So at long last, Apple has unleashed CarPlay, the auto integration scheme formerly known as iOS in the car, and it appears most major car makers — and some not so major — have embraced it. For the well-heeled, you’ll soon be able to buy a new Ferrari with CarPlay. For the rest of us, you’ll probably find CarPlay support in your new Honda or Kia in the next year or two, and it’s possible that there may be aftermarket systems that will add the feature to an existing vehicle.

Based on the published reports, though Apple doesn’t admit to the technical details, CarPlay is much like AirPlay. AirPlay lets you play the contents of your Mac, iPad, iPhone or iPod touch on your TV, courtesy of Apple TV. CarPlay lets you play your iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s on specially equipped cars via the lightning connector.

It all sounds intriguing and it’ll be interesting to see whether putting the Apple look and feel on your auto’s often clumsy infotainment screen will provide a much more enjoyable driving experience. Indeed, you can’t underestimate the impact of a badly designed and poor performing infotainment system.

Overall, motor vehicles are far more reliable these days. Being able to avoid major repair bills for 100,000 or 200,000 miles — or even more — is no longer a rarity. But the infotainment system will drag down reliability. That dreadful MyFord Touch system, which incorporates technology from Microsoft, has seriously impaired the ratings of Ford products in J.D. Powers surveys. In this year’s annual auto issue, Consumer Reports, while praising the Honda Accord as the best “midsized sedan,” nonetheless warned readers, “Just avoid the HondaLink infotainment system that comes on EX-L versions. We can’t recommend those versions because of reliability problems.”

What CR, in its infinite lack of wisdom, fails to realize, is that buyers who choose an Accord EX-L because of all the comfort amenities, such as leather seats with power adjustments, can’t just opt out of HondaLink, because it comes standard with the vehicle.

Regardless, you get the picture. And CarPlay may resolve these problems while still having a fatal flaw. It is tethered to your iPhone. If you forget to take your iPhone with you, the snazzy interface goes with it. This is why CarPlay may be an interim solution, though one that is designed to expand the iOS ecosystem.

But it hasn’t stopped the fear mongers, in the form of “auto safety experts,” from warning about distracted driving for CarPlay users. So having an infotainment system that actually works — or at least works consistently and reliably — will have the potential to impair your ability to pay attention to driving. Liberal use of Siri to keep your fingers off the buttons and the touchscreens and on the steering wheel will certainly help.

And what about systems that are buggy and crash frequently? What about touchscreens that do not consistently react to your fingers? What about voice recognition systems that fail to recognize even simple commands? Don’t you think any of them will distract you even more from safe motoring? How could it be otherwise?

It’s not that such warnings are necessarily false. Having the world’s best infotainment system in your car — and we can debate which system is best — doesn’t absolve you from the responsibility to drive carefully. Don’t have an argument with your spouse or business partner if you can help it while struggling through a traffic jam. Use the system to free you as much as possible of outside concerns, rather than have it divert your attention.

But what bothers me most about this new spate of warnings is that it came in the wake of Apple’s CarPlay introduction. Where were those warnings when Google was touting it’s car integration scheme at other auto shows? What about Microsoft’s infotainment systems, which not only include MyFord Touch but Kia’s UVO feature?

Why is it that Apple’s CarPlay may be responsible for the onset of “cognitive distraction,” and why aren’t similar warnings being made about Apple’s competition?

Apple’s response would no doubt be the easy and elegant operation of CarPlay. Having something that just works would go a long way to making your trip more enjoyable, and freer of ouside distractions. Besides, it’s totally disingenuous to blame Apple for potential problems. Each motorist has the responsibility to focus on safe driving first and foremost, and not on dictating an email, or jumping through playlists or radio stations in search of something to listen to.

If you have a car filled with children, you would certainly want to occupy them so they don’t distract you from getting from here to there safely. I know that’s a job and a half, but it also explains the popularity of portable gaming systems, and smartphones and tablets with games. Keep them happy and otherwise occupied, and you can deal with the annoyances of the road ahead in a more secure fashion. You can’t use CarPlay as a scapegoat, but I’m sure some will take those fear-mongering articles and use them as ammunition to file a class action lawsuit against Apple in the event of a serious fender bender.

