Apple Did Acquire 3D Mapping Company C3 Technologies

[dethmaShine]

didnt AirPlay come with 4.2? I think thats a pretty bad-ass feature.

Didn't AirPlay come with iOS 4.0? [Or was it announced for iOS 4.0 but came a bit later like Game Center, etc]

As far as I'm concerned, AirPlay is one of the biggest things Apple has done. It's not about the usage, its about the concept.

AirPlay is a platform and the implications are huge. If AirPlay came in iOS 4.1 or 4.2, then hats off.

 

[SandynJosh]

Prediction:

2012 iPhone best selling point will be the maps and larger screen. The screen will have some kind of 3D capabilities, similar to the Evo 3D, but much better.

THIS IS 3D, Dude!

Also, there is at least one app for the iPhone that is 3D now. It's all in the applications, not the device.

 

[BeardedOrc]

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I don't know why people are so against data mining? Make the experience as tailored as much as possible to my interests and needs. I'd rather see ads on mountain biking rather than latest hair styling products..

 

[SandynJosh]

It's one thing to talk tough. It's another thing entirely to back that tough talk up with some tough action. Apple is showing they belong in the latter category.

It's about time Apple stopped lining Google's pockets with cash. They're competitors now. Apple should completely and utterly dump Google. Apple should not give Google any chance whatsoever to data-mine iOS users and earn revenue.

With that said, Apple should not simply fire from the hip. If Apple wants to move away from Google, which mind you is a good service, they need to replae it with something just as good. Evidently, Apple is taking steps to do that rather than fire from the hip.

I don't think Apple is really gunning for Google, the leadership knows that Google could begin to favor Android apps capabilities over iOS at any time. They also know that would be a bad long-term move for Google. In the same way, while Apple is working to become less reliant on Google, it would be a dumb move to dump Google, now or ever.

So, what is going on? I believe Apple in moving to make Google less of a destination for the iOS users. In this way, it becomes less of a business decision for Google to continue to support the Android OS. After all, the Android OS did not bring Google as many NEW users as it may lose them current users if Apple (and MS) OS phones and tablets stop using the Google search engine.

How much Google can charge advertisers is based on their user base, and ultimately the Android OS may cost them their current total dominance.

Remember, Apple's leadership is in the fray for the long term win, For Google the Android OS is a side venture, not their main focus. Meanwhile there are 35 to 40 phone manufacturers fighting for their piece of the Android pie, each with their own flavor of Android and one or more of their own screen size to further fracture the app market. Top that off with Google buying Motorola and how that must be going down with the other phone companies supporting Android?

Google started something with Android/Motorola that they can't afford to lose...and they can't afford to win.

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I hope this is better than Google's. If not, it'll have a hard time competing.

Also, Nokia has done the same, which looks epic: http://maps.nokia.com/3D

Read the fricking article. This HAD BEEN licensed to Nokia.

 

[Eugene-DL]

Wow, this totally blows my mind. I met with the CEO and the chief engineering officer of C3 last february at MWC … they have absolutely amazing technology and after Nokia released a very similar thing I just assumed that the company was bough by then but to find out that it was Apple makes me really happy. Kudos to the guys at C3!

Oh and if you haven't seen what they do, they have this technology that basically can map London with one plain and a custom camera rig in about 3 days. 1 day for areal photography and 2 for creating the 3D models. Oh and the 3D models that they create are absolutely amazing. They are extremely detailed and are even slightly better than what Nokia has in Ovi 3D maps.

I just checked out the Ovi 3D Maps. Then I read this post again. It says that "The technology had also been previously licensed by Yell.com and Nokia." Hmm... Maybe that's why they're similar. I'm guessing Apple will want exclusivity and will terminate Nokia's licensing agreement.

 

[bozzykid]

You can go back more than a year and see people talking about how Apple is dropping Google backend from their maps engine and Apple was going to rule the world with their new maps app. Like I said then, Apple didn't realize how difficult this was going to be. This is why we still don't have an updated maps app. People think you just buy the map data and that's it. But Google has spent years collecting all the data for maps (along with curating the data from several companies). My guess is Apple doesn't want to release a maps app that is clearly inferior to the Android Google Maps app and is holding off until they can put all of the data together. However, it is going to be hard to catch up to the years of data Google has (and is continuously collecting from Android users).

 

[hot spare]

NFC and 3D Mapping as I believe will be huge on iOS 6 and will change the landscape once again.

