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Apple’s latest acquisition could make Maps more social

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Apple could be looking to make the Maps app more of a social experience. TechCrunch reports that Apple has bought Spotsetter, a service that let users search for places based on recommendations from friends.

Spotsetter worked kind of like Foursquare, expect that it pulled from a host of other social networks, including Twitter and Facebook. The startup allegedly had big plans for wearables as well, which could bode well for an imminent iWatch.

Map Street Addresses Right Inside Safari [OS X Tips]

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Maps in Safari

When you want to look up a street address in Safari, you may still be using an old workflow: copy the address from the web page, paste it into the search bar, and then use Google Maps.

With OS X Mavericks, you might even have gone a step further and pasted the address into Apple’s Maps app, and then sending the directions to your iPhone.

There’s another way, though, which offers more immediate gratification: opening the address in Safari.

7 Awesome Companies Apple Should Buy After Missing The Boat On Oculus

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$1 trillion value
Apple is heading toward a $1 trillion market cap. But could Amazon get there first?
Photo: Pierre Marcel/Flickr CC

When Facebook snapped up virtual-reality company Oculus VR this week, it got us wondering what other interesting startups Apple might want to buy before Mark Zuckerberg can get his hands on them.

While Oculus is most well known for its Rift gaming headset, Zuckerberg sees a far more wide-ranging application for the company’s VR tech, envisioning it as a futuristic communications platform. “One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people,” he said in his post about the acquisition.

That’s the kind of big thinking Steve Jobs brought to the table when he talked about the way the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad would change the way people interact with technology. While Apple rarely dips into its $150 billion cash hoard to buy other hardware firms, here are seven awesome companies whose technology could help Cupertino enhance and improve its existing devices — as well as build entirely new ones.

How To See Where You Took Your Photos At On Your iPhone [iOS Tips]

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photo map

One of the cool things that your iPhone can do is tag your photos with geolocations. That way, you’ll know where you took the photo in addition to having the photo.

With iOS 7, you can also see your photos on a map, which is all sorts of fun if you travel a bit and like to take vacation photos while you’re there.

It’s easy to enable and access, too, which is a good thing.

Become A Top Developer With The Secrets To App Store Success In iOS 7 Course [Deals]

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Just because you’ve built a great app doesn’t mean that they will come. It hasn’t been that way for years. Have you ever wondered what it takes to get into the top charts of the app store? What are the top apps doing that you aren’t? Is it luck?

Cult of Mac Deals has an offer on a course that will provide the answer: The Secrets to App Store Success in iOS 7 Course. And it’s available for 59% off for a limited time – just $99.

Google Scrapped Android & Started Again The Day After Apple Unveiled iPhone

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No matter how you feel about Apple and the iPhone, it’s impossible to deny that the device completely revolutionized the mobile industry when it was launched in 2007. Without it, the smartphones of today may have been completely different.

Take Android, for example. It’s the biggest competitor to the iOS operating system that powers the iPhone, and it’s now the world’s largest mobile platform — but the iPhone is the reason Android is what it is today. Google started work on the software way back in 2005, but it scrapped everything and started again the day after iPhone was revealed to the world.

Get Live Traffic And Other Road Information In Maps In Mavericks [OS X Tips]

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Traffic Info Maps Mavericks

Sure, you can open up Apple’s Maps app on your iPhone (or iPad, but really, who does that?) and enable live traffic information with a tap or two. It’s super helpful while you’re on the road, and helps you avoid the nasty traffic snarls that might be up ahead.

But what if you’re planning a trip from your Mac running Mavericks? Shouldn’t you be able to access that kind of data on your Mac?

Well, you can! Mavericks makes it super easy to enable, too.

Quit Typing So Much – Use Contacts To Click Through To Addresses In Maps [OS X Tips]

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Contacts To Maps

Sure, it’s pretty easy to type an address into the Maps built into Mavericks, but wouldn’t it be even better if you could just click your way to Map nirvana?