But if they’re looking for possible candidates for such legal filings, no doubt there are other car infotainment systems far more deserving of such responses.

In the wake of revelations about the notorious SSL bug last month, there was plenty of fear-mongering. One online commentator suggested that Apple knew about the “gotofail” bug since Mavericks first came out in October 2013 but, unaccountably, failed to fix it. That was never proven, and it’s not at all certain that the commentator in question actually has sources deep within Apple that would — or could — have confirmed any such thing. My feeling is that he doesn’t.

Yes, the bug existed, but lots of bugs exist, security and otherwise, and they remain undiscovered. Often it requires a third-party group of security “white hats” to locate the problem and confirm its possible severity.

In any case, the bug was fixed, so let’s move on. Or maybe not, depending on your point of view.

So along with news of this fix came news of the fact that there was no corresponding fix for users of OS 10.6 Snow Leopard, which was originally released in the fall of 2009. Indeed, there hasn’t been a security fix for 10.6 in a while. Why? Is Apple abandoning support for Snow Leopard even though nearly 20% of Mac users are still running it?

But this bug didn’t impact Snow Leopard users.

Sure, nothing is forever, and I suppose Apple does have an internal timetable about when OS 10.6 is history, but convincing Mac users to leave the confines of Snow Leopard may not be so easy. It may be impossible in many circumstances since the hardware isn’t compatible with more recent versions of OS X. The other key issue is Rosetta, the utility that allowed users of Intel-based Macs to continue to use PowerPC software.

The simple solution is supposedly to just update those apps. But that may require a paid upgrade, or may not even be possible for apps that can’t or won’t be updated for a variety of reasons. Besides, Macs are quite reliable, and Snow Leopard was the last OS X version released before Apple began its alleged iOS/OS X interface convergence initiative. While the minor look and feel adjustments aren’t important in the scheme of things, OS 10.6 is regarded as a “pure” Mac experience, uncontaminated by the influence of the mobile universe.

To make matters more troubling, however, some bloggers have posted lurid articles with lurid headlines about the alleged 20% of Mac users that Apple has abandoned. In this vast wasteland, they say, millions of Mac users may continue to run computers with unknown and unfixed security leaks that may, potentially, endanger the sanctity of their data.

Or maybe not.

You see, there’s a very slight shortcoming to this logic. Not only has Apple never officially stated that support for Snow Leopard has been discontinued, it remains on sale! I’m serious. As I wrote this article, I checked Apple’s online store, and there was the physical installation DVD available for $19.99 with free shipping.

So if an OS is about to be — or has been — discontinued, why would Apple continue to offer it for sale? Indeed, that approach essentially commits Apple to support Snow Leopard with critical updates for quite some time yet, perhaps as much as a few years. It’s hard to believe Apple would sell a product for which support is about to be terminated.

In contrast, does Microsoft still sell Windows XP?

Besides, Windows XP is the real albatross. As of last count, nearly 30% of the Windows users tallied in an online survey were still using Windows XP. That doesn’t count the tens of millions of XP installations on computers that do not connect to the public Internet, such as ATM and point-of-sale systems. They aren’t counted on those online tracking reports, so the real number may be far larger.

Microsoft, however, doesn’t seem to have a clue how to persuade these Windows users to move onto a newer system. One pitch I read talked about all the wonderful features of Windows 8 that make little or no difference to XP users. While it appears Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, is moving to make key decisions in company strategy and personnel, a solution to the XP dilemma is still not in the cards.

Just saying support is about to be discontinued may force businesses to make a decision, but what decision? Will they simply dump Windows and move to Macs, assuming compatible software is available? What about iPads? What about just making do?

And if they do choose to do an OS upgrade, how? Even if the hardware will do a decent job of running, say, Windows 7 in a satisfactory fashion, what about the software? Will the critical vertical apps many businesses require even work with Windows 7? Forget about Windows 8!

If Microsoft can deliver a seamless and affordable transition scheme for Windows XP users, and it could include special offers of a new PC from Microsoft partners I suppose, it would mean billions of dollars of needed revenue.

Meantime, Apple hasn’t yet rushed to dump Snow Leopard, and 20% of Mac users are not suddenly vulnerable to doom and gloom and the end of life as we know it. Well, no more than anyone else.

