Apple’s CarPlay is Bundled with iOS 9

CarPlay – the software that allows an iPhone to talk with a car’s dash screen. It arrived in the latest update, iOS 9.

Go: Settings > General > CarPlay

And on the car side, it’s starting to arrive pre-installed in 2016 model year vehicles.

Be mindful when connecting your car to a mobile… ensure the phone is fully updated always, and if you even suspect it may contain malware, don’t connect.

 

 

Yanking the Computers from a ’99 Pontiac Sunfire

It’s my neighbours car. We spent a Sunday pulling out all the computers we could find.

Note the plural – computers.

Because there’s up to 100 computers in your car. Learn more in this column – the Computers in your Car.

Above – on the left are the fuses, on the right is the OBD port.

The brain of a 1999 vehicle

Whew, being a mechanic is physically taxing eh – hold a weirdo yoga-ish position for an extended time, hands above your head wrenching on wires.

Below are some of the connectors.

1 – there’s just one port you should know – the OBD II port. More here.

Was it assembled more cleanly and elegantly in your mind?

Was for me. There was no electrical tape in mine.

After all this turns out there’s no point in me hooking the computers up to my laptop for testing, since the protocols have changed drastically since 1999.

Made a nice blog header though.

 

 

Loudest Radio I’ve Had in Years – Chevy Trax

I need to hear my current OCD song loud, borderline painfully so.

But when I crank the volume in most press cars, it’s never loud enough.

This Chevy Trax exceeded that.

See above – that’s the volume I like, and the system is turned up only halfway. That’s loud.

Here’s a chart of how loud stuff is, by decibels.