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

newagemac said:
It's about time Apple start using it's cash for something worthwhile.
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Sorry, but if this is something worthwhile, then living in a police state must be like living in Utopia. How much more surveillance - and this is what this technology only is - are you willing to accept? It's not enough that most governments are already monitoring every step that you take, now it's also "worthwhile" when companies are doing it, too?

But I know. The Facebook generation doesn't even know what the word "privacy" means, and they never heard that without privacy, there can be no freedom.

Just because these things can be done, that doesn't mean they should be done. And they certainly should never be activated by default on any device. Heck, software that uses such features should come with a dozen warning signs and a full detailed explaination of what it actually does and how the data can be used -- and it should ask the user at least twice if he is really sure that he wants to live under constant surveillance and location monitoring.

Sorry, but there is nothing cool about such technologies.
 
Winni said:
Sorry, but if this is something worthwhile, then living in a police state must be like living in Utopia. How much more surveillance - and this is what this technology only is - are you willing to accept? It's not enough that most governments are already monitoring every step that you take, now it's also "worthwhile" when companies are doing it, too?

But I know. The Facebook generation doesn't even know what the word "privacy" means, and they never heard that without privacy, there can be no freedom.

Just because these things can be done, that doesn't mean they should be done. And they certainly should never be activated by default on any device. Heck, software that uses such features should come with a dozen warning signs and a full detailed explaination of what it actually does and how the data can be used -- and it should ask the user at least twice if he is really sure that he wants to live under constant surveillance and location monitoring.

Sorry, but there is nothing cool about such technologies.
Click to expand...
Then bury yourself in a Faraday cage and leave the rest of the world alone.
 
A store is never really going to want to use this are they?

Isn't on of the key big functions of a retail store to show and temp you with many carefully placed products along the way.

People are employed and spend ages just planning out to lay out things to try and show you things you may want as you are trying to get to what you do want.

The last thing a giant store would ever want it for you to use some gizmo to zoom past everything on offer, pick up the 1 items you can for, and zoom back out the store again.

They want you seeing lots of other things you may want to buy along the way.

Some shops are actually designed specifically to make you have to walk past night displays to get to the more popular items in the hope it drives up sales.
 
chadley_chad said:
eh? I haven't seen any innovation from Apple for MANY MANY years! A fancy case (that scratches or reduces the mobile signal without a bumper!) isnt innovation, innovation is where a prduct does innovative things like Samsungs eye tracking software, or windows mobile 8 reading out texts and letting you reply back without even touching the phone! Apples only concerns other the past 6 or so years have been to make things thinner (at the loss of functionality (iMac!!)) and embroil themselves in legal wranglings. Meanwhile, the likes of Google have been buying companies and putting new offerings into building great new products with bigger screens, NFC, smart software, wireless charging, improved OS ... Etc etc. now that's what I call innovation!
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The flawgic here is laughably bad. You seem to really have a problem that everyone sees Apple as being more innovative than Google. In fact, your flawgic says Apple isn't innovative at all. Wow. Got a good chuckle out of that one.

Unfortunately for you, even Google themselves don't seem to agree:

"Apple will continue to be a tremendous technology innovator ...and that's a great strength -- they will continue to be the innovator."
Google Chairmain Eric Schmidt on March 21, 2013​
Click to expand...

So calm down, sit back and relax. Google actually does innovate in many ways to bring ads to consumers. Look at Youtube now compared to how it was before. Lots of ad innovations there. Adsense and Adwords are also excellent ad systems and they've come up with many innovative ways to get consumer's data for their customers the advertisers. And there is nothing wrong with being an ad innovator. Google is an ad company. That's what they do. Everyone can't be innovative in everything.
 
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newagemac said:
It's about time Apple start using it's cash for something worthwhile. There are all sorts of companies like this Apple could be buying for the technology and expertise.

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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Hope Apple aquires Dropbox before MS of Google does.
 