BTW, how many Android devices currently have 3D Mapping?

All Android devices have 3D maps. Google Maps 5 is available for all Android phones. It's available in Market for anyone to download. It uses pre-caching of maps unlike the previous versions so you don't need continuous data access.

We will see how and what Apple does with NFC. As of now, Google beam is much ahead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrBRhm-wKFc

Don't forget the Google Wallet...

 

[lilo777]

Eventually iOS will fall victim to Apple's vertical integration. It will have a lot of Apple applications which are inferior to their counterparts from the specialized providers (like MS Office, Adobe PS, Google search etc.). OS/X being this way is the reason the OS stays so obscure.

 

[EvanBlive91]

This is some very impressive tech. This is standard fare for Apple though; getting behind on a feature and instead of rushing to compete, they sit back, build a better version and release it when they feel like it.

Notifications and Copy and Paste are the two big examples that spring to mind.

I agree but theres no real reason notifications should have taken that long, its not like there was some tech breakthrough waiting to happen to make notifications appear in a pull down menu.

 

[jacobj]

I'd put money on the idea that TomTom and Apple are getting fully into bed with one another. As phones become the hardware, then software is all TomTom can offer. At that time I see Apple buying TomTom and the latter's shareholders fully supporting the plan. There's money to be made by buying TomTom shares at the right time.

I have no evidence for this. It's just a hunch.

 

[lilo777]

I'd put money on the idea that TomTom and Apple are getting fully into bed with one another. As phones become the hardware, then software is all TomTom can offer. At that time I see Apple buying TomTom and the latter's shareholders fully supporting the plan. There's money to be made by buying TomTom shares at the right time.

I have no evidence for this. It's just a hunch.

Google Maps i so much bigger than Tom Tom's navigation. Tom Tom does not even have their own maps. They buy them from other company.

 

[southernpaws]

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If iPad 3 launches in Spring, it'll have iOS 5 with a point update, but it's major new feature will be Siri.

Apple will take their time to perfect this tech. Just like Siri was the iOS 5 major talking point, this mapping tech will be one of iOS 6's major talking points.

RTP.

Not 'the' major talking point but one of the major talking point.

Just thinking about the following-

All Apple devices now are running fast single core/dual core processors (3GS is similar but lets take it out of the picture). A5 is already a huge improvement on A4; A6 will be legendary.

This implies that all Apple products are very fast devices and are able to handle really good and demanding software. This is that point where more MHz don't matter much.

Apple will be coming up with some real cool features including NFC and FFC. For every app, there maybe some toggles to introduce shared content. So need to BOOM or touch. It's just like iCloud - It's already there. Just open the app.

NFC and 3D Mapping as I believe will be huge on iOS 6 and will change the landscape once again.

BTW, how many Android devices currently have 3D Mapping?

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Why not? If I'm not mistaken, it's not using any resources being in the app tray.

I just don't want it to be there. What is the point? I found it after some 40 apps open already. It's much easier to just go to the home screen and select the app from there itself. :|

You'll never see it unless you're looking for it, or unless you use it frequently. I really think this just falls into the realm of pet peeve

 

[southernpaws]

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All I can say is goodbye Google.

And I mean that with all seriousness.

Bring on the minus 1's

Why would you hate a company that had given you so much, effectively for free?

Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Street View.
Millions all around the globe have benefited from these things.

They are a saint when put up against Apple, who would have kept all these things only for itself if they had done them.

No such thing as a free lunch.

Google has millions like you believing it's free. But they collect your information and turn it into advertising dollars.

But yeah. Apple is evil. Got it

 

[lukarak]

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No such thing as a free lunch.

Google has millions like you believing it's free. But they collect your information and turn it into advertising dollars.

But yeah. Apple is evil. Got it

Like you said, millions can't perceive this. You are paying, just maybe not directly. But it's not only in marketing, the same thing is in spending money by the state that it collects with taxes. Sure, subsidize this and that so they can stay inefficient, bail out this company or that one so those poor people don't lose their jobs. If they had to open their wallets and give the money themselves directly, it would be a whole different song.

 

[Slurpy2k8]

Maps are one of the key features in a smartphone and Apple is terribly behind on that. No turn by turn mapping and sorely outdated 2D map design. Android has the edge on this.

