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Apple Acquires Indoor Mobile Location Positioning Firm WifiSLAM for $20 Million

Agreed. Maps needs this

burtba said:
?? Dude, Apple have been doing this for years, where have you been. We have been using MANY technologies in our iDevices that were acquisitions by Apple. Stacks.

Unfortunately Apple are very slow at implementing their acquisitions. Possibly some are just to remove that technology from the market place?
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That's right. Apple need to get moving in implementing this into Maps,as well as fixing all the issues in the app. Maps has been an embarrassment to Apple and successfully implementing this great new feature could bring the positive news needed to almost relaunch the app.
 
This would be a great addition to Apple Maps. I wish they would release maps.apple.com, though.
 
I really hope I live to see the day that we as the users see all of Apple's acquisitions come to fruition.
 
"Siri, where's my iPhone?"

"In the living room, under the couch."

Apple, make it happen.
 
osaga said:
You approach the front door, it opens. Walk inside, living room lights come on, heat comes on. Stand in front of the tv, your email, macrumors, facebook, and favorite tv content appear. Stand in front of the toilet, seat pops up.
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I'd settle for the toliet flushing itself after the cats use it (and yes my cats use the toilet not a litter box)
 
tekboi said:
Great Now they can track me when i'm taking a **** too!!
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Yes, we are all doomed. Time to abandon our Twitter, Facebook, and personal website accounts. This is another sign of the new armageddon/world order.
 
MacRumors said:
It has been offering the technology to application developers for indoor mapping and new types of retail and social networking apps.
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Device (iPhone 5) log:

12:49:35 Location: 2nd floor, office 101, desk.
12:49:45 Location: 2nd floor, office 101, desk.
12:49:55 Location: 2nd floor, office 101, desk.
12:50:05 Location: 2nd floor, office 101, desk.
12:50:15 Location: 2nd floor, office 101, desk.
12:50:25 Location: 2nd floor, office 101, desk.
12:50:35 Location: 2nd floor, office 101, desk.
12:50:45 Location: 2nd floor, office 101, desk.
12:50:55 Location: 2nd floor, office 101, desk.
12:51:05 Location: 2nd floor, moving west, 2.2m/s.
12:51:15 Location: 2nd floor, moving west, 2.1m/s.
12:51:25 Location: 2nd floor, moving southwest 2.3m/s.
12:51:35 Location: 2nd floor, mens' room.
12:51:45 Location: 2nd floor, mens' room.
12:51:55 Location: 2nd floor, mens' room.
12:52:05 Location: 2nd floor, mens' room.
12:52:15 Location: 2nd floor, mens' room.
...
 
Any association with google is good?

"former Google software engineering intern Joseph Huang"

Soon, you'll start seeing "former google dishwasher blah flah" in press releases.
 
mrtravel123 said:
Home automation is getting that much closer in my opinion. This type of acquisition could help with that immensely.

Consider your "i" devices (watch, phone) having the ability to control parts of your home.... and your home knowing where you are at.

Sounds like it could lead to something like what Bill Gates apparently has in his house: home automation where your home knows your preferences, where you are, what doors need to be unlocked, lights, heat, etc.

My guess is that Apple is looking at the very big picture when it comes to "i" devices being integrated into our entire lives, including just about everything electronic and electric in our houses.
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Home automation hasn't taken off every time it's been "the next big thing" over the past 30 years. It's not going to now. Less and less people own homes these days. Someone who rents an apartment or house does not want to spend a bunch of money installing home automation stuff. And frankly it's just too much for most people to deal with compared to the benefits. It will continue to be the domain of people who own homes, geek tinkerers, and rich people.

This purchase has nothing to do with home automation. If anything, it has to do more with enterprise and govt. uses.
 
iapplelove said:
20 mil to apple is like a dime to me
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According to my calculations you have 500 dollars in the bank.


With 100 billion dollars you could make 5000 20 million dollar purchases.

with 500 dollars you could buy 5000 ten cent items.

What can you buy for ten cents?

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HiRez said:
"This video is no longer available because the uploader has closed their YouTube account."