Remel said:
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.
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I think one problem is that Apple is kinda stretched across all fronts. They have to work on developing both their hardware and software, and each has its own department of responsibilities. This probably prevents them from devoting as much resources as they would like into any one area.
 
mrtravel123 said:
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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Let's hope so, because they're doing little else! Name ONE decent product launch or update, other than the (limited non retina) iPad Mini within the last 3 or 4 years?

Mac tv - left on the shelf
iMac - reduced functionality due to obsession re thinness
iMac mini - expensive, no optical, lost media ctr opportunity due to lack of bluray or tv tuner
Powermac - do Apple still sell these?
iPod - expensive, entry level models designed for 5 year olds
iPhone - competitors have blasted past!
iPad - expensive and no real change in the past x years
OS. - where shall I start?

I could write 1000 lines of apple failures against limited recent wins , so yes, let's hope they're busy doing something other than going to court and resting on their laurels eh!

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newagemac said:
The flawgic here is laughably bad. You seem to really have a problem that everyone sees Apple as being more innovative than Google. In fact, your flawgic says Apple isn't innovative at all. Wow. Got a good chuckle out of that one.

Unfortunately for you, even Google themselves don't seem to agree:



So calm down, sit back and relax. Google actually does innovate in many ways to bring ads to consumers. Look at Youtube now compared to how it was before. Lots of ad innovations there. Adsense and Adwords are also excellent ad systems and they've come up with many innovative ways to get consumer's data for their customers the advertisers. And there is nothing wrong with being an ad innovator. Google is an ad company. That's what they do. Everyone can't be innovative in everything.
Click to expand...

I think you have the problem if you can't handle the facts which I've clearly stated. I think you also read to read my post again as you seem confused and to have contradicted yourself.

Let me spell it out again, both google and apple have made many aquisitions lately, but google (and all others) seem to be doing the most as far as innovation (google glass anyone?) Please tell me one innovative apple product in the past 6 years (iPad mini not included as its just a shrunk iPad!) To call Apple innovative is a joke; design champions yes, innovative ... Hardly!
 
Am3r1ca16 said:
How do you look inside malls and etc in google maps?
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http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/21/3677790/google-maps-indoor-web-floor-plan

List of Indoor maps.
http://support.google.com/gmm/bin/answer.py?hl=en&topic=1685871&answer=1685827

10,000 floor plans are available and expanding everyday. Do a little research.

----------

This would be Apple's attempt at indoor maps. Then put out a press release saying "There are many other indoor mapping software available while we fix ours".

applemallmap.jpg
 
chadley_chad said:
Let's hope so, because they're doing little else! Name ONE decent product launch or update, other than the (limited non retina) iPad Mini within the last 3 or 4 years?

I could write 1000 lines of apple failures against limited recent wins , so yes, let's hope they're busy doing something other than going to court and resting on their laurels eh!
Click to expand...
Arrogant attitude and also completely wrong.
The iPad. Only came out 3 years ago. and NOTHING had come close so far. Android is horrbily fragmented experience and is shocking on most tablets - Nexus 7 is the decent tablet on Android. Not played with the 10 yet.

I love how you can think that Apple has failed at anything... Their sales are still thought the roof. They have $137 Billion in the Bank.

Atv - Does need work could easily take the console crown.

iMac - "reduced functionality" What are you talking about - the higher end verison are blazinlgy fast and still no decent competitoes in the AIO form factor.

iMac mini - "expensive, no optical, lost media ctr opportunity due to lack of bluray or tv tuner" Optical is pointless now and is the main failure point in most computers - that and Fans.

Powermac - "do Apple still sell these" - MacPro as they have been for about 10 years... new update coming.

iPod - "expensive, entry level models designed for 5 year olds" Or massively useful non 3d device - I have 2 as wall remotes to control my house. Again No Competitor.

iPhone - "competitors have blasted past!"
Righto - With shocky eye scrolling that doesn't appear to work? Massive fragmentation where games only work on 25% of devices as Devs don't want to support anything other than the S3. There is only one thing that they need to sort on the iPhone and that's battery life. OF course the S3 has a better battery life it's the size of a small child.

iPad - expensive and no real change in the past x years - Er still the thinnest and best performing and best supported.