In the latest version of OS X, you can send your directions or Map locations right to your iPhone or iPad, so why not make things even easier and more streamlined? Just launch Contacts and you’ll see.

How To Send Addresses From Mavericks’ Maps Into Your Contacts [OS X Tips]

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Contacts from Maps app

It’s great to be able to keep track of addresses for friends and places around town in your Contacts app. Having all the address info in a ready Contact makes it super simple to launch Maps in Mavericks from the Contacts app when you want directions to a party in town somewhere.

And, while you can easily send directions from Maps app to your iPhone, it’s also helpful to just say to Siri, “Directions to Jill’s house,” or “Get me to the movie theater,” and have your iPhone just pull up maps based on that name in the Contacts app.

Mavericks makes it incredibly simple to put addresses for all the places you might want to go right into your Contacts app so you can do just that.

Top iOS Apps of the Week

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Browsing the App Store can be a bit overwhelming. Which apps are new? Which ones are good? Are the paid ones worth paying for, or do they have a free, lite version that will work well enough?

Well, if you stop interrogating me for a second, hypothetical App Store shopper, I can tell you about this thing we do here.

Every week, we highlight some of the most interesting new apps and collect them here for your consideration. This week, our picks include one that tells you when famous people die; a DVR for your commute; and pretty, pretty weather forecasts.

Here you go:

R.I.P. V.I.P.: The Death Alert App – News – $0.99

It’s the witching season and there’s a weird little app to keep you informed while you’re eating tiny versions of regular candy and watching horror movies of varying quality.

R.I.P. V.I.P.: The Death Alert App is as basic as its title is punctuated: It’s a news feed that updates every time a person of note passes away. So if you want to be the first among your friends to say, “Oh, no, that guy died?,” it has you covered. It’ll even send you notifications and you can instantly share any of the eulogies of Sausage Kings or 1960s character actors on social media and in text messages, if that’s your thing.

It all sounds pretty tacky, but it’s actually a pretty good resource for learning about interesting people that you can never, ever meet now. For example, did you know that recently deceased Filmation co-founder Lou Scheimer, who produced Star Trek: The Animated Series and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, also provided the voice for Tracy the Gorilla in the unfortunate knock-off Ghostbusters cartoon?

Well, you do now.

R.I.P. V.I.P.: The Death Alert App
Nice Weather 2

 

Nice Weather 2 – Weather – Free

I appreciate a simple, uncluttered interface and that’s why I hate the Weather Channel app. But I’ve replaced that table-laden monstrosity with Nice Weather 2. It’s a jumble-free program that has all the information you need that still manages to look neat and clean. The curved line at the bottom represents the temperature over time, and you can drag that little ball along it to get actual numbers. You can also check humidity and the wind’s speed and direction, and the high and low temperatures are marked for your convenience.

Beyond that, it’s just striking to look at. And I know I’m talking about the weather here; that’s how good-looking this thing is.

Nice Weather 2

 

My Mountain of Debt

My Mountain of Debt — Finance — $0.99 (50%-off launch sale price)

My Mountain of Debt, a new financial app by developer Fun with Data, believes that paying off your debt is as hard as removing a giant pile of bricks from over the opening to your anthill. At the start, you enter your total debt in up to four categories, and then adjust the amounts as needed.

Each time your debt shrinks, the formic hero mounts the pile with his trusty pickaxe and whittles down the stack. It could be a valuable tool to keep your debt in perspective and show your progress — plus that ant looks pretty cute in his little miner’s helmet.

My Mountain of Debt

 

Save Drives

Save Drives — Navigation — Free

You can prepare all you want, but accidents happen. When they do, Save Drives thinks that you should have documentation. It’s an app that turns your phone into a dashboard camera to log your drives. It maps your courses, tracks your distances driven, and records the last 30 minutes of your drive. You can cut the video into 10 or 30-second chunks as needed, which could come in handy if you need to present something in court or if something crazy happens in front of your car that you want to show your friends later.