If a new iPhone was greeted with the same collective yawn as the latest and greatest Samsung flagship smartphone, the media would be ratcheting up their demands for the head of Tim Cook way beyond current levels. Despite some level of anticipation from the tech media, the Galaxy S5 does not at all seem to be more than a minor refresh. This week, the press is talking about Apple’s CarPlay.

The changes in the Galaxy S5 are typical. A speedier processor. Well, we assume it’s speedier, but it will require fair benchmarks, without Samsung’s usual cheating, to confirm. The camera has more megapixels, and the screen is a tenth of an inch larger. Why larger? Well, because it’s larger, I suppose. I hardly think it makes much of a difference in usability, but it may make the thing more difficult to put inside and remove from your pocket.

Sure, there is a fingerprint sensor, and some fitness-related stuff. But with Samsung, you never know how well a feature will actually work, or if it’ll work.

And it’s still plastic. Now Apple got dinged big-time for the plastic iPhone 5c, although it reportedly was more successful than the equivalent model in Apple’s lineup for the previous year. But compare Apple’s plastics to Samsung’s and you’ll see who has taste and who doesn’t.

From Samsung’s standpoint, you wonder how much confidence they have in the new model. It didn’t get much in the way of special treatment, such as that overdone presentation for the S4. Instead, it was introduced during an industry trade show, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Now someone upgrading from a Galaxy S3 will probably find the changes worthwhile, particularly if they don’t want to consider jumping platforms.

Of course, there are the usual listicles attempting to compare the features of the Galaxy S5 to an iPhone 5s. Some look at the specs and suggest Apple is way behind, even though specs and real world performance do not always come into alignment. But since the Samsung isn’t actually on sale yet, that’s all they have to go by.

Here you’ll see the usual myths, that Apple needs to release a five-inch iPhone yesterday to succeed, and that they have to immediately kill off all existing iPhones as penance.

A bit exaggerated, but it’s based on the sort of absurd notion that continues to pervade tech commentary. First create a strawman argument, add two pinches of salt, and you have a claim that will exist with only slight alterations until the end of time regardless of the facts.

But if it’s not the larger screen, what about the pixel density, which exceeds the so-called Retina display threshold? Well, the difference is indistinguishable at any normal viewing distance. Don’t forget having a camera with more megapixels, and if that’s not enough, what about an eight-core processor? Eight cores! Doesn’t that make it four times faster than the iPhone 5s and its two cores?

Doesn’t it?

Now to be fair to Samsung, there’s one published report claiming that the silly trick to boost benchmarks is not carried over in the Galaxy S5, which uses the latest and greatest Android, as of last fall at any rate, version 4.4 KitKat. Of course that really remains to be seen. Again, this is all about a product that has yet to ship. Besides, it’s hard to say whether Android will actually benefit much from all those extra processor cores.

Consider the Mac Pro as an example of where multicore processing isn’t always the blessing you expect it to be. Only a few Mac apps benefit from all those extra cores. Most do not, and will perform as well or better on a well equipped — and far cheaper — iMac.

So, then, how many Android apps, aside from games (I suppose) actually exploit multicore processors?

The long and short of it is that Samsung has launched a mostly predictable Galaxy smartphone refresh. The spec enhancements are nothing to shout about, and there is no indication of how well the new features will fare, particularly the fingerprint sensor.

It’s well known that Touch ID, which employs technology acquired when Apple bought AuthenTec, works reasonably well but is not quite perfect. Samsung? I suppose we’ll see, or maybe some of the critics will pronounce it just as good or better than Apple’s solution without a thorough test, just as the useless features in the Galaxy S4 were not generally given critical treatment.

In all this, I am not suggesting the Galaxy S5 will fail. There is already a built-in audience of existing Samsung customers who might consider it seriously, particularly if their wireless contracts are up. As with prior models, it’ll work quite well in normal use and service. But it won’t be a trendsetter.

And here’s the question Samsung’s fans may not like to answer: If there was no iPhone from Apple, would would the 2014 flagship smartphone from Samsung be like? What would it offer in terms of cutting-edge features? What form factor would it have? If BlackBerry had remained in control of the market, you wouldn’t have to ask.

