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Questions Arise Over Google's Plans to Bring Free Turn-By-Turn GPS Navigation to iPhone
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Yes, but...
To be fair, gathering data about WiFi networks is not new and other companies do it too. Ever heard of Skyhook? This data is used in the absence of GPS positioning to perform geolocation. I use it on my iPod Touch all the time.
To be fair, gathering data about WiFi networks is not new and other companies do it too. Ever heard of Skyhook? This data is used in the absence of GPS positioning to perform geolocation. I use it on my iPod Touch all the time.
That's pretty much it. All people care about is what can they get for free and when they can get it. I can't believe the number of naive people here and elsewhere who think Google is a darling of a company (and no, I'm not here to fanboy Apple).
Google and Apple have some of the most amazing engineers in the world. I awe in the incredible things they are able to develop. Google decides to solicit your information to make money, while Apple charges you for it. Plain and simple. They have to get paid in one way or another.
Because Google's purpose is selling ads, facilitated by knowing everything.
Every company has a core modus operandi, their purpose for being. They may expand beyond that - but only insofar as the expansion serves the core purpose. When a company abandons their core purpose in that abandonment, they fail.
Apple's core purpose is to sell hardware, facilitated by providing a user-focused vertical ecosystem. They sell software, they sell services, they sell a GREAT user experience, but all exist ONLY to sell more hardware. If that means getting into the music publishing business to sell more iPods, so be it - so long as the purpose is to sell more iPods, not to sell music for other music players.
Google's core purpose is to sell ads, facilitated by knowing everything. They sell software, they sell hardware, they give away a great deal, but all exist ONLY to sell more ads. If that means getting into the cell phone business and the navigation software business, so be it - so long as the cell phones and/or navigation software get into as many hands as possible so Google can gather more data about human behavior, not to refuse navigation software to non-Android cell phones.
Upshot: Google WILL release this for the iPhone. Doing so gathers ever more marketable data about user travel habits, which enhances the quality - and thus value - of their targeted advertising. Not doing so loses sight of their core purpose, sacrificing their namesake (enormous data) for a market they are far from expert in. For Google, gathering data trumps selling hardware.
I don't really see the comparison. That is an app that users can use to pin-point their location. Google is driving around the world archiving every network and them selling that data to whom ever offers them the most money. All without ever asking anyone. They just take a bit too much liberty with people's information.
J
jdhandi
Guest
Apple roll out your own Maps
Time for Apple to roll out their own Mapping system, there own iSearch and their own 'everything Google offers' iPhone. Apple should not be dependent on Google for anything, anymore than they should be on Adobe.
Time for Apple to roll out their own Mapping system, there own iSearch and their own 'everything Google offers' iPhone. Apple should not be dependent on Google for anything, anymore than they should be on Adobe.
J
jdhandi
Guest
i will be pissed off if this ever happened. i switched to android from iphone and loving it. the way apple is refusing google apps, google should take Maps off from the iphone and stop support for Gmail. let Steve's BIG fans feel the power of Big G. i know who cares what i think but i will pray for my wishes to come true. worth a try...
if apple continue to piss off google, hope one day Eric will do what i want...
I am Still a fan of Mac OS X.
if apple continue to piss off google, hope one day Eric will do what i want...
I am Still a fan of Mac OS X.
What operating systems have they made on any pc?
Ive never heard such C**P.
I think when people post anti Apple all they have in their heads is a picture of Steve Jobs, not the hundreds of talented developers/engineers/programmers who work within this corporation. Just think of Grey when posting
This garbage needs to stop. Did you actually read what Jobs said? If you did, you will see you got it completely wrong.
Google probably doesn't want to spend the money and time developing an application that Apple could very well deny for no good reason. This petty war between Apple and Google will only hurt the consumer, as neither company is in a position to hurt the other financially.
Because... ...they acquiesced to censorship from the beginning and only drew a line in the sand after having their search algorithm hacked by the Chinese government? Before that, Google was a completely willing partner in censoring all of China's search results. How does that make them "not evil", exactly?
Why should we "admire" a company that thinks spying on their users is a good thing:
Eric Schmidt said:
I don't think anyone believes competition in the phone space is bad. And I think you made that up, I don't remember seeing where Jobs said Google was "evil for bringing some competition in the mobile phone industry". You might want to source that comment you just made.
Ignoring for a moment that this would be hugely bad PR for Google that would make even non-iPhone users question whether Google can be trusted... (Who would they choose to block next?) Why would Google take away a huge and growing slice of ad revenues (Google being a company that makes almost all their money from ad revenues)?