OS. - "where shall I start?"
Still the best integrated experience. Android has been a POS until the last 2 versions - still no where near as slick and most of the time crippled by samsung and HTC's horrible software - Wait for 9 months for you manufacturer & network to roll out an update - or you could get a sony and never get any updates at all
The only thing I think that iOS should defineitly be able to do is to be able to assign your own choice of email / calendar / browser as default.

Oh and OSX is still 100 times better than that Foul disjointed mess that is windows 8 - If they ever have the balls to swap completely to the new interface and finally kill the FUBAR mess that is the Registry then they finally might have a decent OS. I'll liked Win7 but only because it didn't lock up every 30mins.
 
Great technology

This is a great acquisition. I'll be able to find mi advices within my house. Also when traveling to places like Disneyland, for example, I'll be able to see wether I left the phone in my hotel room or dropped it in the lobby.:)
 
jrath1 said:
Yes! I can finally find my way out of KFC.
Click to expand...

Not true. KFC is like the Hotel California:

...And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! "

:D
 
Winni said:
Sorry, but if this is something worthwhile, then living in a police state must be like living in Utopia. How much more surveillance - and this is what this technology only is - are you willing to accept? It's not enough that most governments are already monitoring every step that you take, now it's also "worthwhile" when companies are doing it, too?...


Sorry, but there is nothing cool about such technologies.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but this train left the station a while ago. With a simple Google search you can find out information that in a simpler time would require at least an intermediate acquaintance with someone to find out - age, current and past residences, family names, religion. And deeper searches on Lexis and similar can reveal even more personal info. Plus, your smartphone is already a GPS tracker.
 
radiohead14 said:
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."
Click to expand...

Good post. While I am no fan of Google's, and believe that Google brings unfinished kludgy products to market far too often, the notion that Google never innovates is absurd.

Apple and Google take different approaches to a business model. It's interesting to watch them learn from each other.

I've often thought that if Apple and Google were to somehow become one, and Apple were to use Google as their "Skunk Works" they would come up with some really, really amazing stuff, and be able to put it in the hands of everyone.
 
Winni said:
But I know. The Facebook generation doesn't even know what the word "privacy" means, and they never heard that without privacy, there can be no freedom.
Click to expand...
It's for improving location tracking for navigation and stuff. How does that limit our freedom?

Oh yeah, Apple is part of the US government, and they're planning to kill us with drones. And it's not WifiSLAM, it's WifIslam, a terrorist organization working with Obama.
Alex%20Jones%20on%20Piers%20Morgan.jpg
 
newagemac said:
The number of companies Apple has bought doesn't come anywhere close to the number of companies Google has bought up. Why don't you compare the two?

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

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

And Apple has been in business since the 1970's while Google didn't start until 1998 and didn't become a public company until 2004. :eek: Just face it, Google is an ad company who is pretty clueless when it comes to innovation. They're pretty good at buying up other innovative companies though.

You don't work for Google I suppose so that's nothing for you to be ashamed about. And there's nothing wrong with being an ad/marketing/PR company like Google is. Somebody has to do it and they are very good at it.
Click to expand...

Nailed it, because search was just so fantastic before Google came around, and I sure wish I could go back to the Alta Vista days.
 
newagemac said:
It's about time Apple start using it's cash for something worthwhile. There are all sorts of companies like this Apple could be buying for the technology and expertise.

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.
Click to expand...

Yea - let Apple know you think their business plan needs your advice. Duh. They also have been on record purchasing smaller companies for decades. Brilliant observation...
 
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.
Click to expand...

Bolded the interesting part, and just one question:

Dude, did you ever read the EULAs concerning iOS-devices?

Apple collects as much data as does Google. Just because both companies promise to use this data anonymized doesn't mean they don't do it. Do an internet research for opt-out on iOS. Yes, you have to opt-out, you're opted in by default.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Not true. KFC is like the Hotel California:

...And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! "

:D
Click to expand...

My all time favorite Eagles song!:D
 
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