Google and the Catlin Seaview Survey are working as fast as they can to map the world’s coral reefs in Google Streetview. But the project’s founder fears he may be too late. Read more »
The GPS Navigation & Maps app combines OpenStreetMap-based maps with turn-by-turn navigation, with everything working offline as well as online. It’s a cheaper rival to TomTom and CoPilot, and one for privacy-minded Google users to consider. Read more »
Eight years after Google launched Maps as a beta product, the search giant is reinventing the map for a new data rich web that lives on fast broadband, and runs on computers with oomph to spare. Read more »
Barnes & Noble is integrating many Google services — including Google Play, Gmail, Google Maps and the Chrome browser — into its Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets. Read more »
The OpenStreetMap-based app, already out there for Android users, can now be downloaded for iPhone and iPad. It’s a consumer play, but also a B2B showcase for Skobbler’s mapping technology. Read more »
The latest update to the app also includes quicker nearby search options and English language versions of the app and a choice of kilometers or miles in seven Middle Eastern countries. Read more »
The crowdsourced mapping project has now chalked up more than a million contributors, although fewer than 20,000 are active on a monthly basis. Read more »
The mobile platform wars heated up in a big way as 2012 came to a close. Among other trends, Microsoft launched Windows Phone 8, Android’s dominant market share grew, and mobile commerce reached record highs during the holidays. Read more »
Five finalists have been chosen in 20 different categories for the 2012 Crunchies awards, and we’re proud to release the worthy nominees today. Voting for the winners starts today, and the winners will be announced January 31st. Read more »
Google is excelling on Apple’s own platform with popular iOS apps, but it’s not alone among its fellow consumer internet companies. Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo also had some success on their rival’s platform in 2012. Here’s a look at who did better. Read more »
It was clear last week it was going to be popular as it quickly shot to the top of the App Store’s download charts. But the release of the exact number helps illuminate the demand for Google’s app after Apple dropped it from iOS 6. Read more »
Exactly how many iPhone users downloaded the app isn’t clear — neither Google nor Apple has released any such statistics just yet. But zooming to the top of the free charts, bypassing mega-hits like YouTube, Angry Birds Star Wars and Snapchat, indicate a large volume of downloads. Read more »
Google Maps’ return to the iPhone has been much anticipated since Apple removed it as a default app with the launch of iOS 6 in September. For the first time on iOS, it has voice-guided directions. Read more »
The company announced several other updates to the Google Maps for Android API on Monday, including vector-based maps, better 2D and 3D maps, as well as indoor mapping. Read more »
Apple has said it’s working on improving its own Maps app, but there are many longtime iPhone users who’ve been anxiously awaiting the return of Google Maps to the platform. A new report indicates Google is testing a new Maps for iOS app now. Read more »
Google is said to be working on a new Maps app for iOS. But even if they do make one, and Apple approves it, having a Google Maps app on your device will not bring back the same Maps experience the you had in the past. Read more »
Google might be getting antsy about getting its mapping app for iOS approved by Apple. Monday anonymous sources at the company said they’re pessimistic that Apple will approve a competing Google Maps app. But that goes against what the company’s chairman has been saying. Read more »
I took two big trips in October — one fun one to Europe, and one Hurricane Sandy-induced road trip. Here are the digital tools I found most useful on the road — and the ones that were more of a hindrance. Read more »
Apple stole the spotlight in the third quarter with the release of its iPhone 5, Amazon pursued the tablet market aggressively with a new line of tablets, and Microsoft prepped to launch Windows 8 and the highly anticipated Surface tablet. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apple CEO, Tim Cook, has already apologized for the quality of Maps in iOS 6, which certainly acknowledges the issue. But how big of an issue is it? According to data from Snappli’s iOS app, people quickly adopted Apple Maps only to leave it even faster. Read more »
Here’s our daily pick of stories about Apple from around the web that you shouldn’t miss. Today’s installment: Apple’s copywriters are freaking out linguists; Samsung, Google meet to talk Apple; guilt over buying iPhones made by exploited workers; accessibility features in iOS 6, and more. Read more »