Its really crazy the depth Google has. For example, I was logged into my Gmail, then searched for "Timbuk2 iPad and went to their Web site using Google search.
Since viewing TimBuk2s Web site, Ive received their Google ad for two weeks non-stop on practically every Web site I go with Google ads.
The Google fanboys are now every bit as rapid as the Apple fanboys, personally I don't want Google data raping everything about my online and mobile life and then selling it on to absolutely anyone, but if you don't care about that then great. Competition is good and always will be.
Best option they've got.
Verizon's M.O. is to nickel-and-dime customers to death, sacrificing user experience for railroading customers into forking over more cash. Everything is billed out as a non-free extra. Long-term contracts ensure customers don't go elsewhere. Great phone GUIs are erased and replaced with the uniform (why? WHY???) POS Verizon GUI so they can squeeze a few more pennies out of users (Razr: eviscerate easy free phone-to-computer photo file transfers to force users to pay service fees for the privilege of accessing their own photos without having to do obnoxious contortions including phone disassembly; yes I'm bitter). Exceed your minutes and get charged outlandish rates without notification. You know the drill with Verizon. They show contempt for the customer, tempered only by any way to squeeze another nickel out of him.
AT&T, for whatever their problems, consented to Apple's M.O.-motivated demands: service & billing is _simple_. No other cellular service has enough coverage plus willingness to let Apple present the Apple user experience (designed to move Apple hardware). iPhone on Verizon risks having the GUI replaced by a decade-old POS menu GUI (gotta keep that interface uniform across all Verizon-offered phones, ya know! idiots), charging for every app download, and reamed upwards of a buck a meg when exceeding data plan contract limits. Only time Verizon will allow sales/support of an un-f'ed-with iPhone is when they see proof they'll lose out on a gazillion dollars of revenue; until then, expect no Verizon iPhone because they'll insist on crippling it.
It wasn't for moral superiority, it was a hardcore capitalistic company playing hardball against a hardcore communist country. Remember: Google's M.O. is knowing everything so they can sell more valuable ads ... they can't maximize that if countries start forcing Google to censor data. Censoring search results reduces the value & quantity of data used to target ads; saying "no" to that big a market & data source tells other countries to back off from similar data-wrecking prohibitions.
Follow the money. Just as Apple is telling Adobe to take a hike re: Flash, Google told China (!) to take a hike re: censorship.
I don't like Apple and Google fighting. I like both companies but am missing more and more their rebellious fighting to establish themselves like they were before they got gigantic. Why do stock values matter so much? Shouldn't it be about providing a product that people want?
Some of Apple's trip ups in my book:
ATT exclusivity
No Flash option
No Blu-Ray
Graphics cards (limitations, pricing, support)
Poor progression with Pro Apps like Final Cut
Hardware Problems - The fact that I rewired my Mac Pro's bluetooth and airport and they both work much better now (mis-wired at the factory for many mac pro owners and no facing up to it)
It's OK to Think Different as long as you think different like Apple.
Some of Apple's trip ups in my book:
ATT exclusivity
No Flash option
No Blu-Ray
Graphics cards (limitations, pricing, support)
Poor progression with Pro Apps like Final Cut
Hardware Problems - The fact that I rewired my Mac Pro's bluetooth and airport and they both work much better now (mis-wired at the factory for many mac pro owners and no facing up to it)
It's OK to Think Different as long as you think different like Apple.
I agree 100%
Been Mac user for number of years and converted plenty of people from Windows to OS X...
But am not doing this anymore since few months ago simply because Apple has turn (or still turning) into bigger arseholes than what MS used to be!
I will be buying new MacBook Pro again when my current model dies and that is only because of OS X!
Rest of Apple products together with their draconian attitude can go and f.o. as far as I am concerned...
Lol. So you will still buy their products even though you feel this way? Weird.
F Google Maps Nav
Unless it loads all maps into the device, it will not compare to the other ones, since it requires network connectivity, and we all know that AT&T is already taxed.
Unless it loads all maps into the device, it will not compare to the other ones, since it requires network connectivity, and we all know that AT&T is already taxed.
Yeah, you think google is going to walk away from hundreds of millions of dollars not to mention all the ads that go along with the map service. Yeah think again.
Yeah, because there is no other email service out there for the iPhone?
Power of Big G? Yeah waiting to see that...... Glad you don't run Google or you would ran that ship into the ground........
Google Voice will have some company on it's lonely shelf. they can both be "evaluated" together
if google does bring google navigation to the iphone it will be with apples help and most likely as part of the built in maps app so there wont be any "rejection".