web page is out-of-date, and that it has made more progress than reflected even in the EEO-1 government summary. No explanation for the discrepancy has been given, but Apple says it's numbers are "far more accurate."
The government reports that Apple increased its minority hiring by an overall one percent from 2014, adding 1,475 African-American employees, 1,633 Hispanic workers, and 1,662 employees of Asian descent across the last 13 months. Apple, however reported nearly double those numbers, a 65 percent increase in Black workers, and a 50 percent increase in Hispanic workers. The company also points out that it now has more African-American people in leadership roles, and hired 11,000 more women worldwide in 2015.
"The EEO-1 has not kept pace with changes in industry or the American workforce over the past half century. We believe the information we report elsewhere on this site is a far more accurate reflection of our progress toward diversity," Apple said in a statement. However, the company admits that 43 percent of its US workforce is white and male, and that white males are highly dominant at the senior executive levels.
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