I suppose Ford’s executives felt that a partnership with Microsoft to create a new user interface scheme for their vehicle’s infotainment systems seemed perfectly logical. After all, Windows was the number one personal computing platform on the planet — this was before the amazing growth of iOS and Android. Surely giving customers something built by the company who already provides the computer interfaces they most likely use at home or in the office would be both familiar and popular.

Unfortunately, MyFord Touch was not the dream automotive interface that the developers intended. Far from it.

In addition to erratic performance and constant freezes, the touch interface was hit or miss, and customers complained bitterly. One of the major reasons Ford vehicles  suffered big time in the important J.D. Powers new car ratings was the result of problems with the infotainment system.

While regular updates have reportedly resolved a number of the problems, at least for some customers, you wonder how Ford and Microsoft let this disaster get away from them. We’re not talking of a smartphone that you buy for $199 at AT&T. The average price of a new car is over $30,000. While it “may” be possible to bring it back during the first few days of ownership and request a refund or exchange, it is never an easy process.

What’s more, having to confront problems with an infotainment system, particularly touch, could result in distracted driving. I will not choose to consider if any accidents, with injuries or just simple fender-benders, were caused because of the ongoing defects in the Ford/Microsoft system.

So this week, Apple is jumping into the sea of auto infotainment systems with CarPlay, which was launched at the Geneva Auto Show. This is the service formerly known as iOS in the Car, with a more appropriate name that describes its function.

One key reason why it’s now CarPlay, according to some analyses of Apple’s statements, and the early product demonstrations, is that the system is based on or is similar to AirPlay, Apple’s scheme that allows you to play the contents of your Mac, iPhone or iPad on an Apple TV.

So with CarPlay, motor vehicles equipped with the technology will allow you to, in a sense,  “play” your iPhone within the car’s user interface. It begins with Siri doing its voice recognition thing, and continues with full phone and entertainment integration. Apple promises easy and elegant eyes-free and handsfree experiences, so you can have a safer driver experience.

Of course, some experts suggest that anything that occupies your mind, even an intense conversation with a passenger, may constitute distracted driving. So Apple’s setup, even if everything works as advertised, may be a bit much if you don’t handle it with care.

On to CarPlay: One particularly fascinating feature is the ability to interpret data intelligently from the handset to guess where you might be heading. It will be able to use addresses in emails, texts, contacts and calendars to anticipate where you’re going and offer likely destinations.

I can see the possibilities.

Maybe a friend sends you an email about a great new Chinese restaurant, and, upon pulling out of the driveway and turning the corner, CarPlay offers to guide you there.

So where can you find this joy if you’re hunting for a new car, truck or SUV?

Well, according to Apple’s press release, the first companies to embrace the technology in new vehicles will be Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. That may already be the deal breaker for most, although both MB and Volvo have low-end cars that are priced in the range of high-end family cars from Honda, Kia and other companies. But still!

Over time, most of the major car makers will be involved in offering vehicles equipped with CarPlay. The list also includes: BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai Motor Company, Jaguar, Land Rover, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota.

Did they say Ford?

Well, not not immediately, of course. In addition to the first three, CarPlay will appear in 2014 models from Honda, Hyundai and Jaguar — dates for the rest are still uncertain. But I do wonder if Ford is hoping to replace that dreadful MyFord Touch system with something that really works.

Now the various car makers probably won’t be letting us in on which models with support CarPlay from the outset. According to Apple’s press release, it’ll require an update to iOS 7, and will only work with iPhones equipped with lightning connectors, which now include the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5s. We’re talking of hard-wired connections here.

But one expects that the former means that Apple likely included special digital technology in their updated connection scheme that were unavailable in the original dock connector. So maybe there was a real method in Apple’s madness beyond making the connector smaller and reversible, and making your older accessories incompatible.

Now unlike other product releases, Apple really has to get CarPlay essentially perfect the very first time. Shipping a car with a broken infotainment system, and hoping the updates will fix it later, is an all-too-common problem with the auto industry. But if CarPlay launches with a pretty high level of reliability, Google and other companies hoping to gain traction in the car industry may find themselves rushing to catch up.

Sure, Apple’s critics will suggest they are late to the party. But Apple wasn’t first with graphical PC user interfaces, music players, smartphones and tablets. They merely worked on them longer to get things right.