Here’s our daily pick of stories about Apple from around the web that you shouldn’t miss. Today’s installment: Google’s standoff with Apple over maps, a potential miscalculation of where iPhone buyers shopped, life in a Foxconn factory, and details on the iPhone 5′s Lightning adapter. Read more »
Here’s our daily pick of stories about Apple from around the web that you shouldn’t miss. Today’s installment: Apple is targeting Google Maps developers for help with its maps app, iPhone 5 stock, games could be harder to find in iOS 6 App Store, and more. Read more »
While some may be surprised by the seeming lack of quality control over the new Maps app from Apple, this situation is something of a tradition when the company rolls out a new service. Apple still isn’t as good at services as it is at hardware. Read more »
It looks like Apple’s new Maps app needed more time and development before it was pushed live. The general consensus is that while the maps look better and have welcome additions that weren’t included with Google Maps, there are still some key features missing. Read more »
Amazon is giving Kindle Fire developers a new maps API, providing an alternative to Google Maps. This could help developers become less dependent on Google. And it may show how Amazon plans on implementing native mapping in its tablets. Read more »
Indoor-positioning-startup Wifarer has landed its first customer, the Royal BC Museum, in Victoria, Canada. Wifarer and the BC, however, aren’t just slinging location-triggered coupons. The museum is using Wifarer technology to create an object-aware virtual guide to its exhibits. Read more »
Apple and Google still dominate the smartphone space, but look out for Microsoft, which finally has some muscle behind its mobile strategy. Meanwhile mobile-browser developers went head-to-head with native apps, and Facebook continued to buy mobile expertise via acquisition. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Besides iPhone users, it’s the engineers behind the thousands of third-party iOS apps that are faced with navigating the switch from Google Maps to Apple’s new maps app in iOS 6. But the reaction from developers is that Apple has made the change easy on them. Read more »
The banners now decorating Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference venue indicate the event’s tagline is “Where great ideas go on to do great things.” It’s vague, as usual, making it’s hard to pinpoint what this year’s theme will be. Here’s what we’ll be watching for on Monday. Read more »
A Wall Street Journal report details the falling out between Apple and Google over Google Maps on iOS devices. The two sides have bickered for years over the implementation of mapping technology, and it turns out Apple has already begun moving away from Google’s technology. Read more »
A new report indicates Apple is on the verge of replacing the Google Maps app altogether in the next version of iOS. Considering Apple’s history of buying up mapping technologies and its preference of using its own technology rather than third-party solutions, the report makes sense. Read more »
Google updated Maps for Android in a way that adds value to brick-and-mortar shoppers. Maps now includes indoor walking directions for stores, malls and such, plus users can find nearby Google Offers and 360-degree panoramic views of buildings and shops as well. Read more »
Hyperlocal mobile advertising is at a critical juncture: Leading analysts predict that mobile ad spending will increase by more than five times between 2011 and 2015. But what are the forces at play, and how effective are HyLoMo ads? Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) are in a worldwide squabble over smartphone patents, but they will have to cooperate long enough… Read more at paidContent »
This year’s CES was the biggest in the show’s 44-year history. It boasted 15 miles of exhibit hall aisles, 3,100 booths and 153,000 attendees. It is easy to be jaded by the endlessly repetitive products, but the thousands of innovations point toward a future of connectivity. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Google’s new version of its Maps For Android app should be able to help you make that mad dash across Atlanta’s sprawling Hartsfield-Jackson… Read more at paidContent »
Google is adding indoor mapping to Google Maps 6.0 for Android, which brings much of the power of its mapping product into large indoor public spaces. Users will be able to locate themselves on a map, which can identify which floor a user is on. Read more »
Plenty of web entrepreneurs share the same dream: build a great company and then cash in by selling it to Google, Facebook or another technology giant. But being successful is complicated affair, according to those who have seen those deals from the inside. Read more »
Google has snapped up The Dealmap, an aggregator of nearby shopping deals, in an acquisition that furthers its Google Offers ambitions. The purchase, whose price was not disclosed, shows that Google is proceeding even without its unsuccessful $6 billion bid for Groupon last year. Read more »
