Hasta La Gadget!

Apple has been known to acquire small startup companies every now and then, and well they’re usually nothing to write home about, this one is particular interesting. The Cupertino-based company has acquired Locationary, a location data company that relies on crowd-sourced information for real-time data.

While Apple has declined to comment on the acquisition and what it plans to do with the new resources, it’s no doubt that the buyout will go towards improving Apple Maps, which experienced a dismal launch when it was released alongside iOS 6 last year. The company is continuing to make improvements, but it seems they’re wanting to add a bit more to it.

It’s possible that the Locationary acquisition may be the chance for Apple to put control of the Maps app into the users hands. Seeing as how Locationary is like a Wikipedia for local business listings, Apple could rely on its users to input points-of-interests and other landmarks to keep their maps up to date.

Apple could also make their Maps app a bit more like Waze, with crowd-sourced traffic information that Apple users could submit. Of course, this method isn’t entirely foolproof, but it’s treated Waze well, and it gives you a real-time look at travel information as you drive. Apple hasn’t been to open to the crowd-sourcing trend, so the likelihood of something like this happening seems pretty low. However, Apple has never been without surprises, so a crowd-sourced Apple Maps could be in the works in some way, but we’ll ultimately have to wait and see what happens.

SOURCE: AllThingsD

Apple acquires Locationary for crowd-sourced Maps improvement is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google’s Alfred local recommendations app is to be shut down within days, the company has quietly confirmed to users, with users only having until the end of play today to extract their data. The notification of the July 19 shut-down was flagged up in the Alfred app itself, TechCrunch reports, and comes around 18 months after Google acquired the app as part of its Clever Sense buy in December 2011.

Alfred was part of an attempt to curate local places of interest – whether restaurants, bars, clubs, or cafes – based on places the user had previously visited. The app used Clever Sense’s homegrown recommendations engine, which integrated machine-learning and artificial intelligence to improve its suggestions over time.

However, Alfred also had bigger ambitions, at least at the time of Google’s acquisition. Deal recommendations were the most obvious cash-generator, similar to services like Groupon, along with plans to broaden the range of services that could be suggested, to include general local entertainment and more.

At the time, Google was seen as being keen to integrate Alfred’s AI into Android services, and indeed the presumed goal was to bake Alfred into Google Now – then unannounced, and known by its “Majel” codename.

However, in the intervening period it’s hard to see what benefits Google has taken from Clever Sense’s technology, at least on the face of things. The Alfred app has languished without an update for more than a year, and according to TechCrunch’s digging the team looks to have gradually shifted from its initial position at Google Places, to other areas of Google.

It’s not the only location-based service that Google has given its marching orders. Earlier this week, the company confirmed that Latitude, which allowed friends and family to share their locations with each other, had only a month to live. Instead, the check-in and location-sharing feature is being baked into Google+.

Google Alfred killed in latest location-services cull is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google has acquired crowdsourced-mapping company Waze in a $1.1bn deal, according to insiders familiar with the negotiations, with the well-rumored agreement potentially being confirmed sometime today. Whispers of the imminent deal resurfaced over the weekend, but according to Bloomberg‘s source, the talks have been finalized, though could still flounder on regulatory approval. Assuming it does,

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Word has it Facebook is looking to acquire crowdsource navigation app Waze for a hefty $1 billion. Such a move would provide the social network with an array of location-based data far more substantial than any it has had thus far, adding the information on top of what it already knows about consumers’ likes, check-ins, and social circles. There’s been a lot of talk about what Waze could do for Facebook, but the end result of that is more personal: what a Waze acquisition could mean for mobile users. Location data presents the ability to uniquely blend our real-world and digital worlds, mixing them together in such a way that one is always fueling the other.

Imagine for a second that you’re out shopping, perhaps for a major holiday or to facilitate the demise of your latest paycheck. Perhaps, in this scenario, you’ve a tech item or two in mind, a camera maybe, and so you spend the day driving from one electronics store to the next in a spree of window shopping.

If you’re like a lot of Facebook users, you’ll probably pull out your smartphone at least a couple times to check up on the digital half of your social world. Imagine, in this scenario, that you notice something interesting – the sponsored ads are specific to your gadget-hunting activities of the day. They’re pointing you to nearby electronics stores and deals for items you might find at them.

Such could become the reality for many mobile users if Facebook acquires Waze.

Ads are only a small part of the larger picture, however, with the access to such data presenting opportunities for improved local searches, something Facebook has been working towards for a while now. Likewise, data from your Facebook could be used to provide recommendations when using the navigational elements, such as notifications of nearby deals around lunch time for restaurants you’ve liked on the social network.

As analyst Michael Boland told AdWeek: “It fits the paradigm of the real-time status, which is the lifeblood of the News Feed. [With a Waze acquisition], you add an additional dimension to not just what you’re doing or thinking but where you are and where you’re going.”

So the question is, then: is this good or bad? The answer to that will largely depend on who you’re talking to, and many will have an initial knee-jerk reaction that is negative to the idea of Facebook knowing even more than it already knows about you. When looked at in the grander scheme of our increasingly digital lives, however, it has some nice possibilities.

These are services many of us already use, albeit independent of each other. By merging them together, our habits, locations, friends, likes and more all become centralized in a single location, with the data working among a variety of services to tailor our digital lives as closely as possible to our real-world lives. Searches become more precise. Ads become eerily relevant. The information we need starts appearing just when we need it, a la Google Now.

Rather than having information thrown at us by advertisers who hope something will stick, the information will be more of the curated sort: carefully sorted and tailored and presented at the times we’re most likely to want it, helping us save money when we’re ready to spend it, find places when we’re ready to shop – all of it based on our own likes, preferences, habits, schedules, and routes.

Knowing that, perhaps the real question is: what happens when our physical and digital worlds become part of each other? Only time will tell, but the prospect is exciting.

Facebook and Waze: blending your worlds together one data point at a time is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Following up on YouTube’s April Fool’s Day prank, Google has launched one of its own. It’s similar to its prank last year, when it launched an awesome 8-bit version of its Maps service. This year, Google has transformed Google Maps into a treasure map. In order to access the map, all you have to do is click on “Treasure Mode” on the top right of the Google Maps page. Then you can watch as your location is magically transformed into a treasure map.

Google provided an informational video that goes in-depth with its prank. It says that the Google Maps Street View Team discovered the treasures maps of William “Captain” Kid on September 16th, 2012, while they were on an expedition in Madagascar. There are several locations, like San Francisco’s Treasure Island, or San Jose State University, that have the “X” symbol marking treasure spots.

In the video, Google shows that there are many ways to decrypt the codes on Google Maps. Some symbols are revealed with sunlight and others when you align your mobile device with other mobile devices. There are more dangerous ways to decrypt symbols, such as holding your mobile device or laptop over an open fire, or skydiving in order to align your device with the landscape. Of course, Google is courteous (and pre-cautious) and has labeled some of these methods with “Don’t not attempt at home”.

All in all, it’s a well-executed and in-depth April Fool’s Day prank, expected from a company like Google. Throughout today and tomorrow, we should see some more awesomely thought-out pranks, so keep a lookout for them. If you haven’t already, check out YouTube’s April Fool’s Day prank, where they say that YouTube was actually an 8-year long contest where the winner is awarded an MP3 player and a $500 stipend.

Find treasure with Google’s new treasure map is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.