Apple CarPlay in Toyota Cars in 2015? Apple TV Bluetooth for AirPlay

We have heard a lot about CarPlay in the past couple of weeks. Apple is just getting started. iOS 7.1 bring support for CarPlay to iOS devices. Now we know that Toyota cars will be getting CarPlay support some time in the near future. We still don’t now which model will be the first to get CarPlay compatibility. Interestingly enough, Toyota has posted an update suggesting that its cars may not get CarPlay support in 2015.

A previous version of this article said Apple CarPlay would be in Toyota cars from 2015. This is incorrect and we are happy to put the matter straight. No announcements about if and when Apple CarPlay will arrive in Toyota cars has been made.

At this point, we know Toyota is a partner just like Mercedes Benz, Volvo, Ferrari, and a few other players. Let’s just say Apple will have many partners, so as long as you are not going for an obscure car brand, you will have the option to use CarPlay in your car.

Speaking of software updates, Apple TV 6.1 was released just recently to introduce a few changes to Apple TV. One of them happens to be support for Bluetooth discovery for AirPlay:

In addition to bonjour negotiation for AirPlay, iOS 7.1 devices will also look for AirPlay sources over bluetooth when doing it’s scan! This means you do NOT need bonjour to AirPlay.

With this change, Apple TV devices will be able to search for connected devices over Bluetooth. You will need an Apple TV updated to 6.1, an iOS 7.1 device, and IP connectivity between the two to pull this off. This is a nifty feature for business and education administrators.