Oops.
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So maybe MR could take a dumb blank spot off their front page.

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osaga said:
You approach the front door, it opens. Walk inside, living room lights come on, heat comes on. Stand in front of the tv, your email, macrumors, facebook, and favorite tv content appear. Stand in front of the toilet, seat pops up.
Click to expand...

If life got anymore convenient it will kill us.
 
Next stop: Find my car.

Could have some neat uses in public places, but will require some layered privacy controls.
 
SockRolid said:
Device (iPhone 5) log:


12:50:55 Location: 2nd floor, office 101, desk.
12:51:05 Location: 2nd floor, moving west, 2.2m/s.
12:51:15 Location: 2nd floor, moving west, 2.1m/s.
12:51:25 Location: 2nd floor, moving southwest 2.3m/s.
12:51:35 Location: 2nd floor, mens' room.
...
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Seems you were in (high need) a hurry.:p

2.3 m/s x 3.6 = 8.28 Km/h, you're (almost) running.
 
newagemac said:
Google's almost entire business is made up of purchases of other companies and they rarely do anything innovative themselves. Other than search, it's mostly been about buying up other people's companies and claiming it for themselves.. Youtube, Android, Applied Semantics (Adsense and Adwords), Picasa, DoubleClick, GrandCentral, Motorola, Admob, Picnik, SageTV, Sparrow, etc.

The list goes on and on...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Google

In fact, Google has been acquiring on average more than one company a week since 2010!


Apple themselves are far more innovative than a company like Google who just buys up other companies but they need to understand they can't do everything alone. There are hundreds of little small companies that come up with interesting new ideas and takes on things. Getting access to the brilliant people in them is probably more important than anything else.
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jaymzuk said:
Yeah, but it doesn't count because Apple take something and make it better, whereas Google copy something and just use it to collect your data. Apple won't collect your data at all, because that's not their business*

*Unless you count iAds, in which case it kinda is their business.
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wow.. you guys need to step away from the kool-aid. you remind me of a former member here 'LTD'.. got banned for being silly.

you seriously believe that only Apple's acquisitions count? that Google doesn't innovate? so things like self driving cars, detailed mappings from the Grand Canyon to the White House, Google Now, Glass, and implementations of their search algorithms to help Youtube, Android, etc's growth don't count?

http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/09/08/is-google-innovative-tech-company-planet/

"Many people have criticised Google, saying that all their best ideas are things that they have bought, and not created. Google’s prized Android OS was in fact developed by Andy Rubin as part of the startup that he himself founded, until it was acquired by Google in 2005.

But this is innovation. The initial act of idea generation and creation is not an explicit part of being innovative. By remaining curious and forward-thinking, Google recognizes the possibilities of ideas and products such as Android, and help to make them happen."
 
MasterHowl said:
They could speed this up massively by allowing users to help give them info.

Eg: I could map out 5 buildings per day on my university campus (largest one in the UK, University of Manchester) but it would take forever for Apple to do it themselves.

If multiple users map out the same building, Apple could just cross check the "results" to see if they match up or something.
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And that's working so well for Imaps.

Google is in the sea, national parks, malls & has street view.

Where is Apple maps a year later with iOS input?

The Brooklyn bridge isn't melting anymore?
 
I doubt this is going to be used for mapping, so much as it'll be used for targeted advertisement, retail, and interaction. Remember it detects your location when you enter a Wi-Fi signal range. Meaning it doesn't really know where you are unless you are within range of that Wi-Fi signal, and if you are, you're close enough to know where it is.

But, perhaps, you step into starbucks and your phone buzzes, and you have a notification for a coupon. I think this is more of an expansion of Passbook-esque features, not necessarily navigation. Could be wrong though.
 
Nice!

But where are the paranoia comments from the people who use DuckDuckGo.com? Oh, yeah ;)

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ArtOfWarfare said:
Since it uses wifi signals, I wonder if it would also work on cruise lines?
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And airplanes with in-flight wifi. Oh, iPhones should also be able to see other iPhones.
 
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