Apple Silently Buys Service That Could Upgrade the CarPlay Podcast Experience - autoevolution

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Apple has become more committed to improving the CarPlay experience these days, and after rolling out new capabilities as part of the iOS 14 iPhone update, the company might be planning an overhaul of its podcast offering too.

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The Cupertino-based tech giant has reportedly purchased Scout FM earlier this year, and it’s believed the company is working on integrating their capabilities into its very own software.

Scout FM wasn’t necessarily a large company, as it’s believed that it employed only 3 engineers, but on the other hand, it developed a podcast curation system that rapidly attracted the attention of Apple.

More specifically, what Scout FM was able to do was create a podcast station based on recommendations offered to users. When setting up the app, Scout FM asked for information such as topics of interest, and then used all the data, along with your playing history, to generate a podcast service that is specifically tailored to you.

Scout FM was available on iPhone, Android, and Alexa speakers, but in pure Apple fashion, the company has already discontinued it on all platforms, most likely as it plans to integrate its features into its very own software.

The podcast curation service was also available on CarPlay, and it’s believed that once the integration into Apple Music is ready, iPhone owners who connect their devices to the head units when driving could thus be provided with upgraded capabilities.

Apple has already confirmed the acquisition, but no further information was provided on the deal.

In the meantime, CarPlay has received important improvements in iOS 14, including support for wallpapers. You can choose a new background for CarPlay right from the settings screen on the head unit, albeit for now, you aren’t allowed to use a custom image but only one from the collection that is pre-configured by Apple in iOS 14. All changes are applied instantly and then saved on the iPhone, so the same wallpaper would be displayed the next time you launch CarPlay.

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