If you are in an accident, it’ll even send out some e-mails or post something on Twitter to let people know, which is simultaneously handy and random. It’s handom.

Save Drives

Maps©

Maps© — Social Networking — Free

If you want to use Google’s Street View function without having to go into Apple’s occasionally dodgy Maps, you might want to check out Maps©. In addition to letting you look at people’s lawns like you’re there, you can also drop pins between two points to calculate distance (this gets less accurate the farther apart your points are), check traffic, and get directions. And if you want to see where your friends live (which is creepy, but I’m sure you might have innocent reasons), you can import their addresses from your contacts and drop pins there.

It does a bit of everything, really.

Maps©

Maps© Lets You Use Google Street View Without That Whole ‘Internet’ Thing

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Maps©

Maps© — Social Networking — Free

If you want to use Google’s Street View function without having to go into Apple’s occasionally dodgy Maps, you might want to check out Maps©. In addition to letting you look at people’s lawns like you’re there, you can also drop pins between two points to calculate distance (this gets less accurate the farther apart your points are), check traffic, and get directions. And if you want to see where your friends live (which is creepy, but I’m sure you might have innocent reasons), you can import their addresses from your contacts and drop pins there.

It does a bit of everything, really.

Maps©

How To Fix Problems Sending Directions From Mavericks To iPhone [OS X Tips]

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Send Directions to iPhone

I rely on the iPhone to get me around most places, even in my current hometown. I just really have a bad sense of direction. But ever since the advent of online maps and the GPS function of my iPhone, I’ve longed for the ability to quickly look up an address on my Mac, hit a button, and have the directions go to my iPhone.

That’s never been possible until now, with the advent of OS X Mavericks and the addition of the new Maps app to the Mac. Ideally, you’re supposed to be able to just launch Maps, get a set of directions, and then hit the little Share button to send those directions to your portable device.

I was super disappointed, then, when I went to send some directions to my iPhone from my Mac today and didn’t see my iPhone or iPad listed in the Share list.

Apple’s Maps Steers People Wrong Across Fairbanks Airport Taxiway

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FAI Apple Maps

Looks like Apple’s Maps app is in the spotlight again, as it is directing folks directly across a taxiway where airplanes take off in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaska Dispatch reports that at least two out-of-town drivers relying on Apple’s navigation system for turn-by-turn directions to the Fairbanks International Airport (FAI) were directed across the runway to the airport ramp side of the passenger terminal.

That could be pretty dangerous if a plane was taking off or landing.

The Norwegian Government Won’t Let Apple Take Aerial Photos Of Capital For Maps

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The Parliament of Norway in Oslo
The Parliament of Norway in Oslo

One of Apple’s most-touted features in Maps is Flyover, a mode that lets you see a city in stunning 3D imagery. The feature is limited to select metropolitan areas around the globe, but Apple continues to add more locations as Maps matures.

The Norwegian government is currently blocking Apple from taking aerial photography of the country’s capital city, Oslo, due to privacy concerns.

Crowsflight Is Just About The Simplest Way To Not Get Lost

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You know those trackers you see in movies, the ones that beep and point to wherever you should be going? Heroes and villains alike use them to track bags of stolen money, and space marines use them to avoid aliens.

Now you can use one to get, well, to get wherever it is you want to go. The app is called Crowsflight, and it is just about as simple as navigation apps can get.

Here’s How To Cache Your Maps To Access Google Maps Offline [iOS Tips]

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Got a Wi-Fi-only iPad, but want to access a location on Google Maps when you’re out and about in the car? How about looking at your map when the signal on your iPhone isn’t strong enough, or even when it’s non-existent?

Well, the latest iOS version of Google Maps has been updated, and one of the less publicized features is the ability to save locations for access offline. The Android version has had this feature for a while, but this is the first time the iOS one has gotten the ability.

The way you activate this feature is also kind of cute, so check it out.