Both iOS4 and then iOS5 were rumoured to bring a brand new Maps app but all that happened were minor tweaks. iOS6 is best positioned to finally bring this new map app, but I'd like to see it happen way before. They're already years behind, another year is going to hurt the iOS brand even further if they can't catch up.

Yeah, it's clearly hurting them. Evidence of this is selling 4 million phones in a weekend. Improving maps now, or a year from now, won't make a damn difference in 'hurting' the iOS brand. Believe it or not, the maps app works fine for most people and does what they need it to do. I have an android phone, and honestly in terms of practical advantages, I don't see many, besides the turn by turn. My city doesn't have any 3D imagery. And there's a ton of nav apps in the appstore. Yes, it'd be great to have it built in, but I don't think Apple has suffered from it.

 

[Oletros]

Google Maps i so much bigger than Tom Tom's navigation. Tom Tom does not even have their own maps. They buy them from other company.

Mmm, no, Tomtom BOUGHT Teleatlas in 2.008.

And respect to Apple mapping, it's me or all the companies they have bought are visualization companies and no routing and map data companies?

I'm with jacobj, they need Tomtom to have their data, imagery only is not enough, tou can't make door to door navigation with it

 

[Judas1]

Saint? You do realize that they make a shiploads of money by selling people's private information to advertising firms right?

Let's stop short before we proclaim any saints around the tech industry. It's not a pro bono industry really. There's no such thing as free lunch.

They sell statistical data, no different than any other sites that does data logging. What, you think google's the only one doing it?

Saint ?

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/how-evil-is-google-your-senators-want-to-know/10902

What does that article prove? Google being the biggest search engine has a lot of power. We should be wary of any company with such power.

No for-profit company gives anything away for free. It may seem that way but if they are not able to profit from a product or service they will not do it.
Remember: With Google, you are their product. Not their customer.

You've never enjoyed Fox channel or any of the other numerous TV channels? Well they make money off of advertisement to. So what? You still enjoyed the shows right?

Do you think Google share their services out of kindness? Apple makes money by selling devices, Google makes money by selling your data.

(if you have a counter argument, let's hear it ok?)

If you are worried about their access to your data, you should look into getting your private data blocked from them. Its part of Google's service that you can opt into.

 

[steve-p]

Because what is displayed in the app switcher is basically your "app history". Every app you've used, in order of their last usage, regardless of whether they are still occupying memory.

Right, but what is the point of that exactly? It's not like you are ever going to think you want to use an app you used last month, load the app switcher list and scroll a few times in that list to find it and run it. You're just going to launch it directly from the relevant main screen again anyway, so why clutter the switcher list with pointless stuff? Apps should automatically be aged out of that list.

 

[iansilv]

So- could this tech possibly take user- taken photos to map out more detail at lower levels where people walk?

 

[adder7712]

I doubt Apple will replace Google Maps with their own solution. I'm pretty sure 3D mapping is used to augment the pre-existing feature set.

 

[639me]

interestingly, at about .42 in the oslo video, you see the government buildings that were blown up by the right wing extremist before setting off to kill 70 kids this summer

 

[28monkeys]

I'm not into beautiful 3D map layout, but i want the location app to be able to provide the choices of transportation routes at the quickest and pinpoint accuracy. Yeah, and it better works in all major cities. Perhaps, for minor cities too for hikers.

 

[St. Germain]

All Android devices have 3D maps. Google Maps 5 is available for all Android phones. It's available in Market for anyone to download. It uses pre-caching of maps unlike the previous versions so you don't need continuous data access.

We will see how and what Apple does with NFC. As of now, Google beam is much ahead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrBRhm-wKFc

Don't forget the Google Wallet...

Android devices don't have 3D maps like this, and your kidding yourself to think otherwise.

NFC isnt some really difficult thing to implement on the software side. It's so basic that it doesn't make a difference who is ahead. It'll be as common as Bluetooth.

NFC for maps though? I can't think of an instance where this would be necessary or terribly usefull. I'd rather send such information wirelessly and if I'm sharing a location with someone, odds are that I'm not standing next to them anyway.

 

[mazz0]

What a waste of effort - I wish android had never been released (at least the iOS rip-off version). If Apple and Google had reminded friends there wouldn't be duplication of effort and iOS would be a better product than either it or Android are now. And we'd still have Windows 7 etc for competition (and better more inventive competition too).

 

[Oletros]

What a waste of effort - I wish android had never been released (at least the iOS rip-off version).

What iOS rip off?